by Mike Driver

Consider the possibility that humanity is divided into three types of people: conformists, who represent the vast majority, plus a relatively small number of Mavericks and psychopaths.

As a civilisation rises the Mavericks lead by default. They are the creators of new knowledge, they discover new opportunity, they explore both geographically and intellectually. However, as bureaucracy increases over time this enables the psychopaths to slowly take control. The bureaucrats, typically the most fearful subset of conformists, are uniquely vulnerable to manipulation and recruit easily to the psychopath’s cause.

The psychopaths are evil and seek dominion via the propagandising of the conformist majority.

Without conformity, the temporary order of civilisation would not be achieved. A society composed entirely of Mavericks would be too chaotic, a society entirely formed of psychopaths would be hell. The flaw is the vulnerability of the conformists to the psychopath’s weapon of choice: propaganda. Once propagandised, the conformist becomes the unwitting tool of the psychopath who then systematically removes all their natural support structures – religion, community and family, that flourished during the Maverick period. The psychopaths and the conformists essentially merge until the inevitable collapse of their unworkable dystopia. The Maverick remains strangely unmoved by the psychopath’s propaganda throughout. Immune in many ways.

What then distinguishes the Maverick strain from the propagandised conformist element of psychopathic society?

1. Humility: the more humility you have the more freedom you have. The Maverick is only certain of one thing: that when confronted with a random universe he knows nothing. It is this randomness that freedom can work with. A Maverick craves freedom in the same way a conformist craves safety.
2. Freedom: the Maverick understands that freedom is fundamental. Everything flows from this first principle, even love requires it. Freedom is the continuous unfolding of unpredictable reality; they are one and the same. The conformist seeks ever greater forms of reductionism – creating huge machines to search for ever smaller particles or ever more complex intellectualising in order to break continuous reality into discrete ‘fundamental’ pieces. He believes that these pieces can then be arranged to match his desires. The irony of course is that he only succeeds in building a prison that confines his mind in a hall of infinite mirrors.
3. Courage: the only thing a Maverick fears is the loss of this freedom. While the fearful conformist will seek control in the shape of bureaucracy and centralisation. Centralisation being the purest manifestation of cowardice. The Maverick will cast off into the vast sea of chance knowing the conformists’ dream of control is an illusion.
4. Wonder: the continuous emergence of beauty stops the Maverick in her tracks. While the conformist will attempt to extract, intellectualise and compartmentalise beauty, the Maverick seeks to dissolve herself in the sublime.
5. Individuation: the Maverick is both present and detached at the same time and capable of flipping quite easily between these two modes of attention. The conformist is either entirely individualised, that is lost in ego, or subsumed in the majority – incapable of independent thought.
6. Trust: the Maverick doesn’t require a contract in any circumstance when dealing with another Maverick. Trust is implicit and breaking that bond would be the equivalent of a complete psychological rupture. Conformists need a contract for everything because they don’t trust themselves. When confronted with the corruption of conformist society, the Maverick questions everything.
7. Humour: the Maverick laughs along with God while the conformist plans. There is nothing funnier than the payoff for hubris. The Maverick sees the comedy in everything, paradoxically this doesn’t make light of tragedy but rather enriches it, transforming the inevitable iniquities of life into something else entirely: growth and depth.
8. Anarchy: a Maverick cannot be ruled. He is simply incapable of submitting his will to another. Paradoxically this makes him a more reliable partner in cooperation. Because his involvement is entirely voluntary, he can commit entirely without resentment. The conformist on the other hand is regularly compelled to cooperation – this leads to bitterness and distrust.
9. Self-reliance: the Maverick seeks only from others what they would give voluntarily. He relies entirely on his own initiative, resources, capabilities and way of attending to the world. The Maverick is incapable of demanding that which he has not worked for. Paradoxically this makes him a great receiver of gifts as that which is demanded is never completely free. The conformist, however, frequently suffers from a sense of entitlement, believing that the society owes him something in exchange for his submission. The conformist grows ever more depressed as his hierarchical society
   sucks more and more of his soul away which leads to an ever greater sense of entitlement.
10. Love: because the Maverick is free to connect with the beautiful adventure of life, she is only a step away from the love that surrounds us at any given time. She knows that once you give in it will never let you go. The giving and receiving of love become one and the same. Incapable of letting go, the conformist builds ever more barriers to love making it ever harder for the light to find him.

One final thought on the Mavericks: they are always in danger. The conformists will always seek to marginalise, ridicule, censor, imprison or nail them to crosses. Merry Christmas!