The other day on the way to work, I took a good look down
the highway near my house. As I headed into work I saw car after car, moving at
a snail’s pace, bumper to bumper. They were all probably going to work—at the
same time- in the same city- on the same roads. Americans have a love affair
with the auto and that only leads to putting up with morning ”rush hour traffic”
and evening traffic- about the same thing. Although we all go to different jobs—most
of us go to those jobs at the same time and we go home about the same time.
The cars are trapped on the road, unable to escape, unable
to deviate from that ribbon of concrete that seems to stretch on forever, front
and back, but no more than two lanes side to side. It reminded me of cattle
pushing through those shoots on their way to the slaughter house. The cattle go
from a herd of animals to animals lined up in a bottle neck to march to their
deaths. There seemed something familiar about this. Do we go to a slow death on
the shoots of the road each day? After all, there is conformity in having a
job. I realize that people need to make things; they need to clean public
toilets and other gruesome jobs. But do they have to start and end in such a
rigid conformity?
One day I watched a commercial for a little TV system and
this girl said: “This is not one size fits all.” What I want to know is: ‘why
can’t businesses make a job that isn’t one size fits all if they can make TV
sets and other luxury items that do?’ Our society if full of innovations for luxury
items in a business world that really can’t think outside the box when it comes
to providing us jobs.
There is all kinds of conformity in our society. I remember
when the Beatles came to America and shook up the fashion world with those weird
haircuts. That led to guys wearing long hair. That was not so unusual in the
1800s when Wild Bill Hickok had hair down his back,
just like a rock star. By the 1950s long hair on a guy was just about non-existent.
By 1970 long hair was everywhere. Then in 1979 I went to a mall in Kansas City
and it hit me: every guy who I saw in the mall had short hair and what I call
the “white-wall look.”—that is ears showing with hair around them very short. I
have avoided the “white-wall look” nearly my entire adult life.
In 1969 movie Easy
Rider, George Hanson (Jack Nicholson) points out to Wyatt
(Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper) that the red necks that
constantly discriminate against them fear freedom. After Billy said; ‘What the
hell’s wrong with freedom,’ Hanson said; ‘they will talk to you and talk to you
and talk to you about individual freedom. But they see a free individual and it
scares them.’
There are other forms of conformity. The people who moved to
my town in the last few years bought homes and pushed everyone to have similar
size lawns with grass that is all cut the same length. People who own homes are
really into conformity. Some sign housing covenants which have all kinds of rules
and restrictions on what their house can look like. Many new housing
subdivisions have homeowner associations that enforce
their rules of conformity—all this to protect property values by conforming to
a perceived norm. Many of these housing developments have houses that look like
they came from a cookie cutter. Even the house colors are designed to look the
same and avoid loud colors.
We hear about freedom in this country all the time. There is
freedom of choice, freedom of speech, etc. But what Americans really seem to
value most is conformity. They don’t like those who don’t conform. That is
especially true in the case of religion. Everyone should believe the same thing,
according to many people. Freedom of religion is important to them so they can
operate freely—but attack those who chose to believe something else.
Yes—conformity—that is what freedom is REALLY all about.
-សតិវ អតុ
Easy Rider - Meaning of individual freedom
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