This Is Why We Ostracise People Who Do Things Differently

The desire to survive is a powerful thing

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

Considering that it’s people who do things differently that change the world and spark revolutions, it seems crazy that we have such an inbuilt desire to persecute them.

However, there is a reason, and it exists within our deepest instincts.

Think of it like this. If our tribe is following what is deemed best practice for survival, then our tribe is benefiting our survival, and if we are practising what is deemed best practice for survival, we are benefiting our tribe’s survival.

However, if one person in our tribe is not following what is deemed best practice for survival, then that person is threatening the tribe’s, and thus by default, our own survival.

They are doing this by lowering the collective survival chances.

The best way to think of it is to imagine a football team. You have 11 players, imagine 10 of them are doing things the way the coach wants them to, but one of them refuses to do so and keeps doing their own thing.

What do you think the team’s chances of winning are in this scenario?

I give you why we ostracise people for being different. It is a proven, tried, and tested reality that if everybody is on board, our chances of survival increase. But if one person steps out of kilter, everything starts to fall apart.

This is why we have a deep instinctual fear of people who do things differently; it truly can cause the whole system to collapse, especially as it may cause others to copy.

But I know what you’re thinking at this point, what if that one player doing their own thing is doing something special? Something that, if the others did, would increase our survival chances.

This is where the paradox of doing things differently comes in. You will either be a revolutionary or a pariah, with little middle ground.

It makes sense why. Imagine a thousand people believe that the best way to do something is their way, and yet one person believes they are all wrong, and the best way to do that something is another way.

Under this scenario, you have a thousand people who desire to prove that their way is best and only one person trying to prove that their way is best.

Note the important part of that sentence. A thousand people who desire to prove that their way is best. One that wants to prove that their way is best.

Do you see the important point? Everybody thinks their way is best, which is why they are doing it, and so by default, if you’re doing things differently, you are challenging every person who thinks otherwise.

If you are right, you are going to prove to a thousand people they are wrong. That will make you a revolutionary. If you are wrong, you are going to prove to a thousand people that you’re wrong. That makes you a pariah.

In some ways, it’s a brilliant system because it ensures that if we do change our behaviour, the new method we are adopting has been thoroughly tested, questioned and challenged.

In other ways, it’s unfortunate because it means people who do things differently can pay a heavy price for that difference.

And there is no escaping this. We are a tribal species. Which means we are a collective, and you cannot be an outsider in a collective species because you are born into the collective, which means outsiders are always people who were in the collective, but were kicked out for being deemed a threat.

Yep, being different in a collective is certainly a challenge, but the benefits of it exist everywhere. For example, in healthcare, everything is tested and challenged. In politics, at least the democratic kind, everything is tested and challenged, especially new ideas.

On I could go, new products, new this, new that, everywhere you look, everything different is tested, questioned and challenged a million times over before getting anywhere, and the result is humans being the dominant species on this planet.

So, if you want to be different, whether that be through the way you act, the way you do things, the way you think, the way you dress, the way you create, whatever, get ready to go to war because to be accepted, you will have to prove that, at the least, the way you do things will not hinder the collective. There are no exceptions to this, and of course, the reward is, if you succeed, you will change the world.

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