Hello Friends,
We all belong to a human entity of some form. In some cave in the distant past a family of humans had ways to identify friend or foe and that is the essence of having an identity within a group.
It was the 1960s and as a teenager, I was enthralled by the notion of "non-conformity". It was a myth. When I ran away to Greenwich Village and lived among all the free spirits, artists, music people, and "non-conformists", I quickly realized if I was to belong to a part of one of these subcultures I would need to conform to the implicit rules, language, dress, and attitude. Wow, what an eye-opener.
So this was my progression: Folk Singer-Songwriter inspired by the contemporaries BobDylan, Pete Seeger . . . et al. Folk Rock Band Leader. Activists: Civil Rights Anti War. Then! I was instructed to sing a certain song and burn my draft card. I decided not to because one of my surrogate fathers was a Siver Star Winner in WWII. All the well-known celebrities I knew said, "Go back to school". I did, the Vietnam Conflict was still raging a friend from High School was killed in action. I had more mind power than Braun so I enlisted to the amazement of all my friends and it all worked out well. I was a model soldier, served four years and here I am.
I then in 1972 I conformed to regular society married twice worked a good job(s) was educated and when things went bad was led to the Lord by my wife (whom I take care of). Conformed to the religious right until they failed to help my wife who had been a diligent Christian for more than forty years.
Full circle. I am closer to being a nonconformist than I was in the 1960s.