Consider the following comments on conformity.
It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves.
Bertrand de Jouvenel
Without shared customs and a willingness to fit in, no community can hold together at all.
The most dangerous person is the one who does the wrong thing simply because everyone around them is doing it.
Write a piece in response to one or more of these comments. Your essay will be assessed on the quality of your argument and the way you express it.
A way into this prompt
Argue that conformity is neither virtue nor vice in itself, but a tool whose value depends on what is being conformed to. Begin by acknowledging the social glue conformity provides, since cooperation and trust depend on shared norms. Then pivot to its darker face, drawing on how ordinary people commit atrocities by simply going along with the group. A strong third move would separate conscious agreement from unthinking compliance. Caution: do not lapse into a lazy celebration of rebellion for its own sake, which is just conformity to a different crowd.