By Carl Sampson
Not too long ago, nonconformists were in.
Particularly in places like Oregon, where it was the bee’s knees to let your freak flag fly, so to speak.
That was the 1960s, when we all seemed to want to make a statement to The Man. I never really figured out who The Man was. I think he was the guy in the mirror, but I’m not really sure.
So in an effort to stand out from the crowd, I became another rebel with out-a-clue.
I grew my hair long. I wore Beatle boots. And I wore bell-bottom pants. Believe me, I probably made more people laugh than anything else.
I even played in several rock bands. You’ve probably heard of one of them — Baby Ruth and Butterfingers.
I have to admit it was pretty entertaining. A bunch of middle class teens running around pretending to be different. We were just picking up the mantle from the generations of other teens before us that wanted to do exactly the same thing.
I suppose in prehistory the teen-aged Fred Flintstone just wanted to do his thing, too, man. But something weird has happened.
Along the way, non-conformism escaped the teen years. It has showed up in folks who are older — in some cases, much older.
Today, almost everyone seems to want to be a nonconformist.
Guys my age have earrings. And tattoos. Not just one, mind you. They have a whole batch. Some folks have enough tattoos that they could tell the story of the Battle of Gettysburg.
And they’ve affixed pins and loops and other hardware to their eyebrows, lips and tongues — some folks look like a walking hardware store.
Mind you, I don’t have problem with that sort of stuff. When it comes to the quest for individuality, a guy’s gotta pierce what a guy’s gotta pierce.
But I’ve been thinking about that lately.
If everyone has a tattoo, an earring or a piercing, how does that set them apart? That just makes them one of the crowd, doesn’t it?
It seems to me that nonconformists have gone full circle. Not only have adults taken it over from the teenagers, but now so many people are nonconformists that no one stands out.
The other day, I ran across a guy at a coffee shop in Salem. He stood out like a sore thumb.
He was wearing slacks and a regular shirt. It didn’t even have any profanity printed on it. The slacks were clean and pressed. His hair was well-groomed. I didn’t see any tattoos or hardware poking out of his face.
As I waiting for my mocha, I looked around. Everyone else had at least one tattoo, piercing or at least one profanity on their shirt.
I wanted to ask this guy just what he was trying to prove. Was he some sort of nut or something?
Or was he an example of the new nonconformist?
