What do Socrates, Jesus, Elvis, Galileo and Rosa Parks have in common?

They bucked the social system and scared the hell out of authority. They were condemned for not following the rules during the times they lived, and now they’re recognized as martyrs of social change.

From the time all of us are born, we are trained to become rank and file members of the “system,” a society of conformity that demands we follow rules and laws.

In school, we sit in rows. We follow the teacher’s orders. We learn only the things they choose to teach us. We speak only when called upon. Twenty-five kids in a classroom are treated as one. We’re taught to stay inside the safe circle of conformity, and we’re told if we should step out, there will be consequences.

Yet within the conformity of these classrooms, we learn about people who didn’t follow the rules, who didn’t want to be like everyone else. In high school, I taught the philosophy of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. They urged us to be true to ourselves and follow the path guided by the voice that speaks from the soul and not the voice of social authority.

I taught the writings of Edgar Allan Poe, who married his 13-year-old cousin. He was an unstable drug addict who wrote masterful poems and stories about death and doom. My students learned about the poet Emily Dickinson, who was afraid to leave her house. She twice failed at love by writing letters to men she never met. Once she baked cookies for children playing outside her home, but being so afraid of social contact, she lowered a basket of the cookies on a rope from her window to the kids. Emerson and Thoreau were Americans who stepped outside the circle of conformity. Poe and Dickinson crossed over the line of society’s perception of sanity, yet they still created classic American literature.

Socrates was a Greek philosopher who preached to the young people of Athens to not blindly follow laws and to question everything until they get the truth. Deemed as a threat to the status quo, he was arrested and imprisoned and given two options. Deny his beliefs or die by his own hand. He chose to stay true to himself and drank a cup of hemlock to end his life. Today, millions of law students are taught the Socratic method of questioning, and his method is universally utilized by trial attorneys.

Churches encourage disciplines of the moral mind. Follow the rules and getting to heaven will be your reward. Ironically, in the advent of the Christian faith, a Jew named Jesus didn’t follow the rules set forth by the Roman Empire. He preached love and peace in a society built from hate and war. Like Socrates, Jesus stepped outside the circle and gave up his life and became the future foundation of faith for millions of people around the world.

The renowned scientist Galileo stepped outside the circle, too. He discovered that the earth revolved around the sun. He was put on trial by the Catholic church because the Bible said the sun revolved around the fixed earth. Galileo was convicted of heresy, but facing execution, he recanted his discovery only to save his life.

Socrates, Jesus and Galileo were considered to be threats to the social norm during the times they lived. Now they are revered for their contributions to modern life.

Rosa Parks didn’t do what she was told to do and sit in the back of the bus. She became an icon for civil rights. Elvis Presley was told not to shake his hips when he sang “I’m All Shook Up” on live television because it was deemed too suggestive. He shook his hips anyway. He became the world’s best-known icon of rock ’n’ roll music.

Many of us stand inside circles of conformity where we’ve been put by parents, teachers, and community and national authorities. We follow the beliefs of political rhetoric. We’re Republicans. We’re Democrats. We marry into a platform of agendas. We lock into our party politics and believe that’s what’s right for us is right for everyone else, too.

Ironically, the best-selling books advise us to run from the masses and their agendas and platforms and create our own. Challenge traditional dogma. Resist social cloning. Live by intuition, even when it’s ridiculed by the conformists. Jesus did. Socrates did, and Galileo, Elvis and Rosa Parks did, too.

American poet Walt Whitman urged us not to play the game of follow the leader.

“Love the earth and sun and animals,

“Despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks,

“Stand up for the stupid and crazy,

“Devote your income and labor to others …

“Re-examine all you have been told

“at school or church or in any book;

“Dismiss whatever insults your own soul;

“And your very flesh shall be a great poem.”

Dare to be different. Regret is worse than rejection.

Inside the circle, we live anonymously. Outside the circle, we thrive passionately.

Rich Strack can be reached at katehep11@gmail.com.