What is the relationship between non-conformity and self-actualization?

Highlights from our meeting on 05/21/03

1. Can you be self-actualizing if you are a conformist?
2. What does it mean to be a conformist?
3. Doesn't it mean that you do what everyone else does?
4. What does self-actualizing mean?
5. Doesn't that mean becoming your unique self?
6. Is your unique self something you were born with?
7. Is a self-actualized person, someone who has manifested his unique self?
8. Does that mean that a self-actualized person has reached his end state of being?
9. Can animals be self-actualizing?
10. Aren't animals already at their end state of being?
11. Does that mean that animals are already self-actualized?
12. Doesn't self-actualizing mean more that just reaching the limit of your conscious development?
13. Can't it be said that there are 4 stages in man's conscious development?
14. Aren't these stages characterized by the perspectives of (a) things happen to me, (b) things happen by me, (c) things happen through me, and (d) things happen as me?
15. Does self-actualized then mean having reached the stage where "things happen as me"?
16. What is the difference between self-actualized and enlightened?
17. Doesn't self-actualized imply maximizing your own unique and separate self, or "being all you can be"?
18. Doesn't enlightenment imply transcending the ego or separate self so that one is no longer operating as a separate self?
19. Are either of these end-points achievable?
20. Isn't there always further to go?
21. Isn't enlightenment and self-actualization, like development, a process rather than an end-point?
22. So does that mean one can be self-actualizing, without being self-actualized?
23. Is one always self-actualizing, or is this a process which only starts after more basic processes have finished?
24. Would one of the more basic processes be the process of conforming?
25. Does conforming meet a basic need for having a feeling of belonging?
26. Can one belong to a community or subculture without conforming?
27. Can a rebel be a conformist?
28. Is a rebel, who is in a subculture of rebels, a conformist or non-conformist?
29. What role does motive play in being a conformist?
30. By conformist, don't we mean someone who intentionally adjusts his behavior to be like everyone else?
31. Isn't intent the distinguishing component?
32. So if one acts like everyone else by accident, does that mean he is not a conformist?
33. Who is everyone else?
34. Can't a conformist in one setting be a non-conformist in another?
35. Couldn't a Buddhist be a non-conformist in the general population and a conformist in a Buddhist monastery?
36. If the Buddhist's motivation is not driven by the desire to be the same, but rather by higher aspirations, isn't he still a non-conformist even in the monastery?
37. Isn't it true that we can be conformists in some ways while simultaneously being non-conformists in other ways?
38. Doesn't being a conformist beg the question, conforming to what?
39. Couldn't one intentionally conform to some standards or conventions, such as traffic laws, while not conforming to others, such as fashion trends?
40. Couldn't one also conform or not conform to values of one's parents or even your own past values?
41. Isn't some conformity necessary to solve problems on a group or community level?
42. Isn't that what moral codes represent?
43. What about problems where the good of the individual conflicts with the good of the group?
44. Doesn't over-fishing hurt all fisherman collectively, while individual restraint hurts the individual fisherman?
45. Can't a higher authority, such as the federal government, impose conformity to solve such a problem?
46. But what if there is no higher authority?
47. Isn't the European Union an attempt to create a higher authority to conform to in order to solve problems that are not solvable by individual countries acting by themselves?
48. Isn't that also what the individual states did in this country to form the United States?
49. Isn't that the goal of the United Nations?
50. Is some form of conformity, then, a necessary foundation for creating a peaceful community of nations or individuals?
51. Is a peaceful community a prerequisite for individual self-actualization?
52. Can someone be self-actualizing in a non-free, totalitarian environment?
53. How about in a concentration camp?
54. Didn't Viktor Frankl write about exactly that in his book, Man's Search For Meaning?
55. Wasn't he self-actualizing where the only freedom remaining was the freedom to choose one's attitude?