In some recent reading of mine (Think on these things by Krishnamurti) the author talks about the 'Flame of Rebellion' that arises in some youth, and how this feeling, this passion to reject the status quo and build a better society gets lost as one ages, especially once someone has children. The essence of his argument is that the more interest you have vested in a way of life, the less open you are to any change to that way of life.
In thinking about this I've realized that my best friend of many years, has lost his flame. This man is my best friend, a brother to me in all things but actual biological relation, and he's fully bought into the system. (It helps his mother works for a US Senator I suppose) He believes, for example, that the current leaders of this country, the P.O.T.U.S. , Congress, etc, are effective representatives of the will of the nation. When I brought up that when many other developed countries representatives fail them in the way that ours did, they fire them all immediately and hold new elections, he thought it was absolutely insane, and laughable. This is just one example but its indicative to his whole way of thinking. In this realization that he has 'sold out' I've noticed it more and more in close friends and co-workers, that very few people actually believe the world could be better.
There are days when I honestly wish I had been born a little dumber. That I hadn't read so much as a child. That I was just a bit less perceptive so that I could just buy painlessly into the system, find an 'adequate' job, marry and 'adequate' spouse, take my medicine and die without much complaint.
To bring this to a question though as I am sort of rambling, How do you keep your flame alive hubski? What keeps you from just 'falling in line' and living life in as much your own way as possible?
Edit*
Thanks for all of the quality posts guys, you've given me a lot to think about. I really appreciate the time and thought that went into the responses.
I don't think I'll ever lose the Flame of Rebellion, because I believe that if you're happy with the way our current society is, you either have low standards--This is an age where stuff like this STILL HAPPENS--Or just don't really think too hard about everything in society that just doesn't make sense. On another thread of living a Designed Life, I started pondering if my life was designed and realized something: The world is really cruel if you don't fit in or cater to the demands of it. As a young kid I once had very long hair. Hair longer than most girls. I personally liked having long hair and didn't see the big deal over it. I thought I looked neat with it. However, everyone else seemed to disagree. I was called a faggot, a girl. I was alienated from all of my former friends and harrassed and bullied constantly, by boys and girls. Someone even tried to set it on fire in a Chemistry class once. And the adults weren't very kind either; Various adults either assumed something was wrong with me because I had long hair or did the typical adult passive-aggressive suggestion that I should cut it without saying I should cut it. I know rebellious teens are annoying, but I just had long hair. I didn't even bother anyone else or get into trouble. At least not initially; Turns out when you're alienated and alone, you tend to find some group that will accept you, and the only group that moderately accepted me was a kind of outcast group; Kids who went to 4chan and laughed at the gore and casual bullying that was rampant in those "golden years" of /b/. I hated them, but couldn't hate them too much, because hanging out with them made me realize that despite being a group of assholes, they were pretty much no different from the other group of assholes, and they talked to me to boot. Not only that, I took a little piece them with me along the way. You can't help it, really. I went from living a relatively calm and normal life as a somewhat average kid into being directed straight into the other status, and boy were my eyes open and mouth firmly shut. I don't think I'll ever lose the flames of rebellion, because the flame of rebellion came to me and left its burn forever with me. I didn't want to be outside the status quo, but it happened, and I guess I'm better off for it. I know how it feels to be severely alienated, and have taken a bit of a complex about it, defending people who are often attacked. It's funny how something seemingly innocuous can drastically alter your life. I often wonder how my life would be if I decided to stick "on-track" as my guidance counselor told me I was supposed to be. My entire life from middle-school to this day has been quite off the tracks of a normal life. I probably wouldn't be here typing this and pondering about this. Such is life.
>Don't let the flame go out, the little thoughts are like twigs keeping the flame burning so that someday, when I feel it is right, I can use that fire and DO something. This is really inspiring to hear as a 21 year old. It gives me hope that growing older does not necessarily mean I will become more complacent and docile, just more patient.
