Independent thinking, Part 1

Dissent in America


OK, I should be careful because every time I want to write about something in stages, 'life' takes over (see post below), I get a surge of activities/commitments to be completed. My 'oomph' is gone and it seems besides the point to continue.
So let's consider this 'part 1' to be a continuing theme that will pop up from time to time in my writing.

I am an Independent politically. Most of you know that already. I have always for the most part anyway, thought outside the box and have never feared asking the 'what if'.. . What if Christianity is made up by superstitious people? (she thought to herself while she heard the news about scrolls who were found eluding to the fact that Jesus never died on the cross) What if people willingly put their blinders on because they are afraid to find that their country history and current affairs are corrupt? (read Howard Zinn's " A people's history of the United States, Alex Jones), what if the Howard Zinns and the Alex Jones are correct?

Anyway, I've never been afraid to question or consider challenging my own belief system because I think I am not only independent by nature, I'm always desiring to know the 'real truth', what's behind it. I'm just plain curious.
So in an effort to maximize my 30 minutes when I could write a post, I did a search on dissent and independent thinking and I stumbled upon this interesting site.

I want you to check this out NOT in order to consider the 'truth'of it, or even the validity of the opinions of the person. I might not agree with all of it since I did not have time to go through the whole thing. BUT..the point is to challenge yourself and expose yourself to independent thinking and to step out of the box of conformity. Here is an example of this guys' writing:

My homeroom teacher, a Mrs. Lage, unexpectedly yelled at me one afternoon after having me do a math problem on the chalkboard. "Chris! Why don't you write your fours like everyone else?!" I wrote closed numeral 4s, just as they are on a typewriter or computer keyboard or on the Channel 4 logo I saw on TV in my youth. According to the teacher, everyone else in class wrote open fours. I had no idea my way of writing 4s would bother my teacher, and when she chastised me I was surprised, hurt, and outraged.

Mrs. Lage's attitude towards conformity typifies the attitude of America at large. You must conform. Everyone must conform! Standardization of human minds at all costs. Protecting the insular system from forces of corruption with rare exceptions.
The closed 4 represents a closed system. The United States is free and open in certain dimensions, but it's a closed fascist system in other ways. Ways which include thought and style. (See George Orwell's "1984."). It's an open society in some respects, but most definitely a closed system of conformitarianism in others.

And who was Mrs. Lage to give me a hard time about my fours? I mean, she knew they were fours, otherwise she wouldn't have called them fours! So, she recognized them as the correct number I intended to write and use in my math exercises.

But Mrs. Lage did not even know how to pronounce her last name correctly. She called it "Loggy." Another case of American bastardization of words. The German pronunciation, which is the only correct one since the name is German, is Log-guh, not Loggy...This is another thing that pisses me off about Americans. They think they can just Americanize any fucking pronunciation they want to. They can change Hispanic and French pronunciations, and German ones, just because they're Americans. Just because they have a superiority complex and an arrogance as Americans. They can call a street in Oklahoma City "Vil-la Avenue" (pronounced in the same manner as "vanilla") instead of the original and correct "Vee-uh" (as in "Pancho Villa"). Damn, this pisses me off! Pronunciations should never be altered. They should always and forever and eternally remain the same as they're pronounced in their original language. Quit fucking up pronunciations, America!

Off the tangent and back to the point: If we had more freedom we'd have more diversity. More lifestyles, more modes of survival, easier means of survival, more cooperation between individuals and companies. The pressure to conform would not be as strong either. And teachers wouldn't give a fistfuck about how you write your 4s, as long as they're legible.

AND

One reason most people don't see the Big Picture is that they stay within the frames. They never venture outside the frame's safe borders by thinking "outside the box". This website is very definitely outside the box. It's all about going against the grain, swimming upstream, thinking for yourself.

It is a celebration of spitting out the hook. It revels in sacrilege. It rejoices in irreverence. It exults in the catharsis which relatively few lucky people experience when they reject dogma and the heavy boot of authority.

BlestBeDissent's salient manifesto is an unabashed bashing of popes and presidents, gods and governments - a full spectrum of authority figures who assume you should obey them

Yes, blessed be dissent at any time. Not for the sake of it, but for the sake of independent thinking.