When Conformism Means Capitulation and Defeat
Conformism is a seemingly innocent and innocuous 10-letter word, sort of 'derived' from the act of "conforming" or "to conform". In the social context and the technical context the word hasn't the same meaning. The word "comply" (or compliance) is sometimes used instead. That latter term is more suggestive of the true relationship between humans - that of subjugation, not necessarily to rules or laws but to expectations, demands, commands.
When you have a boss (a more "professional" term for master) you quickly understand your boundaries. You soon conform and comply.
What happens when the boss demands that you conform to and comply with (or "obey") illegal orders? What happens when the boss knowingly offloads illegal (as in, unlawful) tasks to subordinates? This happens a lot in the military, where 'disappearing' the victims (or those responsible for victimisation) is vastly simpler.
Conformism in technology sometimes means obedience. Companies like GAFAM test people for obedience - they judge human beings like many humans judge pets/dogs, as oppose to loyal attack dogs.
Society need to adapt, more so in an age of growing inequality and unaccountable power structures. One's obedience is weakness, not a strength. Even if obedience makes one more marketable (to oligarchs), it signals a form of social betrayal, an estrangement or rejection of what it means to be human.
Some hours ago somebody in social control media wrote that "[m]y experience in tech was that many were not terribly conformist--the opposite was true--when I started. Especially the old timers."
"But as time went on & money got better, it became more and more conformist. The banker, finance, lawyer, etc. types saw green and switched to tech. This changed the culture significantly. Before, it was filled with nerds of all stripes who did it out of interest in the underlying technology, since it was a decent career but not an extremely high paying one."
"There were famously combative people like Linus Torvalds, who held a high quality bar and an even sharper tongue. He was widely praised until fairly recently. Richard Stallman is another example of an interesting character."
In more recent years the witch hunters turned the heat on the likes of Torvalds and Stallman, in effect portraying them as a danger to women while serving to distract from sexual predators like Bill Epsteingate.
In an age of injustices like these, we all have some kind of moral obligation not to be conformist. █