Can Conformity Kill Creativity?

"Conformity almost always leads to deadening of individual creativity and energy"
How can conformity always lead to deadening of individual's creativity and energy?If you want to learn something you do not know, you have no choice but to be a conformist. It is so because we need a place to start, a standard to refer to. It is by using this standard that we can gauge our success or failure. Everyone has to begin somewhere as a conformist.

The problem is not in beginning as a conformist but in remaining one! One has to remember that once you understand the rules, you need not get stuck in them. You can bend and break them as you please in order to get a good result. This is what is creativity all about. Creativity is the intutive ability to see and manipulate the rules of a trade or art to give results different from the ordinary. The problem begins when one looses sight of the goal and gets stuck in the means. The map becomes the prison and creativity meets a sad end. In this case conformity indeed leads to deadening of individual creativity and energy. Else conformity is just one of the many steps towards creativity. Even if you want to break the rules, you need to know them first. Conforming is a positive step in the growth of an individual. It becomes an act that enhances or updates the knowledge of an individual. If one is pursuing a branch of knowledge, it is sure that some people may have pursued it earlier. Benefitting from their experience is a wise thing to do. Getting stuck in it is not. Swami Vivekananda said that it is good to be born in a temple but bad to die in it. This means that religious ceremonies are just means to attach the mind to the supernatural. It is good to have them when the mind needs something concrete to hold on to the idea of God. All the same if you get stuck in the rituals and forget the real aim, it is bad for you. The message for us : start as a conformist to learn but do not get stuck!

Here comes up the role of a teacher. A good teacher can make the student aware if his conformity is helping him grow or is deadening his creativity and energy. Other deterrents are self-awareness, clear aims and intense desire to grow.

Concluding, conformity is not the enemy. Our approach towards it can be. Conformity without any aim or ambition is a sure road to kill creativity. Else it is just a step towards creativity. So, be a conformist. Just do not remain one forever.