Interesting phrase, that - the "Flame of Rebellion." Another one I've always liked, via Kundera in Life is Elsewhere - "When we are young, letters from home are messages from a shore we are foresaking." I probably butchered the quote, which gives you an excuse to read the book. It's about the perils of being young and rebellious. The phrase interests me because "flame" implies fiery, immediate change. It is never gradual, it is never without consequence, it is never equally amenable to all parties. Revolutions are flame. they do, indeed, belong to the young. And although I do not know your friend, I"m not sure it's fair to say that someone who has "lost his flame" has "fully bought into the system." After all, the quieter, more efficient version of revolution is subversion and that is definitely the game of those with patience. Have you seen Charlie Wilson's War? Me neither. I've read it, though. It's worth your time. It's a tale of how a handful of men gathered $400m to defeat the Soviet Union in Afghanistan (and bring about global jihad but we won't get into that right now). None of it was voted on by the public. Hell, none of it was known to the public. Did you know that one 30-year-old noncomissioned officer basically dictated strategy for the largest American military campaign between Vietnam and Gulf War I? He went back to school, got an MBA and is now the man in charge of secret warfare. Did that guy "lose his flame?" 'cuz I'll bet you've never heard of him, and he had more to do with the makeup of the modern world than Barack Obama. Youth is all about tearing down the system. Maturity is all about working within the system. You break fewer things, and you're more likely to get out alive. Do you have to "buy into the system?" Well, at the very least, you need to be able to show a receipt. Otherwise they won't hear your complaints. I will say this. Never conflate a lack of outrage with a lack of ambition. I leave you with a song so obscure it only exists on Myspace.
When I say 'Flame of Rebellion' I'm talking less in the literal 'Rioting in the streets' meaning and more in the abstract 'Our world can be better than it is, and should be better than it is' sense. Flame is an apt metaphor to me because it describes a source of energy that must be fed, stoked and tended or else it goes out. I agree wholeheartedly that subversion is infinitely more powerful social innovation. And I'm not saying that someone who is successful can't have a 'Rebel' mindset, it just seems like its easy to lose a desire for change once things are 'paying off.' With the Charlie Wilson example, I'll definitely add the book to my reading list, until I've read it I don't feel comfortable making any judgement or opinion regarding it. Maturity is working within the system, but just to use a current very controversial example, If I spend my entire professional career to try and get to a high ranking position in the NSA, I still won't be able to limit it's power, or make it obey the constitution. The current 'system' doesn't let those types of things happen. And I certainly don't want to spend my entire adult life position-scrabbling in a government agency with the dream of one day taking it down. When the procedures of democracy are not the ones being used and obeyed, how is a democratic effort supposed to effect change?
Hans Mark bent the NRO to his will. He shoved the Space Shuttle down its throat as its director, where previous directors had run away screaming, because he felt it was too useful to the civilian space effort. It remains a controversial decision; the space shuttle was a piece of shit that set space exploration (and space-based reconaissance) back 20 years. The real example holds for your hypothetical NSA. Congress has clearly shown it has no power over the NSA. Only the NSA does. Edward Snowden clearly doesn't - all he can do is expose them. Which would have been more impessive if we hadn't known about it all eight years ago: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_warrantless_surveillance_(2...) The other switch as one grows more experienced with a "system" is the switch from the theoretical to the practical, from the strategic to the tactical. Mark Klein had 22 years with AT&T when he took Room 641 to the press - was that "youthful rebellion?" or was that "mature subversion?" As far as "position scrabbling" you're responding to a statement in which I explained how a 30-year-old kid ended up running the secret war in Afghanistan. A friend of mine got his undergrad, then became the CIA bureau chief for Macedonia within a year. Who knows what he'd be doing if he'd stayed in. When you say 'Flame of Rebellion' you're talking about the passion to stand up for the democratic principles our founding fathers yadda yadda. So really, you're asking "how do you keep idealism alive?" By not paying attention. "There are days when I honestly wish I'd been born dumber." Perhaps your problem is you are not well-read enough to understand how very, very little impact "Democracy" has had on the world around you. Let me know if you'd like a reading list.If I spend my entire professional career to try and get to a high ranking position in the NSA, I still won't be able to limit it's power, or make it obey the constitution.
