Rebellion !

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I remember in High School how the bell would ring between classes and the halls would fill with literally thousands of students. The air flooded with noise of incessant chatter. We had exactly seven minutes to walk through the corridors crammed beside each other, herded through gates and stairs to our destination. When the next bell rang there was dead silence except maybe a note wafting out of nowhere lightly brushing the floor.

Back to SchoolEverything moved along like clockwork and we were the cogs in the machine. What amazed me was how well other students handled it. They all had their games of cliques and gossips to keep them occupied. It was at this time I felt somehow I had fallen through the cracks of the system. I was very much there but since I didn’t quite fit in anywhere I could stand back and watch it all go by.

When I graduated, I found out quite abruptly that my parents expected me to go to college. I’m sure you’ve all heard the deal: “Go to college, get a degree so you can get a well paying job. Then you won’t have to worry about anything.” Or as the seminal punk band, Minor Threat once put it, “Go to college, be a man, what’s the f*n’ rush?” It all seems designed to push us through system after system before we have a chance to even realize what’s going on.

We’re told from all directions, “If you dress right, then you’ll fit in”, “If you act a certain way, you’ll get ahead in life”, “If you look a certain way, then you’ll be attractive”, and on and on. Who told us this stuff anyway, but more importantly, when did we buy it?

It was at this point I discovered underground punk rock and a rebellion ensued. These guys were saying what I felt, passionately rejecting what was f*d up about society. Music became my refuge and singing with a punk band was a way I answered a world that made no sense.

Punk-StyleIt wasn’t long before I realized that even punk rockers, counter-cultures, and rebels have protocol. You gotta wear the right kinda clothes and have the right hairstyle. You can’t be too well kept; you gotta be messed up just right. Do the right drugs and listen to the right kind of music. You gotta have a black leather jacket. Oh and don’t forget your black studded belt. “Who’s punk, who’s not, what’s the score?” as the band Jawbreaker noticed. If you don’t look the part you’re not part of the club. Is that really much different than your dad dressing up in a suit and tie to climb the corporate ladder?

We live in a world of social games where we’re constantly trying to fit into one group or another for whatever promise it offers. Even when we think we’re asserting our independence and originality; are we really? Or are we just buying into another set of unwritten rules? We may look different and act different, but the prisons are the same.

It doesn’t matter if we work like dogs earning minimum wage or if we have a steady day job and steady home life. In all walks of life at some point this feeling of discontent can hit us with a sinking suspicion. We’re left feeling that we’re lacking or missing something. And we’re not quite sure what it is. Like the Talking Heads song, one day we wake up, wondering, “how did I get here… same as it ever was.”

Somehow it just doesn’t taste right. And there’s an unanswered void looming in our hearts. Colin Wilson, author of the best selling book, The Outsider, describes this feeling as: “being told we’re having a cheeseburger, but somewhere in the back of our minds we know it’s nothing but cardboard.” We’re told this is the path to fulfillment, but we’re constantly left empty, searching for our next meal.

Humanity IgnoredLost in the myriad rules, systems, and promises this modern world has to offer, our simple humanity goes ignored. Or as lyrics from the band Fugazi say, “I had a name but now I’m a number.” While we play the games, disguised for our families, friends, and relationships, we lose sight of what we truly are or what we’re capable of.

We go on with life, hiding ourselves, hoping nobody recognizes our deepest wound. This, my friends, is the essence of the problem.

It cannot be ignored. Even though we have tried and continue to try by stuffing ourselves with new toys, styles, techniques, and religions. Until the shadow of discontent grows louder and louder trying to get us to recognize we have been living a lie.

This must be faced head on, with a clear and open mind.

The fact is if we don’t know our truth or can’t seem to value it, then this modern world will not recognize it either and we can’t expect it to.

Perhaps in the recesses of our minds we know our truth, but then it’s a matter of whether we actually believe in it or whether we’ve bought into the front we’ve built up over a long, long time.

Once this deeper void is clearly recognized it can cause great changes and revolutions in our minds if we follow through and answer this insight.

As Wilson writes, “our one need is to discover how to lend a hand to the forces inside us, to help them in their struggle. And obviously if we are only vaguely aware of these interior forces, the sensible thing is to become more aware of them and find out what they are aiming at.” Realizing this, is what causes people from minimum wage workers to high-class execs, to abandon the life they lead and search for this missing Self.

– Jeff Singh –

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Hopefully this article rattled things a bit. Comments, questions, and discussions are welcome.

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Meanwhile, check out The Outsider by Colin Wilson; plus influential bands: Dead KennedysMinor Threat, Fugazi, Rites of Spring, and Bad Religion for further exploration.

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Join us on this rebellion to break free from social conditioning…

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