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A Nation of Rebels
Jul. 14th, 2005 02:05 amThe United States is a nation of rebels. At least in the past few generations, and it's been important all through our history. Suspicion of authority and individuality have been the two things most often preached to the masses by the authorities. So what are we rebelling against? I don't know. Rebellion has become a key marketing component for, well, almost everything. Which makes it "safe" rebelling, both for society, and for people. How do kids rebel against their parents? Buy listening to music published by an international conglomerate. Or by buying clothes sold in a chain store by some other international conglomerate. Or by getting something pierced or having sex or doing drugs, the fallbacks of all generations of teenagers.
But really, when we're all "rebels", what are we rebelling against? It's not even rebellion against anything, it's just undirected rebellion, rebellion for the sake or rebellion. Which is meaningless. You're not rebelling by listening to music. You're not rebelling by dressing in clothes celebrating retro stuff from Hot Topic. Or bondage gear, or whatever the newest trend is. Society's gotten good at taking any trend and swooping in, snatching it up, sanitizing it, and selling it to make money. All before it can develop into anything more than a trend. Fashion isn't rebellion.
Why do we celebrate rebels anyway? To the extent that we do, that it's become central to our culture. When was the last time the good guy in any action movie was the guy who went along with orders, and did what he was told, by the book? Even ones about the military? (Well, okay, Saving Private Ryan, any others) When has the stubborn rebel been wrong about something that the authorities were right about, and his breaking the rules cost them the conviction?
The most ironic part, in a lot of ways, is when people nod along while they're being told that everybody else is mindless sheeple, nodding along to some other prophet, without thinking about what they're being told. Completely unlike YOU, you're all special and smart.
I'm as bad about much of this as anyone else, both as a writer and as a "consumer" (oh, how I loathe that word), I'm not immune to the propaganda, or immune to writing my own. But how is somebody supposed to stick it to The Man, when The Man owns both sides of most things? It's like in War Games, "The only winning move is not to play."
But that's bullshit, too. There's at least three options. One's the above, which, at the most extreme, means living entirely off the grid, either out in the country or in a monastery or like urban scavengers or something. Step aside completely from the game and stop contributing to it. That's not really practical for most people, and not attractive in a lot of ways.
Another option would be to play the game, and try and learn to be a better player, and try and change the system from within. The problem I see there is playing the game well enough to "win" and then still being the person who'd want to change things, rather than keep playing the game you're good at.
The third option is to try and split the difference. In some ways, it's the hardest, since you have to look beyond the surface of things, and decide based on that. It means changing how you live, what you buy, probably what you eat, what you do. It means finding out who owns that chain store, or that brand of clothes, or that food company, and what they do. It means figuring out what's important, and how important it is. And it means living with temptation constantly, since you're still involved in the world, or at least the modern capitalist American society. Which, honestly, has a lot of good points about it. But it's not perfect. Society is the cumulative result of the choices of everybody involved, it doesn't matter what they're like underneath, it's what they do that matters. And if you want that to change, you have to change, too.
Tags: Mindscribbles
But really, when we're all "rebels", what are we rebelling against? It's not even rebellion against anything, it's just undirected rebellion, rebellion for the sake or rebellion. Which is meaningless. You're not rebelling by listening to music. You're not rebelling by dressing in clothes celebrating retro stuff from Hot Topic. Or bondage gear, or whatever the newest trend is. Society's gotten good at taking any trend and swooping in, snatching it up, sanitizing it, and selling it to make money. All before it can develop into anything more than a trend. Fashion isn't rebellion.
Why do we celebrate rebels anyway? To the extent that we do, that it's become central to our culture. When was the last time the good guy in any action movie was the guy who went along with orders, and did what he was told, by the book? Even ones about the military? (Well, okay, Saving Private Ryan, any others) When has the stubborn rebel been wrong about something that the authorities were right about, and his breaking the rules cost them the conviction?
The most ironic part, in a lot of ways, is when people nod along while they're being told that everybody else is mindless sheeple, nodding along to some other prophet, without thinking about what they're being told. Completely unlike YOU, you're all special and smart.
I'm as bad about much of this as anyone else, both as a writer and as a "consumer" (oh, how I loathe that word), I'm not immune to the propaganda, or immune to writing my own. But how is somebody supposed to stick it to The Man, when The Man owns both sides of most things? It's like in War Games, "The only winning move is not to play."
But that's bullshit, too. There's at least three options. One's the above, which, at the most extreme, means living entirely off the grid, either out in the country or in a monastery or like urban scavengers or something. Step aside completely from the game and stop contributing to it. That's not really practical for most people, and not attractive in a lot of ways.
Another option would be to play the game, and try and learn to be a better player, and try and change the system from within. The problem I see there is playing the game well enough to "win" and then still being the person who'd want to change things, rather than keep playing the game you're good at.
The third option is to try and split the difference. In some ways, it's the hardest, since you have to look beyond the surface of things, and decide based on that. It means changing how you live, what you buy, probably what you eat, what you do. It means finding out who owns that chain store, or that brand of clothes, or that food company, and what they do. It means figuring out what's important, and how important it is. And it means living with temptation constantly, since you're still involved in the world, or at least the modern capitalist American society. Which, honestly, has a lot of good points about it. But it's not perfect. Society is the cumulative result of the choices of everybody involved, it doesn't matter what they're like underneath, it's what they do that matters. And if you want that to change, you have to change, too.
Tags: Mindscribbles
