Why We Need a Little Rebellion-With Or Without A Cause

Lately, I have been working on a personal maxim of sorts. It goes something like:

You HAVE to follow some of the rules, but you CANNOT follow all of the rules.

The rules?

Whatever rules you want them to be, in whatever system you want. Now, I should be clear — by “rules”, I'm not talking about games or systems where to break a rule is to cheat. I am not talking about theft, necessarily. What I mean by “rules” is the system of expectations one is to adhere to in order to be successful. Whatever success means to you. Your definition of success may already be breaking some rules. Sounds vague and weird, I know. But let's look at this together.

You have to follow some of the rules.

What I mean by this is that a rebel cannot totally rebel against everything. While every rebel may not exactly have a cause, it is best when they do. But on the way to learning what to rebel against, what not to swallow wholesale, who to trust, who to defend — one must play by some of the rules, and at times they must go along, be complicit, and behave in a manner consistent with some expectations within your system.

If one were to break every rule, you would likely ostracize yourself into oblivion. No one would want to work for you or with you. Likely, if you were to break with all expectations, your life would devolve into utter nonsense. You would likely be in jail or found facedown in a gutter somewhere, shoeless. Why shoeless? Because you don’t wear shoes, you rebel!

But you CANNOT follow all of the rules.

While not breaking every rule might feel like an obvious thing to say, it is contingent upon another not-so-well-discussed fact, its corollary — one cannot obey everything, all the time, and expect a fulfilling life. For one, societies evolve and tend to fractionate. The identities of late (sex, race, sexual preference, religion) are ever more pronounced.

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We are, at the moment, hyper-aware of these categories, but there are unlimited categories, just as important, or unimportant as the ones listed, depending on how you look at them. But these identities listed the ones we hear about constantly are still quite coarse compared to other forms of identity like smaller sub-groupings, sub-cultures, and so on.

Think Biker gangs, the ICP Juggalos, kinky folks — as these subgroups fractionate, values, rules, and expectations of those in-systems become too varied for any one person to follow them all, all the time. While these groups are largely identified by their aesthetic, they are also identified by their values, their interests, the music, and the culture they tend to celebrate. Much of it is performative, but there are those who live the lifestyle 24/7. They have rules and expectations interior to their groups, and breaking some of the laws of that in-group will get you booted.

So by definition, you are probably breaking rules all the time — just maybe not the rules of your in-group, or your society, whatever in-group or society you have chosen to belong to if you indeed have. So you don't even recognize them as rules. But they are somebody's rules, just not yours!

Think about eating meat — if you do eat meat, you are breaking the rules of a vegetarian, or in fact, even some religions. Well, if you're not claiming to be vegetarian or of a group that forbids

eating meat, you wouldn't even see it as a rule to break.

In this way, many people are rebels without really trying to go out of their way to do so. Because they have exercised discretion on what rules and what systems to follow. So, in a cheeky way, we are all rebels, whether we like it or not, or whether we even see it that way.

Back to my original maxim —

You HAVE to follow some of the rules, but you CANNOT follow all the rules.

In an homage to Abraham Lincoln, I could follow up with something like — In a society, it’s good for most of the people to follow most of the rules most of the time.

But for an individual, it does good to break from some traditions, some order, and some societal expectations.

Why? Because to live a life that is your own takes risk.

Because to follow all the rules, to meet all expectations, is to do two things, most likely:

1- Whatever the state of your life, it isn't really yours. One cannot live their truest life fulfilling the expectations of others or society as a whole. With no risk, there is very little reward;

2. It is also to fall prey to societal demands in such a way that may grant you some money, some comfort, some security, but there will always be that x-factor lacking, that is — the fulfillment of your own individuality.

Now I am no conspiracy theorist, but there is a kind of societal grooming, a prison of sorts, of morals, values, stipulations. A mental prison, a prison of mentality. Without breaking those bars of the prison down, taking some risks, and breaking away from expectations, you'll never live a truly rewarding life. Because the templated life society carves for us, is indeed, largely one of conformity.

Society cannot function with too many rebels. We need people to behave, and show up to work — we need people to value the things that keep society in working order, or it falls apart. But we also need rebels, to break molds, to invent solutions, to protect from tyranny. We understand this innately which is why gaps in the work history section of your resume are problematic. Just tell the interviewer you didn't feel like working that year, you had some money and took the year off, and watch the look on their face. Yeah, they’ll be in touch...

I've been labeled a rebel all my life. When I was younger, just a boy in my school days, I was more of a rebel without a clue. When I knew I was destined to be an artist, something from which I will never retire, this rebel had found his cause.

To break all the rules is to live a life of hell, but I find that same fate in those who break none. The people who tend to interest us the most are the people with a little dirt under their nails, some grit in between their teeth, and maybe even some shit on their shoes. Because to lead a full and eventful life is to live a life that is yours. Nobody is saying it is easy, but you'll never be bored.

Many folks live a templated lifestyle. Predictable. Secure. Safe. And many times, this is based on fear. Fear of failure, fear of risk, fear of disappointing others, or fear of judgment from society. But what would scare the shit out of me is realizing that you're living a life that is not your own.

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author's own.