If you're trying to forge bonds on something other than kinship, and forge a tribal identity on something other than relatedness, conformity is a good way to do it. And if you're wealthy, you can do it with a very expensive It bag, or whether it's Vuitton or Valentino at the moment, and it's a way to signal to one another, We're part of this tribe.
Little, indeed, does it concern us in this our mortal stage, to inquire whence the spirit hath come; but of what infinite concern is the consideration whither it is going. Surely such consideration demands the study of a life.