The Rebel Stance

The Rebel Stance
Philosophy by Denny

Today's rebel is one who faces pressure and tension from all sides and refuses to surrender. The rebel is fully aware that it is pointless to resist since the pressure and tension will not let up, but this is a moot point. Resistance is the only handle the rebel has on his version of sanity.

French philosopher Albert Camus spoke of the Greek myth of Sisyphus, a man who told the Powers That Be to go to hell and was sentenced for that to roll a boulder up a mountain for eternity. Camus calls Sisyphus "the absurd hero", since his eternal exercise is so obviously pointless. Since the rebel's resistance is futile, it is by definition absurd.To resist is to roll one's boulder up hill with no end in sight and no sign of relief. To rest is to try to absorb the weight of the stone without taxing one's energy--to be over-run by the stone.

The rebel sees others lie down and submit to the stone to get some relief from the pressure of the exertion of resistance. This might describe corporate American middle management. People who surrender to the stone by kissing upper management's ass--afraid of those above them and still more afraid of those below, conveniently overlooking the fact that, in most cases, they have replaced someone else who surrendered and allowed himself to be crushed by his stone. Once one has been bowled over due to lack of will or strength or determination to resist, it is impossible to climb--and the mountain is far too steep for one to remain motionless. It becomes clear that the need for ease leads only downhill. The little lateral moves the descending man might make along the way only serve to delay the inevitable drop-off at the end.

The rebel will never remain in the middle position. He tends to take charge of a situation whether or not it is his actual responsibility to do so because he knows he cannot trust anyone else not to be kissing the next ass up the hill. Those doing the kissing need a direction to point when blame shows its ugly face, and the rebel is the one not pointing. He rolls his stone past these pointing corpses with a grim but indifferent sort of determination. He is determined to prove to himself that, despite differences in position and relative gain, he is at least the equal of his so-called superiors. He is determined not to surrender to a system designed to beat him into submission.

The rebel is one who knows he is going nowhere. He knows he cannot win and is unlikely to even come close to breaking even. But the struggle remains and, absurd as his stance may seem to the world, the rebel will not back down. He lives for the challenge, and the confrontation and conflict the challenge entails. The questioning of authority is the meat in the rebel's diet.

For this reason, the rebel may be thought of as one who has refused to forget childhood.
"Because I said so," will never be answer enough for the rebel. "It's Policy" sticks in his craw like a barbed dagger. The rebel needs valid reasons for the burdens set upon him and for the freedoms he is expected to relinquish. He submits, but only to the point where his determination, his indignation and his fine sense of the humor of his situation fail to shore him up. When he reaches the point where he can no longer laugh at himself and his predicament, the rebel rolls his stone over rather than around the corpses who insist on lying across his path--not out of any sense of malice, but only because they remain obstinately in his way until his own stone threatens to roll back on him. The rebel does what is required of him, not because it is required, but to spite those who require it while they themselves are unequal to the task. He does his best to perform with expert efficiency so that when fingers are pointed in his direction he is justified in shrugging his shoulders and rolling onward, and those who consider themselves so superior might be brought back to a reality in which they tie their shoes one at a time, just like he does.

Thus we come to an apt description of the rebel's love/hate relationship with his stone. While it is his burden, he bears it with a wry smile brought on by the knowledge that, above all expectations, he is equal to his task and at least the equal of his so-called superiors. He shakes his head and laughs at those who try to hand him improbable tasks and impossible deadlines and he plods along at the best pace his stone will allow. At last he reaches the mountain's peak, but it is not the end for the rebel. Despite the obstacles that were placed in his path, he has gotten the job done. But now he watches calmly as his stone rolls down the other side.

With his wry smile of indignant determination and his fine sense of the humor of his situation, the rebel starts down the mountain to fetch his boulder and start all over again.

Denny
Just thinkin' about it

Work referenced:
The Myth of Sisyphus
Albert Camus, 1957