Mind-Rain: Your Favorite Authors on Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series

Conformity by Design by Linda Gerber

Our family experienced this kind of conformity firsthand when my two youngest attended Japanese school. We quickly learned how imperative it was for them to be just like other kids if they wanted to fit in. Everything—and I mean everything—had to be the same: color of notebooks, type of pencils, brand of shoes. Students wore the same uniforms and carried the same hard-sided school backpack—red for the girls and black for the boys. They all changed into the same kind of inside shoes at their identical lockers and ate their identical lunches from identical obento boxes. They even spoke in the same high-pitched, little child voices—especially the girls. My daughter actually changed the tone of her voice to fit in whenever she was around them.

Outside of the classroom as well, constant social programming was an inescapable part of life in Japan. Little cartoon signs hung throughout the train stations, reminding people how to think and act. Children were taught behavioral songs to sing. Even advertisements were geared to sell traditional Japanese values along with their products. Sound familiar? Yes, we do the same thing right here at home, although it may not be as obvious to us, since the values being fed to us are the ones we grew up with. 

Social manipulation has a long and not-so-glorious history in American culture. Take a look at social engineering videos from the 1950s to see what I mean. These classroom classics preached about everything from respecting one’s parents to personal hygiene to manners in school—often with ominous overtones for those who chose to ignore these important lessons. We may have come a long way since then, but we are far from free of more subtle forms of influence. There’s big money to be made in advertising—convincing the public that a brand, politician, or lifestyle is desirable. Media promote certain ideas while disparaging others. Some new urban planning is even geared toward promoting specific lifestyle choices such as using green energy and patronizing local businesses.

Conspiracy theorists might see some nefarious purpose behind all this propaganda and engineering, but my guess is that it starts off rather innocently. Someone believes that their set of ideals and values are important enough that everyone should see things their way. They probably think the world would be a better place if we were all the same. But would it?

In Uglies, we saw a rather stark example of the destructive potential of sameness: the encroachment of the white tiger orchid. The orchid was engineered, with the best of intentions, to thrive in any environment. The result was that it became the perfect weed, taking over entire forests, choking out the other vegetation so that there was nothing left to replenish the soil, provide shade, or resist drought or disease. Eventually the orchids died off and left only barren land in their wake. In nature as in society, monoculture—everything the same—eventually leads to a “biological zero.” Without diversity, nothing survives.

And yet . . .

I have to admit that in Japan, that same conformity I found so confining had benefits as well. In a society where space is at a premium and privacy is non-existent, working together for the greater good makes a lot of sense. Under those circumstances, supreme cooperation is needed in order for people to peacefully coexist. And so, despite the message of individuality that I wholeheartedly embraced in the books, I could see in the society around me that some conformity could actually be a Good Thing.

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. We all saw what enforced conformity did to Tally’s society. But that’s the point. Not all societies and cultures are the same. In our Western world, we are taught to value individuality, but many Asian cultures such as Japan value sameness in pursuit of social harmony.

Which philosophy is better? With conformity, a society runs more efficiently and maintains its current state, but with individuality, the encouragement of new ideas advances society (or pulls it back, depending on the idea). With conformity comes peaceful living and with individualism comes cultural productivity. Both offer desirable—though different—outcomes. In the words of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, “You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.” Perhaps the best we can hope for is to appreciate the value of each point of view.