The Art of Defiance:

a guide for teenage students to resist social indoctrination

revision 1.2 11/27/00 - the text and ideas presented at this site may be freely used and reproduced, for humans do not own ideas, but ideas own humans

The meaning of schools

Cultural and individual diversity

Personal opinions

Expressing personal opinions

Links to other topics:

defiant philosophy:

Religion

Meaninglessness and seriousness

Goals to pursue as a student

Living for fulfillment

Bottom line of philosophy

general guidelines for school:

Why we go to school

Purpose of schools

Function of schools

Guidelines to follow for school

specific guidelines for school:

Reading

Writing

Natural Sciences

Mathematics

History

Electives

Athletics

substitute habits for defiance:

Having fun

Cigarettes, alcohol, and other drugs

Tattoes, piercings, and other fashion

Music

defiant personality traits:

Arrogant

Narrow-minded

Anti-social (without friends)

Reticent

Resentful

Critical

Parsimonious

Emotionally insecure

conformist personality traits:

Responsible

Mature

Altruistic

Funny

Respectful

faulty advice by conformists:

Find something you like to do

Rebellion is a phase in life

It's easy to criticize

Miscellaneous:

Comments I received on this site

Feedback Form

There is nothing I hate more than hearing people's phony justifications about why we go to school. If you dedicate any serious thought to it, you'll find that there simply is no meaningful purpose to them. They serve to indoctrinate students with a variety of flawed ideas, which I think are worthwhile examining, and I will in this page. I will criticize, with every last ounce of energy I have, the sheer stupidity of all the popular values and beliefs that schools all over the world instill into the young.

I'm not claiming that 99% of all students are indoctrinated with the contemporary ideology and made to accept an aimless world. I am claiming that 100% (or something extremely extremely close to it) of students today are being indoctrinated with the contemporary ideology and made to accept an aimless world. If you have not yet accepted society, you still haven't been indoctrinated. You are one of so few. You might think that the world is so big , there must be a lot of students like you. Don't think that. I don't know whether or not it is true, but what I do know is that once school gets done with you, and you haven't yet been indocrinated, you will literally be one of a handful of students to have escaped. There are about 6 billion people in this world as I am writing this, and there may be as few as two or three who have escaped.

I don't want to discourage you. Our world desperately needs students like you who can defy the system and not accept society. I will personally do everything in my power to help. You see, the reason it is so difficult is because everybody conforms. The key is to defy. You must defy authority, defy school, defy society, defy the media, defy your family, defy your friends, you must defy everything. Don't think like them or think they are harmless because if you do that you will conform without even noticing, you will become like them.

What is the great danger we are trying to prevent? Aimlessness. You might be thinking to yourself, this can't be right. What about all those students who don't go to school or who are home-schooled? How are they indoctrinated? Well, it is not only schools, it is all of society. But it is easier to just focus on one thing, and once you reject schools, you can reject everything else for very similar reasons. So I will focus on school, but it is only an example. I pick it because it is the largest part of most young people's lives. And really, once you're old, it is too late, you have to escape indoctrination while young.

So how did I escape? What did it take? Well, I just graduated from college, but the most important part of my life was when I was about 14. My memory is fuzzy, I might be wrong. Plus, it was a very slow gradual process, it took many many years. Mostly I was just lucky to develop the will to be defiant. I didn't know why it was good to be defiant. It was only later that I realized how easily I could have been indoctrinated myself if I hadn't been defiant. I also believed that I had the willpower to do anything. I was very defiant, but not from the outside. You don't necessarily have to be outwardly defiant. It might even be dangerous because others will criticize you and make you feel bad about yourself. But you have to be defiant on the inside. Don't ever be happy, that's what society wants to make you feel, and you will just be accepting it. I recommend bottling up all your frustration and anger inside you. Don't let it out, don't tell anyone. If you do, the world will never change. But if you keep your thoughts to yourself and use all your determination, you will not give up. You will simply wait, until you're older and someday you'll meet others like you, and then you'll be able to work together to change society.

I don't really want to be writing these pages because I believe future defiants can achieve much more than I did. I don't want to bother you with my inferior ideas, since you'll probably find better ones yourself. Also, I am too old to remember much of what it was like when I went to school. If you are still a student and very defiant, hopefully I can get your help with this webpage. I actually regret to have to be writing this all alone with my own limited mind, but I don't have any choice, because I am the only one I know who escaped.

Cultural and inidividual diversity

One of the more popular notions around is that were all different. We were brought up in different families with different values, lived in different cultures and societies, associated with different groups or friends, and have been speaking different languages. The contemporary ideology generally claims that we should appreciate this diversity. No culture can be considered better than the rest, since all such ideas of superiority are subjective and prejudiced. As for the idea of doing away with prejudice altogether, well, it can't be done, since we're all prejudiced by our environment. No one is immune.

