Anti-conformity movements reproduce the conformity they reject

Evidence

Indeed, it occasionally happens that it becomes fashionable in whole bodies of a large class to depart altogether from the standards set by fashion. This constitutes a most curious social-psychological complication, in which the tendency towards individual conspicuousness primarily rests content with a mere inversion of the social imitation and secondly draws in strength from approximation to a similarly characterized narrower circle. If the club-haters organized themselves into a club, it would not be logically more impossible and psychologically more possible than the above case. Similarly atheism has been made into a religion, embodying the same fanaticism, the same intolerance, the same satisfying of the needs of the soul that are embraced in religion proper. Freedom, likewise, after having put a stop to tyranny, frequently becomes no less tyrannical and arbitrary. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 728

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘club-haters organize into a club’ inversion maps onto the reader’s essay figure — the flâneur who rejects civil inattention still enacts it; also connects to Lofland’s categorization of strangers as itself a reordering device. — connects to: Illegitimate encounters proceed anyway when desire and fit outweigh convention; Fashion requires both the impulse to union and to isolation — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 721; Opposing fashion is itself a form of conforming — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 728 (+8 more)
• CANDY: The club-haters forming a club line is a crisp, tweetable paradox.

Related

• Opposing fashion is itself a form of conforming (similarity 0.83)
• Illegitimate encounters proceed anyway when desire and fit outweigh convention (similarity 0.83)
• Fear of self-contradiction is the coercive engine that compels ideological conformity (similarity 0.83)
• Conformity to fashion can shield and protect an individual’s inner difference. (similarity 0.79)
• Fashion requires both the impulse to union and to isolation (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Ancient sceptics conformed to local custom while rejecting underlying beliefs #exemplifies (0.70) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 960
• Freedom grows by ceding outward conformity while guarding an inner core #exemplifies (0.65) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 736
• Sociability among equals is an artificial stylized game, not a return to natural self #complicates (0.50) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 378