On Being A Rebel

ON BEING A REBEL

I've always been a rebel in that I impeccably trust myself and my truth. Even when things look politically grim, my heart is open and I share my truth from a place of inner validation while articulating my constitutional right to dissent ~ regardless of the consequences: Allen L Roland

Chris Hedges wrote a timely and most interesting article on March 8th on Truthdig entitled, Calling All Rebels where he concluded " Those who do not rebel in our age of totalitarian capitalism and who convince themselves that there is no alternative to collaboration are complicit in their own enslavement. They commit spiritual and moral suicide."
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/03/08-2

Hedges uses the French moral philosopher Albert Camus to justify his point that we need rebels to halt America's slide into totalitarian capitalism. Camus wrote ~ " But if he dies in refusing to be enslaved, he reaffirms the existence of another kind of human nature which refuses to be classified as an object."

I would argue that other kind of human nature is a strong moral force which can never be extinguished ~ particularly among the oppressed and impoverished of the world. Vaclav Havel referred to this moral force when he fought against the communist regime in Czechoslovakia ~ " The dissident does not operate in the realm of genuine power at all. He is not seeking power. He has no desire for office and does not gather votes. He does not attempt to charm the public. He offers nothing and promises nothing. He can offer, if anything, only his own skin ~ and he offers it solely because he has no other way of affirming the truth he stands for. His actions simply articulate his dignity as a citizen, regardless of the cost."

The ongoing illegal and brutal military occupations of both Iraq and Afghanistan are inflicting serious financial, political and moral damage to America and they demand a moral response.

Never underestimate the moral power of love, mutual cooperation and altruism for it is also the driving force of nature, evolution and a Unified Field. We all have a part to play in this constantly evolving loving plan ~ and I most certainly am playing mine through my work and writings.

It is William James who eloquently speaks to the power of moral forces ~ " I am done with great things and big things and great institutions and big successes, and I am for those tiny invisible moral forces that work from individual to individual, creeping though the crannies of the world like so many rootlets or like the capillary oozing water, yet which, if you give them time , will bend the hardest monuments of human pride."

We can all be part of a powerful moral force, as Martin Luther King Jr most certainly was, that will eventually dismantle the Corpocracy and restore our crumbling Republic.
Forty three years ago, our ultimate rebel, King preached in Riverside Church in New York City that “a time comes when silence is betrayal.” He went on to condemn the Vietnam War and the system which created it as well as other apparent injustices ~ which still remain today “ We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing oriented” society to a “person oriented” society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

As such, we must now all become rebels or dissidents in demanding the leaders, the government and the moral values we deserve.

Allen L Roland
http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com

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Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is also available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

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