Making the World Safe for Conformity and Blind Obedience

I sometimes get into debates with those who argue for school uniforms. I understand the benefit of eliminating peer pressure, and how clothes are used establish social status, and I understand the tyranny of money and class, but I enjoy freedom more. I don't buy the idea that we all need to be look-alikes to get along. I enjoy individuality. I enjoy quirky people and I enjoy conformists. I just don't want anybody mandating that I must be quirky or conformist. Let those who want to create a "club" or social group wear identical uniforms to give themselves a smug feeling of "belonging". But let those who want to stick out in a crowd, do their thing as well.

Here's an example of the mad power of bureaucrats. This is a post by Cory Doctorow on the BoingBoing blog:

English school principal announces zero tolerance for mismatched socks

The City of Ely Community College in Cambridgeshire, England has decided to restore discipline to its student body by nonsensically conflating genuinely disruptive behavior (talking in class) with mere individualism (wearing mismatched socks or brightly colored hair-bobbles). School principal Catherine Jenkinson-Dix is hell bent on producing a generation of young Britons who can't tell the difference between cooperating with your peers and blind conformity -- just what the future needs (assuming that the future won't require any original thought).
Nonetheless, some shocked parents are attacking the new rules and accusing Ms. Jenkinson-Dix of turning the school into a "prison."

"I'm absolutely appalled. They are wrecking pupils' education and turning it into a prison," Amanda King, 34, who pulled her 12-year-old son Ben and daughter Shannon, 14, out of classes, told the Cambridge News.

"Staff are nit-picking for everything -for behaviour, for what they wear. Apparently they are not allowed to wear any accessories or even coats in school now."

Another mother, who asked not to be named, said, "Yes, children should be taught to respect their teachers but to punish them for wearing bright hair bobbles or having their mobile phones is petty. I'm not happy about the new rules at all."

U.K. school cracks down on bad manners.