[wallace_f]

If you ever have the misfortune of being on the wrong end of injustice, particularly where perpetrated by greater authority, or number of authorities, you start to really quickly realize how pernicious conformity can be.

It's still possible for one to be infected with the kind of unjust hatred that turns one into a bad or wrong kind of person. Perhaps our collective consciousness tells us that is not possible anymore--we are not really persecuting witches, anabaptists, the poor, racial minorities, etc, etc. It's deceptive because there's truth we have made lot of progress there. But what is still true is that these human behaviors that made all of this constantly possible throughout history are still a part of us. Hatred and wrongness is extremely infectious under the right circumstances and you would be amazed by how many people immediately conform to that, no matter how unjust, rather than at least ask questions. In that way the shadow of our unacceptable past still lives on in the present.

If it were not for this experience, I believe I would be ignorant of this and unbelieving in it: that the willingness to conform to unjust authority--perhaps the vital ingredient in all of the mass injustices in the world--is still something that most of the human population possess, not unlike in our past. Which is really scary. I hope I'm just particularly unlucky and wrong about this conclusion.

[austincheney]

Perhaps the most finite ingredient (or virtue) is selflessness. Is the action or opinion expressed primarily for your own emotions or for something completely external? I suspect most people cannot honestly discern those two criteria and that indistinguishable quality is what allows people to conform unknowingly or fear originality.