Rebel! Far too much value is placed on peace, stability, and compliance when the surest path to greatness can only be found through rebellion. For rebellion underlies the most directed forces of nature and the most powerful forces for change. Rebel to capture a fraction of the potency and energy that rebellion can set free!

Rebel! The natural world thrives on rebellion. Electrons must rebel against the nuclear forces that hold them back in order to release themselves and the energies of fission and fusion. Snakes must rebel against the very skin that envelops them in order to shed those constrictive prisons and grow. Rebel to break free like the forces of the cosmos!

Rebel! Remember that nations must experience rebellions before they are transformed to the higher states of freedom, democracy, and union. Of course, there are the obvious revolutions - American, French, Russian. Yet, too, there are the internal rebellions that allow the character of a people to rise to a higher moral state - rebellions ignited by Jesus, by Lincoln, by Ghandi, by Dr. King. Rebel to rise from the prisons of the static status quo to levels never before imagined!

Rebel! Each new concept has been a rebellion against an older one. Heliocentrism was a rebellion against geocentrism. Renaissance humanism was a rebellion against medieval stagnation. Laissez-faire economics was a rebellion against constrictive mercantilism. Rebelling against the accepted norm is necessary to enter new universes of discovery!

You may say: “These are grand examples of rebellions - rebellions that have changed the world or followed nature’s greatest laws. How can I rebel - I, in my limited, humble existence? I will be hated; I will get in trouble; I will be shunned. I will not - fill in the blank - get good grades, get into college, get a recommendation, be popular ...” and on and on and on. “After all,” you may say, “is it not better to take the traditional path, do what is expected, reap the rewards of being a cooperative soul, a team player, the person everyone gets along with?”

The answer is, unequivocally ... no!

Authorities do not like rebels. They try to put them down. They use verbal weapons: “You’re so young and inexperienced ... you don’t understand how the world works ... you’re being unrealistic.” These words are deadly to rebels. They stir up fear; they deflate; they undermine; they make you question your motives and your beliefs; they attack your soul!

Rebel! Follow the rules of engagement and respect, but continue to rebel!

Your ideas are vital, even when they question the status quo and the rules that have existed for ages unchanged. When your beliefs and principles well up inside you until you feel about to burst, break free. Rebel! What others think about you is not as important as what you think of yourself. Rebel! You will change a world ... if only your own.