Rebels are often portrayed as loud, brash, and violent, but I submit that the most effective form of rebellion is peaceful, even Gandhian. That rebellion consists of two simple things: 1) speak the truth; and 2) refuse to submit.
Orwell observed that "in times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." We inhabit a time of universal deceit, much of it perpetrated by government when claiming that we still live under the Constitution or in a free country, but much of it also perpetrated by the media and the entertainment industry when condemning every virtue and praising every vice. Trust me, all it takes is a polite, reasoned, and quiet statement rejecting such lies to throw people around you into a state of enraged panic. If you are well-educated and cannot be easily dismissed, so much the better, but what matters most of all is that you not allow yourself to be shamed into silence. Jesus told his followers to be the salt of the Earth so as to annoy people, and he was a peaceful rebel par excellence. Do the same, and enjoy watching the cockroaches scatter as the light of truth shines upon them. Who knows? You might actually persuade someone who was raised in the government asylums called "schools" to re-think the mountain of lies he has been force-fed almost since birth.
As for refusing to submit to governmental or cultural tyranny, there are multiple ways to do this, so you need to find your own comfort level here. Some people, such as in the Occupy movement, refuse to submit to police and thus risk serious injury or jail. Though my resistance is not nearly as theatrical, it is just as effective. For example:
Orwell observed that "in times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." We inhabit a time of universal deceit, much of it perpetrated by government when claiming that we still live under the Constitution or in a free country, but much of it also perpetrated by the media and the entertainment industry when condemning every virtue and praising every vice. Trust me, all it takes is a polite, reasoned, and quiet statement rejecting such lies to throw people around you into a state of enraged panic. If you are well-educated and cannot be easily dismissed, so much the better, but what matters most of all is that you not allow yourself to be shamed into silence. Jesus told his followers to be the salt of the Earth so as to annoy people, and he was a peaceful rebel par excellence. Do the same, and enjoy watching the cockroaches scatter as the light of truth shines upon them. Who knows? You might actually persuade someone who was raised in the government asylums called "schools" to re-think the mountain of lies he has been force-fed almost since birth.
As for refusing to submit to governmental or cultural tyranny, there are multiple ways to do this, so you need to find your own comfort level here. Some people, such as in the Occupy movement, refuse to submit to police and thus risk serious injury or jail. Though my resistance is not nearly as theatrical, it is just as effective. For example:
- I will not bend to the Federal Reserve's insane and punitive monetary policy, no matter if the interest rate is frozen at low levels from here to eternity. Ben Bernanke and all the other Keynesian fanatics think prosperity is built on borrowing and spending rather than on saving and investing. They hate savers like me and want to bludgeon us all into consumption and debt, but I will remain frugal and debt-free for a very long time.
- I don't vote in federal elections. The federal government now functions almost entirely beyond the Constitution and thus has devolved into a criminal enterprise. Should I participate in deciding who runs the mafia? Absolutely not. Participating in crime would demean me and legitimize the wrongdoing.
- Unless someday I work for (state or local) government and am discharging a public function, I will not accept government money or benefits, whether it's Social Security, Medicare, or any other program that forcibly re-distributes wealth among private citizens.
- I will not marry again. I swore that if I married it would be only once, and the one time I married it blew up in my face. My sin was not being perpetually exciting or kinky, a sin so grievous that no amount of fidelity, hard work, kindness, patience, or love could absolve it. And I got off easy because there were no children who could be stolen from me or made to suffer; no alimony to be paid; and no property division to decimate what I had built up. There are countless others who have had it worse and whose lives have been destroyed by modern "marriage," an institution less binding than a cell-phone contract and which excuses and even rewards frivolous divorce. More people than ever are avoiding this vicious and unjust system, and the state now is running low on pockets to pick and young souls to abduct.
- I do not buy any products or shop at any store whose advertising is crude, obnoxious, or misandrist. That narrows my options down quite a bit, but it can be done.
- I do not associate with crude or obnoxious people. There were far more of them in Florida, but I studiously avoid the few I've run into in Montana.
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