by Walter Alejandro Iglesias
I will pretend to obey you during the few minutes you point to my wife with a gun (point it to me and perhaps I will not). I don't use to stop trains with my head. Indoors, I consider all opinions, but it is my duty and my right being who has the last word in, at least, my own discernment. Perhaps it is just at this level where an individual is able to choose.
Then, I cannot change the world but I will try by all possible means that world doesn't convert me in a toaster or a washing machine. Not being part of a rebel cause, but just being myself.
A=A is one of the several theoretical concepts human brain needs to keep things ordered. The same could be said about A≠B. People tend to mistake personality for identity. Looking for this tendency or group that make you feel identified and forcing yourself to fit does not develop your personality (You know, I am not talking just about teenagers). The same could be said about following a rebel cause. In both cases you are just "arbitrarily" accepting.
Young and no so young folks tend to adopt ideologies. Socialism, communism, capitalism. Right, left, center; I am a hippie, a punk, etc. In the same way they put all its effort in make you fit in some of these boxes.
Teaching is not a choice, it doesn't care how strong your will is. You can teach if and only if somebody wants to learn. Teaching is a side effect, not a cause. Especially when the subject implies some level of abstraction. You can take the initiative in training people, people that obey you; these subordinated people will get skilled in this or that society/community activity or function. And recreational activities must create false bounds, to get the group used to act together, feeling to have a common cause, a cause that just exists like a true but nobody deeply understands. This is what happens in schools, clubs, barracks, enterprises, communities... They train you in reading and writing, shuting a gun, dancing salsa, selling a product, programing, etc.
What's the difference between how people live in a communist or a capitalist society? Is the way people dress? Hippies dress all in the same way and pretend to think in the same way. Punks idem. See 80's TV series, all girls had the same fashion, the same way of dress, the same hairstyle. Dress in this way today and everybody will consider ridiculous. You may say "But you will not be confined in prison or killed for that". One theory could be that in present "civilized world" these became extreme measures. Unfortunately, this is more a progressive enfeebling of instinctive pulsions symptom than a rationality's leadership growth.
Why people do this or that? Why people think in this or that way? Why somebody chooses this instead of that? Because is what the rest does.
If you want to do your own you will not be killed or confined, but you will be completely alone. Your best friend will ignore you.
The point is. Just those whose nature is to obey become revolutionary leader's "followers". Otherwise, I take on the responsibility of my own free will. You can put me in a cage, or kill me, but not to change my nature.