From an early age, people are likely to grow up in a consistent social environment—from their home life, the social groups they join, the sameness of those in the schools they attend, and their overarching local community. If these social environments remain largely unchanged, with little integration across social classes, cultural backgrounds, educational levels, and subcultures, a sense of comfort may develop. This, I speculate, may depend on the individual’s level of open-mindedness. Open-mindedness is learnable, although difficult. With such a rigid influence on one’s life, meeting others outside of that bubble can be quite a scare.
People who are threatened by a different ‘kind’ of person, behaviour, or argument do not find it easy to accept what they are socially experiencing in front of them. The actions of the outsider that threaten the status quo to which the person is so accustomed—their social comfort zone—will perform any type of sociopsychological gymnastics to evade the reality in front of them: that this person’s mannerisms, interests, worldview, and so forth are too different from their own.
What is a man to do if society rejects his idiosyncrasies, quirks, and deviations? One merely seeks to be oneself, and yet the former ought not to obstruct this pursuit. However, human society ensures that the misfit, the gadfly, the nonconformist is thwarted. In fact, social and financial failure—being barred from employment—is society’s intended punishment for this deviance.
The accusers refuse to recognise the language I have used, such as ‘unfit’. They deny their own indirect and unconscious cruelty. Critics will argue that the misfit must change to conform with them, with society at large, with the hive mind. Well, stuff them. Perhaps ‘society at large’ should take the time to learn acceptance—of nonconformists, of people who are authentic and genuinely different—and tolerate what they so irrationally fear. The misfit should not be ashamed of their eccentricity; rather, it is the conformists who ought to be ashamed of their disdain for misfits. But this is, admittedly, too utopian. Such tolerance will never reach its zenith. To all misfits, I offer this advice: do not feel that you are ‘unfit’ for society. Instead, understand that it is society that is unfit to tolerate social variation, at least initially. Eccentrics are always met with resistance before society becomes tolerant of their deviation—if such a positive outcome ever occurs.
