The fact is that we all live our lives in groups – the family, work groups, social, religious, and political groups. Very few people indeed are happy as solitaires, and they tend to be seen by their neighbors as peculiar or selfish or worse. Most people cannot stand being alone for long. They are always seeking groups to belong to, and if one group dissolves, they look for another. We are group animals still, and there is nothing wrong with that. But what is dangerous is not the belonging to a group, or groups, but not understanding the social laws that govern groups and govern us. When we’re in a group, we tend to think as that group does: we may even have joined the group to find “like-minded” people. But we also find our thinking changing because we belong to a group. It is the hardest thing in the world to maintain an individual dissident opinion, as a member of a group. (Doris Lessing, 307)

For those growing into adulthood during most of the twentieth century, therefore, the backdrop to life was the loss of faith in coherent systems of thought and morality. Sophisticated people knew they were supposed to rebel against authority, reject old certainties, and liberate themselves from hidebound customs and prejudices… And in the latter half of the twentieth century a youth culture emerged, which distilled these themes. Every rock anthem, every fashion statement, every protest gesture, every novel about rebellious youth – from The Catcher in the Rye to On the Road – carried the same cultural message: It’s better to be a nonconformist than a conformist, a creative individualist than a safe and responsible striver. “We hope for nonconformists among you,” the theologian Paul Tillich preached to college audiences in 1957, “for your sake, for the sake of the nation, and for the sake of humanity.” (David Brooks, 372-3)