This reminds me of what I recently wrote here and is almost exactly BlackBird's sentiment: --- It's absolutely true that being dumber...or more ignorant...could result in a higher level of happiness, or being more content, or bliss. I would point out that in order to successfully be more ignorant you would have to also lack the knowledge that you don't know certain things. This is one of the things that bothers me most from day to day. I know there is so much that I don't know and I actively try to learn more about it because not having a general understanding makes me feel dumb. Because of this, it doesn't matter if I am dumb on certain subjects - the mere knowledge that I don't know is enough to intrude on my happiness.There are days when I honestly wish I had been born a little dumber.
and in true blunt form I blurted out, "You know, sometimes I wish I were just really dumb".
She was slightly miffed as to why I'd say such a thing, and I explained it wasn't just an elitist whinge, and that dumb was not the right word to use, but what I meant was: sometimes I wished I wasn't aware and educated on the impact of bigger/global issues
direct link
>the mere knowledge that I don't know is enough to intrude on my happiness. This. I'll be having a conversation with a friend, nothing deep or profound, but a point of contention will come up about something that I know could be solved with a quick google search. So I'll pull out my phone and look it up, maybe not right at the time, but I will look it up because not knowing is of itself painful. I'm learning that this is considered strange. People don't want to know how the world works, or what's going on it.
I have a problem with your post. I don't give a shit what you believe and with how much "flame" you believe it. I give a shit about what you've done. Congress has a 12% approval rating, but in 2012 it had a 90% re-election rate. Did you vote? Yes? Well that's just the tip of the iceberg. I've seen campaigns in action and I've participated in a few. Changing people's opinions is WORK. When I worked on one campaign I sat down with a phone book and called numbers at random for 10 hours straight asking if they had gotten out to vote while pushing my candidate. Write in to your local newspaper with a rhetorically sound op-ed. You might change a few people's minds. Start an organization of like minded individuals and lobby your senator/congressman. Call him or her 300 times until you can buy him dinner and shove your ideas down his throat along with steak for an hour. You have to put the active in activist in order to succeed in this country. During the Civil Rights movement people weren't signing petitions to integrate schools, they were holding sit-ins and delivering fiery speeches in front of active listeners. You should work toward similar strategies. Edit: Upon rereading your post, I wanted to say that this is true for things beyond politics, i.e. other ways of changing the status quo.
I appreciate the re-read, I have a bad habit of not re-reading my own posts before I hit submit and I'm glad that you understand my point isn't just about politics. First of all, I do vote, in every election I have legal right to, and I make a point to be an informed voter and choose my candidates maturely. That being said, I don't think it does a damn bit of good because so few people actually do these things, and it's impossible to convince large portions of the population to actually practice responsible voting. Changing peoples opinions is work and I agree, but I think that it's not actually possible to change people's opinions on issues that are being actively obscured and skewed by those who want to maintain the status quo. With the whole example of sit-ins, a lot has changed in the past few decades about how protesting is charged, prosecuted and reported. If I and a group of like minded individuals, after trying all other forms of peaceful protest, stage a sit-in at an NSA facility (This is just one common, controversial example) we would be arrested on sight, charged with terrorism or some other catch-all offense, all press blocked from the facility or proceedings, or reporters would be 'discouraged' from reporting on it at all. And every bit of virtual dirty laundry that myself or any others in that group had would be hauled out of long term storage and aired to publicly shame us and change the issue into an Ad Hominem logical fallacy. Edit, I also really don't want to spend my entire life working as a lobbyist or running a political action committee.
I agree with you. I don't believe our leaders are doing very much in anyone's favor other than their own. I've been slowly acclimating to reading about how to run for office, and it seems like a lot of work right off the bat. People just are not do think the system enough or not caring enough because they're too "busy". I was set up in a way as to keep the minds of people busy as to take easy advantage of them and exploit them. We would need an entire change up to the system, but what do we do about the people who would die in order to keep the current system alive and well?
I agree with you so much. If you don't know I am the co-founder of an internet privacy movement but what most people don't know here is that I am still a freshman (I know, I've heard all your wows before :P) Anyway I seem to have the "flame of rebellion" What I most agree is that petitions and being an armchair activist don't work in the slightest. Like you said I have been phone banking tonight and it is seriously tough work. It's not easy in the slightest to get something done, much less a lot like awesome people like you have done. I commend you for your actual doing something.
