The sentient among us should realize by now that conformists and conventionalists generally aren't worth knowing. The ones who defy and refuse are the ones with the spark of life and who radicalize and move the mass. Yet, somehow, convention is what rules us. We are defined as a culture by the conventions we keep, by the norms of socially acceptable thought, behavior, and action. Some people refer to McCarthy as a radical. I mock them. McCarthy was a conventionalist to the extreme. He was fanatical, not radical. He upheld the 'norms' of society to the point of inhumanism and fascist opression. Yes, America has been fascist. It continues to be. I find it really interesting that the hippies, those supposedly radical reformers, are now the yuppies who are censoring us. Clinton is the king of the yuppies. Under his wise guidance we now have such morally righteous social benefits as the Telecommunications Omnibus Bill, the V-chip (I mean, really, if you don't want your kids to see it, then TURN THE DAMNED TV OFF!), public school mandates, immigration quotas, more law enforcement agencies enforcing more and more laws, and to what end? How long until we start banning books again? When will the next Prohibition be? How soon until we're not even allowed to say "piss off"? Let me say it now while I still have the chance: "PISS OFF!" The hippies were fighting against the policy makers and their opressive policies, or so they told us. But now those same damned hippies are making the same damned policies. Was this their social agenda all along? The Communications Decency Act is not radical, it is fanatical, conventional, and fascist. It demeans and restrics the processes of invention and creation. We aren't any more free to create than we were under McCarthy. The only difference is that now, instead of fear of communism, the ex-hippies have made it fear of moral bankruptcy. K.B. LeFevre knows the methods we follow when we create and invent. One method, the one most often seen in our 'normal' society, our 'moral' society, is collective invention, or invention for the collective. I call it invention pro bono publico. Here are some of the rules of collective invention:
Do not invent that which contradicts society's goals.
Invent what is consistent with what you have previously invented. Invent what is compatible with the inventions of those who judge you.
Do not invent that which may jeopardize the funding that sponsored your invention.
Do not invent what your government does not favor, unless you are prepared to suffer the consequences.
When in doubt, invent the safest way out.
If you need support, choose a line of inquiry that fits with the goals of public and private institutions.
We live by these rules. We work by these rules. We educate by these rules. We are governed by these rules. We die by these rules.
We want to reform society, reform education, reform government. We can reform none of these until we reform the rules by which we invent and create. We continually feed the fires of opression by what we percieve as harmless and productive action. We must create and invent, but we need to do it under a new paradigm.
The now trite term "Question Authority" no longer stands nor is it viable. Nobody really bothered to question. They just thought that if they pasted some bumper sticker on their car or filing cabinet, then that would do it, that that in and of itself would be questioning authority. Sheep. The new saying needs to be "Defy Authority." We shouldn't be anarchists, but we must let authorities know that we won't tolerate it anymore. We elect them to represent us, not to rule us or make our decisions for us. It's no bloody wonder the "apathetic and lost" Generation X no longer repect their elders. What reason have they given us to do so? There is no dignity or respectability in hypocrisy.
