Fighting Against Conformity

The group Project Mayhem was rebelling against conformity and establishment of the culture which it existed in, yet they epitomized that same conformist nature which they were rebelling against within their own group.

My idea of non conformity is that of an individual that rejects social and cultural constructs, my perception of non conformity was challenged, not by the actions of Project Mayhem, which clearly did not conform to society and culture, but rather to the strict nature of conformity within the group itself. The group members had a strict set of rules that must be followed. The members of Project Mayhem were forced to dress the same, blindly follow orders and often parroted phrases and edicts set in place by Mr. Durbin. While clearly their actions were considered outside the norm in the context of the society in which they existed, I felt it was ironic that, with the exception of Mr. Durbin, they allowed themselves to be so completely indoctrinated into their new “culture”; that of project mayhem.

I see this often in real life; many of our own societies perceived non conformists: punk rockers, emo individuals, skaters, etc., claim they are rebelling against a society they have rejected. They do this not only by words and actions but by a unique outwards appearance for example; tattooes, piercings, and hair styles. This to me represented the same type of non conformity expressed by Project Mayhem members; the same reasons why the group’s goals and mission statements are out of the mainstream. The individual members of these groups almost always share similar cultural and political viewpoints, dress and look the same and reinforce each other’s similarities by subtle peer pressure.