There is a great deal of confusion over what characteristics make someone a "rebel." The popular image is a person who defies social convention as to dress, language, and/or behavior to do whatever he wishes, usually in a loud and obnoxious manner. But giving vent to the id is not an act of rebellion; it is an act of surrender. It also plays right into the hands of government, which seeks to degrade society and thereby sow chaos, which always enhances government power. Huxley's Brave New World hits the mark much closer than Orwell's 1984, since people addicted to gratification are quite easy to manipulate and control.
A true rebel is not a thoughtless animal at the mercy of his impulses, nor is he a useful idiot for tyrants. He asserts control over himself and becomes capable of identifying and resisting injustice. This is the sort of person those in power fear, not the human debris making war on a bourgeois society that no longer even really exists.
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