Society kills the rebellious spirit in every child; it is afraid of rebellion. But the moment the rebellious spirit is destroyed simultaneously intelligence, brightness, genius, are also destroyed. They are all together, they can exist only in a togetherness. They form an organic unity. You cannot destroy one part; either you destroy the whole or you save the whole.
And society is not interested in the individual; its interest is in the structure, in the establishment, in the state, in the church and in all kinds of investments. The individual is not even counted. The individual is accepted only because he has a certain utility for the establishment, because the individual can be used as a means to fulfil certain ends which are not his, they are others -- the politicians, the priests or whosoever they may be.
Every child is born a genius but very few people have been able to escape from the slavery that society imposes. The beginning is in rebellion. Rebel against the tradition, rebel against the church, rebel against the mob psychology. And the fundamental law is to insist on being yourself whatsoever the cost, and then you will have great intelligence flowering, brightness, and your life will become alight unto itself.
That's what taoism is all about the rebellion of the individual against the collective, against the crowd, because only the individual has a soul. Society is only a name without a soul, and the individual cannot be sacrificed for any end -- nation, race, religion. Nothing is more valuable than the individual. The individual is the ultimate value,
Respect yourself and in that very respect you will be able to respect others too.
hans-wolfgang - am Samstag, 18. September 2004, 12:43
