The opposite to courage, in our particular age, is automaton conformity. One of the ways that Western conformity manifests is through a blind obedience and a pathological need to follow rules. In acting with blind obedience, the conformist fails to differentiate between morality and legality. When a majority advocates for the government enforcement of conformity, a society places itself on what the psychologist Ervin Staub called a continuum of destruction. Valuing social conformity increases the motivation for placing restrictions on behavior.