I kinda think that "living life in as much your own way as possible" isn't actually "compromising" or "losing the flame". I think it can actually be an influential form of rebellion if you do it right. There are always ways to change your life in small ways that improve both your own life and the larger world, right? For instance, concerned about climate change, environmental pollution, food monoculture? These are problems that are "so big" (large in scale, uncaptured externalities) that they seem to require communal solutions, but there are still things a person can do individually. Cut down on meat consumption, or become vegan altogether. Invest in solar panels or drive less. Whatever, I'm sure you can think of other problems with individual solutions. The foundation of the modern world of business profits and political corruption is excess consumption, and a lot of ways to individually rebel against that foundation and its extensions boils down to simply choosing to consume less. Now, not every problem can be solved this way. Healthcare, for example, has a confluence of factors (monopolistic, locally constrained, hidden pricing information, a necessary good) that make choosing alternatives (for example, living with no healthcare) very undesirable or untenable. But there are still many ways to become more individually independent (not just in your political opinions and mannerisms-- you have to work towards becoming independent of actual resources) from the system you live within and thus passively force change.
I'm just young and angry right now, that's generally it. its a self sustaining type thing for me at the moment
I was introduced to some pretty awesome political and social ideologies at a relatively young age; though music. Admittedly... it was political punk rock that did it for me, but it got me involved enough to want to major in Political Science and then go in to law. I've always had the perspective that one would have to REALLY understand the system in order to begin to break it down. I got a Poli-Sci degree, but I never went to law school (that was an entirely separate and ridiculous story of it's own involving a dog parade with marching band outside of the LSAT testing center) and opted to tour as a guy in a political punk band instead for a few years. What better way to spread my leftist ideals than indoctrination of youth? (I say that with both sarcasm and with a serious tone) Eventually I ended up getting into progressive metal (punk music was relatively easy/ boring to play). After a while, once I was completely worn out with being dirt poor... I stopped playing music. Perhaps I wasn't very good at what I was doing, or perhaps our system seems to have a way of filtering out people like me (record labels, radio time, licensing deals, merchandizing, etc - things I wanted nothing to do with) - and I had to make a choice. I can either continue what I'm doing, continue to be physically unhealthy, continue to lack a significant other in my life, continue to not really have a place to live, continue to have no money and continue to question "what the fuck am I doing this for?" OR I could buy in to the system, just a bit... just enough to sustain myself with; and then once I have the necessities down... try again. The thing is, I am one stubborn son-of-a-bitch. I'm working on getting all of the necessities down to the point where I am able to generate income with minimal investment of my personal time. I've been re-educating myself in a different field (IT) that I can do remotely. The flame doesn't "die" in everyone... sometimes it just gets cold before it erupts.
I've never previously encountered the term 'flames of rebellion', but I like it. I definitely have these flames, though that's not necessarily notable as I'm only in my early-20s and still at a relatively liberal university. It's worth mentioning that these flames are something I value and would like to maintain, thus I have been considering how to keep them alight. Is it possible to keep them alight? One solution I've considered is to keep oneself outside 'the system', as such, while youth is fading. e.g. if one completes tertiary education only to jump straight into a 9-5 office job, it seems unlikely that one would maintain focus on rebellion. This seems to tie in with the idea of having "interest...vested in a way of life", as you mentioned--your focus/interest shifts to your job, and your job relies on 'the system'. Failing that, the second solution I've considered is to actively surround oneself with others who also have the flames of rebellion. This is obviously easier when younger; your mentioning of your friend losing this trait seems to be evidence that surrounding yourself with such people is not going to occur naturally--it needs to be active. So the task would be to join organisations or groups or communities which are likely to draw such people, and which are relevant to whatever ideas of rebellion resonate with you. My personal planned strategy is to attempt volunteer work in teaching English as a second language overseas--I've not yet thought about what to do after this; my hope is that it comes to fruition before I lose my flames.
The structure and tone of your post remind me of a post I wrote a while back. Anyway, I discuss this issue with people I respect all the time. I've never come to an answer I feel good about. Political efficacy is oddly undefinable and unpredictable in some ways.