There are plenty of things which we consider to be the norm, today, such as women being permitted to get themselves educated, and thereby to have worthwhile careers; which supersedes by a country mile, the previous belief that the proper place for a woman, especially a married woman, was limited to the home, as a housewife and bearer of children. The fact that women can nowadays set their own paths, has brought forth for them a form of liberty and freedom, previously denied to them, and helped to make society, better, for their valued contribution to it. So too, conventional wisdom, will, for instance, recommend that people follow some sort of set formula for investing, without taking into full account, that past performance is never a guarantee of future performance; yet, many people will follow that conventional wisdom, for that appears to be the safe and proven route to take, not seeming to realize that by so doing, this may result in a very poor result, to their lasting regret.
The reason that so many are so inclined to follow conventional wisdom, and to abide by social conformity, in so many instances, is that, quite frankly, this is the easy road to take; of which, should a given person fail in such, they are still able to take solace that such failure is not theirs to personally own, but rather has a lot more to do with just bad luck, for, after all, they dutifully followed the conventional wisdom, and stayed within the norm of social expectations. Regrettably, this sort of groupthink is not really beneficial for the advancement of societies, for those that fail to question the why and for what reasons, behind such thinking, aren’t going to be able to develop the robust type of reasoning so necessary to break free from those self-imposed shackles that may serve little good purpose.
Still, it definitely takes a brave soul, to step outside social conformity, and to embrace unconventionally; especially when this isn’t done just to be different or to be noticed or to be difficult, but rather this is so done for the sensible reason, which is that this appears to be not only the better road to take, but, also the necessary one. Sure, no doubt, those that blaze their own path, are going to leave themselves open to suffering withering criticism, even from some of those that they are closest to, but those that have the strength of character to go where no one else or few have been, are not the type, that once they begin their given task, are going to easily let it go.
Virtually all of the advancement of humankind, has come forth from those that do not follow the well-trodden paths of those that are risk averse and conformists, but rather are the enlightened individuals that recognize that true change can only come forth, from those that are willing to take well thought out calculated gambles in the fair belief that by so doing, this will help bring forth breakthroughs, previously unknown, which thereby becomes beneficial for society. So then, to dismiss, without proper consideration, all those that are outside social norms and conventional wisdom, is the very attitude, that marks a civilization as being in decline.