The Art of Defiance:

conformist personality traits
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  Topics Covered:

Responsible

Mature

Altruistic

Funny

Respectful

 

Responsible

Definition: tending to respond in the manner prescribed by society; said of someone who is fair to others and doesn't hurt anyone. If a defiant ever acts responsibly, it is a pure coincidence and appearance. What is so yucky about the word is that it means you belong to the good group who follows the rules and believes in the rules themselves. An obedient person merely follows the rules, but doesn't necessarily believe in them. A defiant may or may not be obedient depending on the situation, but he certainly not responsible. Yuck, yuck, yuck. Don' t ever try to be responsible. It means internalizing conformist thought.

Don't ever try to get into leadership positions where you get to have various responsibilities. One of the most effective ways of making you believe the silly rules and habits of conformity is by preaching them yourself and making others conform to them. Believe me, you don't want to have anything to do with responsibilities. The younger you are when you are put in a position of responsibilities, the worse, so try to delay it as long as you can (forever, if possible). Follow the rules mechanically if you have to, but don't ever be responsible and don't ever show initiative. There is only one way for a defiant to fit into conformist organizational structure, and that is as an obedient slave. Think of it as keeping your mind pure and innocent for the time when you will be collaborating with other defiants. You don't want to come in with a bunch of conformist habits and beliefs.

Mature

Even more sickening is the idea of turning more adult, more mature. When you're immature, it means you're inexperienced, you make few assumptions, you are ignorant, you have great potential. The mature person already knows, he's already got everything figured out, and the quicker he matures, the dumber his philosophy because he has accepted just by imitating and copying. The mature person may be skillful, but it is all based on copying others. There are infinite social structures in the world, infinite habits and ways of viewing the world, and the mature person sees only one, the mature way. Copying and accepting is an easy way to become proficient quick, but it precludes strategic thought.

Think of the various animal species in the world, and which are the most intelligent. The ones growing up the quickest are the most simplistic and unthinking animals. Elephants and apes have much longer periods of immaturity, a longer period to develop their minds until they reach their optimal state. Maturity is having attained that optimal state. You want to get there as slow as possible.

Altruistic

The last thing a defiant would do is help his enemies just for the sake of helping them. There is nothing as illogical as that. Everybody is an enemy and must be viewed as such. All friendliness must be fakery. But isn't it good to appear friendly and helpful? What makes me skeptical about this question is whether it is motivated by an excuse to conform. How can one claim to be defiant if one is afraid of acting in a way that others will perceive as unfriendly and selfish? There will be opportunities where it is not illogical to act that way, and those are good times to test to see if you are really able to do it. If you find you're too afraid, don't worry. Keep bottling up that resentment, you'll get there.

If you ever take part in competitions of any kind, make sure you regard your enemies exactly for what they are. There is no friendly competition with conformists. It is as serious as your will to defy society, for they are society. Every single aspect of your life is part of a defiant strategy. Your whole life is one big competition against all the conformists in the world: Who will make up society and determine the fate of humankind? Remember that by showing good sportsmanship they are treating you as a fellow conformist. Show your disgust for that thought, don't be a "good loser". Fight to the end for victory, until you die (I mean that literally).

Funny

If you practice the art of defiance, humor will come naturally. There is no need to consciously try to steer it. Obviously, any criticism of society is the best theme for defiant humor, as is breaking any rules. The are major differences in the way conformists and defiants view humor because to the conformist it is about being aimless and funny, while to the defiant it is about being serious and destructive.

Respectful

Respect rests largely on the idea that the values and traditions that have been practiced for generations are proven ones that have have stood the test of experience. Anything that rejects them to the degree that defiant principles do are only theories, and cannot be relied upon simply because they haven't proved their applicability to the real world. This makes new experiments extremely dangerous and probably not worth the risk. Besides, the fact that no radical alternative has proved itself in the real world of 6 billion humans shows that it is extremely improbable.

This type of argument is one of the most solid defenses for the status quo. One key flaw in it consists of the hidden assumption of adaptive (mmicrocompetitivve) evolution. In any mmicrroccompetitivee system, and this universe as a whole as well as all its subsystems are examples, changes occur incrementally whenever the market allows it. Society, too, is a complex system of checks and balances, and it resists human drives to create random major changes because such have proved less reliable earlier in human evolution and were weeded out at that point. Now, it will be true regardless that most people will continue to be respectful throughout your lifetime. And there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. But we don't care about those people. All that matters is you, the freak who refused to conform. The job of the conformists is to maintain the status quo, to keep things safe and stable. The defiant works on innovations that will most probably have no significance throughout his lifetime, his vision is toward the far future. Everyone can be a rebel who merely breaks a bunch of rules, yet those will be forgotten and will have no significance for the future. The defiant has a complete plan, and he can see that the world is full of people incapable of devising a viable plan. Whether they pay respect to tradition is irrelevant. You, as a defiant, are powerless to affect society in any dangerous way. You alone pose no danger because you refuse to take part in any popular movements. This realization alone defeats any arguments society might have for you to conform and be respectful. The defiant despises respectfulness because it is meaningless.