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What Does It Mean to Be a Rebel In a Coarse Era?
The possibilities will make you feel vastly better about yourself
I am sharing portions of a talk I delivered at Digital Void Media’s Meme In the Moment Festival at Caveat in New York City on October 26, 2022. A video of the full talk is also linked within.
“I want to offer you a suggestion for three things. And if these three things turn you on, act on them. Act on them — and burn the fleet behind you. Try them for one hour. See what occurs…
“What is the role of the rebel in a world of coarseness and hostility? Not what you may think:
- Get away from cruel people.
- Greet trash with silence.
- Don’t humiliate people. You’ll stand taller than you ever imagined.
“We don’t talk enough as a society about the problem of intimate human cruelty…
“When you are insulted, the reason you can’t think of a rejoinder is not because you’re mentally slow or that you need a book that tells you how to deal with assholes. It’s because emotions move more quickly than thought…
“The last thing that’s ever arrived at is absolutely severing your ties with cruel people…
“I think it’s wonderful to be nobly alone. I think loneliness has a terrible rap. I think it’s much better to be nobly alone than to be in debased company. You don’t have to attend anything…
“There is absolutely nothing wrong with refusing to go to Thanksgiving or Christmas, or whatever holiday you celebrate, if those things are sources of pain to you. Why would you?…
“One of the ways that bullies entrap us is that they make us think we have to participate in life on their terms. You don’t have to participate in life on anyone’s terms…
“With the advent of social media, we as a human community have gotten into this groove where sarcasm, rhetorical questions, insults, laughing at other people’s…
