How to Be Rebellious in 2021

I write this article tongue in cheek. The things that I am saying were common knowledge to our ancestors, yet we seem to have forgotten the way. To be “rebellious” is to go against the grain. It is to be disenfranchised with what you have been told as true, to have an open mind, and to realize that although we live in a “modern world”, we still fall for the age old traps.

The things that I am going to say will inevitably hurt some feelings. It’s okay, I can take it.

Let’s begin.

1. Forgo All Sedation

If you live in the modern world, you are sedated by the cornucopia of easy pleasure that you could consume in the span of a day. You are a dopamine slave. A slave to ease, to conveinience, and to vice. I was too.

The fortunate thing is that you can break out of it. You can break the addiction that plagues you. You can stop caring what others think about you, and you can live with both eyes open.

Some of the traps we can easily fall into include:

You can eat processed food high in sugar that begs you to eat more. You are always tired because of the fuel you are putting into your body, and you wonder why. You can consume alcohol to numb the pain of your existence.

You can hop on a social media account (or five) that you post to in order to gain validation from other people. When one of those becomes boring, there are another dozen that you can hop on to next - “Oh I’ve seen all the new posts on Instagram, let’s see what everyone is saying on Twitter” - repeat ad nauseam. The average person spends 2 and a half hours a day on social media.

After this, you can go watch some recently produced pornography.

You can go watch Hollywood’s latest film, Netflix’s most recent binge.

And then, you can go play the latest and greatest AAA video game.

The average person could spend an entire lifetime consuming.

If you are to go against the grain in today’s world, you have to give up all modern vice.

2. Produce.

On the topic of consumption, the opposite is far more difficult, but far more rewarding. Produce. Create. Breathe life into this world.

The masses do not produce. They consume. Mindlessly consume.

If you want to break from the rest you need to be a creator.

Whatever this looks like to you, you’ll know when you know. Make Music, Art, Products that help others, Write, Help.

Reach out and touch another human being.

“But Josh, aren’t we all consumers?”

Yes. But you can be mindful of your consumption - do not consume things to fill voids. Do not consume things to impress. Do not consume things that make your life a dog and pony show. And, think before you do consume.

3. Go All in on Something

Too many people are half in. They have a toe in the water here, dabbling over there.

If you say you are going to do something. Do it. And do it with all of your heart, mind, and muscle.

That will set you apart from 95% of people instantly.

4. Do Not listen to media, quackademics, and politicians.

If you want to rebel against the norm, stop worshipping people. Stop tuning into ’Keeping up with the Kardashians’, stop worshipping Elon Musk, and for the love of God stop reading celebrity gossip magazines.

These people are just people.

In a world without God, we turn to worship of things. Or people. Or science.

The fact of the matter is that all of these things are fragile. They are constantly in flux.

I will touch on each of what I mentioned individually:

Media

The media is a tool to instill fear into the masses.

If you watch the evening news, you would think the world is falling apart. You would think that everyone around you is a person that would rape and murder you. You would think that everyone is a cheat, every thing shrouded in darkness.

They have time and time again created hype and hysteria around things that they know little about. They do not seek to inform, only to spin a narritive in whichever direction that pays them more.

Your life will be happier without it.

And when others tell you that you are uninformed, you can smile and nod.

Celebrities

No more need be said.

Academics (Quackademics)

“Those who can, do. Those who cannot, teach.”

I had great teachers in University.

They were always the ones that had actually done something with their lives before coming back into academics.

Teachers of today are simply mouthpieces of the consensus.

And big things never happen in the consensus.

Science

As with the above, to worship science is to stand for nothing, as the field is contantly in flux and changing.

That is not to say ’deny science’.

That is to say that experience is so much faster to reach the conclusion that will take science a decade to catch up to.

To learn who influences science is another story altogether.

There’s a reason why ’fat makes you fat!’ was a thing only a decade and a half prior.

Politicians

Ah my favourite of all.

For those of you that think a political party or figurehead is coming to save you, you would be sorrowly mistaken.

It does not matter if you are on the right, the left, blue, red, or polka-dotted.

You are being lied to.

5. Fear God, and Fear Nothing Else.

The world is constantly trying to get you to live in fear.

Fear of the unknown. Fear of death. Fear of this, of that.

Fear serves the purpose of selling you the alleviation to your fear. It makes you stagnate. It makes you be a good slave.

What if you feared nothing but the big man himself?

That would be interesting.

6. Learn. Endlessly.

Most people will stop learning the minute the final textbook is put down in their post secondary studies.

If you want to go against the grain, you have to be continually learning, growing, and opening your mind to new opportunities, experiences, and lessons.

There is absolutely no excuse in 2021. The internet is there, you can reach out and ask a question directly to any person in any field you so choose.

To not know is to be lazy beyond all help.

7. Find Truth (Follow Nature)

Truth is hidden so desperately these days.

To be rebellious is to seek it out, without the influence of the aforementioned in #4.

The best place to look is what is natural around us, to see how the world interacts, and what we did correctly in the past. We weren’t stupid, we knew how to live.

This includes what we eat, how we act, and the universal truths that we know.

We live in the age of Deconstructionism. Where you cannot know anything, because there “is no truth”.

There is truth. It’s just hidden by the lies.

8. Get Physically Tough

If you want to be unlike most, get fit. Eat naturally raised and grown food.

Workout daily.

Your body affects your mind and your soul.

You cannot be strong mentally if you are physically weak.

9. Get Mentally Tough

When nothing outside of yourself can harm you, you are a force to be reckoned with.

Start by realizing what your thoughts are contantly saying to you, and focus on the positive in life. Increase your perspective. Don’t be a little bitch about things. Do what you need to do.

Be stoic. Simply, Be.

To get mentally tough, you can read my book that will be released shortly, ’The Power of Pain’

10. Question Everything

To be rebellious is to question everything you’ve ever been told, and everything that will ever be told.

Hidden agendas loom, self interest is everywhere.

You must question and seek the underlying why in all things.

There, you will get your answer.