Progress comes from the persons willing to be different and create a new approach to solving problems--or entire new industries. Conformity is the bane of the politically correct approach to "consensus." In a conformity environment the best one can hope for is a local optimum solution that will likely be outworn quickly as reality sets in.

The rush to premature consensus destroys the possibility of achieving a global optimum.

In Russia and China one can be shot for being different. In the west, one is merely ostracized and demonized.