Yeah... but that is conforming. I might have muddled what I was saying. Choice and conforming can go hand in hand.
Yes, it's making the
choice to conform. People are always making a choice to conform because there is always the non-conforming alternative option. Everyone is aware that an alternative exists, even if they don't feel that it is a viable option.
Even the act of conforming to laws is a choice. I am conforming to societies rules right now by not murdering anyone. I am making the choice to not murder, even if it is not a conscious choice. I could easily step outside of my house, knock on my neighbor's door and kill him, if I was so inclined. Nobody is forcing me not to.
Will there be ramifications for me if I make the choice to kill my neighbor? Absolutely, and rightfully so. I could lose my freedom, or even my own life for making such a choice. But the choice exists. The existence of ramifications for a non-conformist choice is
not the same thing as forcing someone to make the conforming choice. Every single time someone engages in a non-conformist behavior they prove this to be true.
I realized this 25 years ago in grade school. Teachers told me that I had to do my homework. I did not want to do my homework, though. At first, I whined about how unfair it was that I had to conform or be punished, but one day I realized that their punishment really meant nothing to me. So I'd get bad grades. Big deal. I didn't care if I got bad grades for something as silly as not doing my homework. I felt that acing the tests was all that I should have to do, and if they disagreed, then they disagreed. So be it.
The key is that I learned that there is really no such thing as reward or punishment when it comes to conformity or non-conformity. There are only choices and the results of those choices.
Using my school example: I was faced with the choice to not do my homework or the choice to receive passing grades. Ultimately, I based my choice on which of the two I wanted more. In my case, I wanted to not do my homework more than I wanted passing grades. That was the choice I made.
With Political Correctness, the same is true. We have to weigh our options of speaking freely without worrying about what anyone thinks or not being ostracized. We choose which one of those things we value more and make our choice based on that.
With murder, it's the same thing. We weigh our desire of being able to murder someone else against our desire to not risk life in prison or the death penalty.
In each case, if our desire to not conform outweighs our desire to have the "positive outcomes" of conformity, we will choose the path of non-conformity. If our desire to not conform
doesn't outweigh our desire for the 'positive outcomes' of conformity, we will choose the path of conformity.
No matter what, we are choosing the path with the outcomes that we desire most. To claim that we are forced to make a certain decision is to ignore the fact that we are choosing our preferred path. Whenever we have the balls to face the negative outcomes of non-conformity, we take the path of non-conformity. When we don't have the balls to face those negative outcomes, we don't.
Most of the time, these choices are so automatic that we aren't even consciously aware of them. What this
actually means is that our
desire to engage in the non-conforming behavior is
so low that it doesn't even register consciously. For example, I am not having difficulty choosing to not kill someone right now because I have absolutely no desire to kill someone right now. My desire to remain free and alive, though, remains quite high. Therefore, no conscious debate is occurring within me right now because it is such a blow-out victory for conformity that it occurs entirely within my sub-conscious. That, and the fact that conforming behavior is also a default state which requires absolutely no effort to achieve.
But let's use a PC example. I don't use the word "nigger" most of the time because my desire to use the word is usually very, very low, while my desire to receive the positive outcomes of not using that word are usually fairly high.
But I just used that word above because my desire to use it in that context was very high (because actually using it instead of sugarcoating it allowed me to illustrate my point very effectively), while my desire to receive the positive outcomes of not using that word was lower than usual. (This is because I considered making the point more important).
If I am ostracized for using that word, then so be it. I do not fear the possible outcomes of my choice. Obviously my desire to not conform was higher than my desire for the positive outcomes of conformity, in this case.
Ultimately, that is my point. I don't feel that someone who doesn't have the balls to face the consequences of non-conformity has legitimate grounds to be non-conformist. Being a true non-conformist
requires courage. Those who are too cowardly to put themselves out there have no business even
entertaining the idea of non-conformity.