The Art of Defiance:

what people commonly mistake for defiance or do in lieu of it
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Having fun

Cigarettes, alcohol, & other drugs

Tattoes, piercings, & other fashion

Music

Having fun

One of the most effective techniques used to appease students, to make them accept the stupidity and nonsense in the world, is to encourage them to have fun. Don't criticize, don't defy, just have fun. For some students, it is a form of defiance, in that it gives them a break from all the rules, authority, and strictness of school, work, and home. What is amazing is that so many people don't see how pointless it is. I can't even begin to describe the despise and contempt I try to feel for people who pursue their pathetic enjoyment as an end in itself. It's hard to feel that way because the conformists seem so irrelevant, but you have to try just because it represents the anti-thesis to everything the defiant is and does.

At school, they make you learn history, languages, science, and other things. What they don't force you to do is to have fun. They are essentially channeling all your serious effort and all your discipline into studying the pointless and stultifying academic material. Then you're encouraged to put more serious effort and discipline into various extracurricular activites. Whatever time is left over, you're just supposed to spend aimlessly, having fun. The only way to counteract the effect is to spend as little time as possible with school and various organized activities. Don't participate, whenever possible. If you have to participate, don't accept it, keep thinking about how stupid the whole system is. They think they can make you accept by sheer repetition. They keep making you do stupid things, until you forget that it's stupid. School is turning every student into a stupid animal. They are trying to make you love school, love the system, love the world. All your seriousness and discipline must be used against school, against the system, against the world. Nobody sees it because it is so simple. Everybody is looking at the millions of details that they forget to see the obvious.

Cigarettes, alcohol, and other drugs

There is nothing defiant about using these things. Just look at the others who have. It gives them an image to be proud of and good feelings. Drugs are really the flimsiest of ways to be defiant.

Tattoes, piercings, and other fashion

We're talking about changing the visual appearance of your body here. Logic dictates that the defiant will opt for the simplest and plainest appearance, free from all unnecessary bodily adornments, though I wouldn't go as far as walking around naked in public.

Music

If it doesn't make you feel more defiant, don't listen to it.