It is true that this diversity exists. But why would an individual want to be part of all this? I grew up speaking the language of the country in which I lived, but why should I respect and appreciate this? Wouldn't it be simpler if there was just one language in the world? If everybody spoke the same language, wouldn't things be simplified by eliminating the need for translators, foreign language studies, and difficulty in communication? Certainly, we don't need 1000 different ways of saying "spoon", "fear", or "hesitate".

Cultural traditions, festivals, and art work are even worse. Why do we need them at all? What I am getting to is, why should we tolerate diversity? Perhaps the word diversity itself is misleading people. If we really had diversity, then some people would conclude that we don't need it. Some would conclude that they have no need for all the values, traditions, and habits in the world. Some would get together and create a society in which there is no diversity. But you see, our world is making everyone believe in the same basic principles in how to view life.

There is nothing that alarms me more than the thought that millions of children are growing up now, and they are all accepting it, all so trusting and obedient. If they've already gotten to you, don't bother telling me, I already know all I need to know about you. I see you guys every day, I hear your pointless opinions every day, one more won't make a difference. You're all irrelevant, don't you see? Once you accept, it's over. Growing up is like a race to find out what the world is doing to you before it's too late. When you're older, you'll have lost your spark, you'll simply be content and happy. Happy with the world and the way things are.

Personal opinions

Another common belief is that we all think differently and should have our own opinions. The concept of an opinion itself strikes me as something rather odd. Why should I insist on something whose certainty I am unsure of? As an example, someone might say, "My favorite color is blue". That's a fine opinion, but what is its purpose? Why should I have a favorite color? If I need a pen to write my homework, I will probably choose a blue or a black pen, since those colors are most widely accepted by teachers, whereas if I choose a yellow pen, my homework might be rejected. So there is a logical reason to choose particular colors in particular cases. It doesn't mean I need a favorite color to decide. So why?

Some other person might come along and say "I disagree with you. My favorite color is green." So one person likes blue, the other green. If they need to get a boat, they might argue about whether to get the green or the blue one. All because they insist on having a personal preference. It doesn't matter whether we're talking about colors or something else, why should we disagree? What if I say I don't need any of those values, beliefs, personal preferences, and wants? I might only allow myself to be controlled by reason and logic. The conformist will say, "we all have wants and preferences". If the world is really diverse, then some people will decide not to have them. They will only believe in logic.

Then how can they disagree on anything? Society claims that disagreement is natural and should be accepted. Of course, if I try, I can disagree with everybody. But you see, it doesn't accomplish anything to disagree; disagreement is meaningless. Some people will tell you that if everybody agreed with everyone else, this would be a boring world, so we don't want that. They are wrong because there are plenty of unexplained mysteries in the world for us to solve. Wouldn't we be able to make more progress solving them, if we stopped being aimless and disagreeing constantly over unimportant things?

What is really boring is everybody being aimless and disagreeing because you already know what the result will be, nothing. Some people will even say that makes sense, but unfortunately not everybody else thinks like us, so we'll always disagree anyway. That is a really stupid thing to say. You see, the problem is not about what the majority thinks or does. The problem is that the majority today is everybody. Everybody is indoctrinated. The exceptions are so rare, we'll be lucky if we ever find each other.

If only a few of us would get together and demonstrate how a group can interact without disagreeing, that would prove how silly it is to be having all these personal opinions and preferences. If you act stupid just because you think that the majority will always be stupid, you're just being part of the majority. It takes an extreme degree of determination and discipline to become different from everybody else. Even if you find yourself conforming to them, it doesn't matter. As long as you are motivated to escape, you will eventually escape. It takes years, but you are only defeated when you have lost your defiance. The emotion of defiance is strongest. No one can crush it. The only way to crush it is to make you stop feeling it. Just keep feeling it, and you'll be fine.

Expressing opinions

At school and in other places, you are often asked to express your opinion. These social situations are where society tries to force you to think the conformist way. It is very effective because with enough repetition, you will internalize the concept of opinion, which means you will really think what you say. In principle, opinions are unnecessary because given enough time to analyze the question, you can come up with a final answer, rather than just an opinion.

The trick, you see, is not to give you any time to think. You're just expected to blurt out an opinion and keep doing it for a variety of different subjects. But if you develop an opinion, you will just be conforming to the peer pressure of having to have an opinion. You can never think too much about a topic. Some will tell you, "you can keep thinking and thinking, but you'll never come up with a final answer," or something similar. Well, they are being lazy. They don't want the best possible answer, they just want different opinions to have the same value, so everybody's opinion counts equal.

When you are asked to express an opinion, it really doesn't matter what you say. You can say nothing, say you don't have an opinion, make up an opinion, or express an opinion that seems best out of the ones you know so far. The only danger is when you believe that you really have an opinion. Opinions are simply nonsense because given enough time and logic, we don't need them.