Conformist Clones

You know what I hate?  I hate people who have never had an original thought 
in their entire lives.  I hate people who just go along with whatever is 
"cool" or whatever all of their friends are doing.  
	Case in point:  Recently I was involved in a discussion of music 
with a group of people including a few who fall into this category.  There 
were three of them.  All of them were dressed similarly, had the same 
haircut and were even drinking the same flavor Slurpee.  Each of the people 
in the discussion were discussing the type of music that they liked and 
why.  When it came time for these three fellows to divulge their musical 
tastes, each of them gave the same answer: rap.  Now, I don’t really have 
anything against rap, but I this set me to thinking, so I asked them why 
they liked that particular kind of music.  I was not surprised by the 
answer, because it’s cool.  Here everyone else was giving profound 
reasoning behind their likes and dislikes in terms of the music’s message 
or the fact that they could identify with it and these three clones 
answered simply "because it’s cool."  This made me curious, so I questioned 
them further.  I asked if they felt a connection to the urban black 
artists, if they sympathized with their plight.  No, they said.  I asked if 
the music made them feel a certain way.  Again they answered the negative. 
 I asked if the music made them feel a certain way, if it evoked any 
emotional response.  No.  My next question, which I didn’t ask, was do you 
even like rap, or do you just listen to it because all of your friends do. 
 I didn’t ask because I knew the answer.  Of course they would deny it, 
then they would kick in their high school I’m-better-than-you-because-I’m-
cool-because-I’m-just-like-everyone-else-and-you-can-think-for-yourself 
attitude and anything I said thereafter would be ignored.
	That’s another reason why I dislike people like this, you can’t 
tell them anything because they think they already know it all, and if you 
try and make a point to them about something like their lack of reasoning 
in their musical tastes, they just tune out for fear their perfect opinions 
of themselves will be scarred.  There’s no reasoning with them.  That’s why 
there will always be people like this, they are either too stupid or too 
belligerent to realize that they could be wrong and therefore change their 
attitude.
	Tobacco and alcohol companies prey on people like this, those that 
will do whatever seems to be cool.  That’s why the beer ads almost always 
show "cool" people hanging out, having fun and drinking beer.  This sinks 
into the clone’s mind and he says "hey, if cool people are drinking, then I 
have to too."  That’s why all the preppies and otherwise "popular" people 
in high school spend all their time drinking, a lot of them don’t even like 
to drink, they just do it to fit in and be cool with all their friends.  I 
used to think that by college this attitude would wear off, and people 
would start to see that doing something because all of your friends are 
doing it doesn’t make you cool.  But now that I am here, I see that I was 
wrong.  In fact, now that I think about it, a lot of the parents of these 
clones I have met are the same way.  Even after 20 years they are still 
trying to be "cool."  The sickness gets passed down from generation to 
generation until someone wises up and figures it out, which is a rare 
occurrence.
	So, for all of those that fit into this category out there, here’s 
an original thought for you:  Think for yourself.