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Show Second Thought S Death of Rebellion Cult 5 By Ferrel Christensen There is a pernicious plot afoot in America. Many well-meaning idealists have allowed themselves to become a part of it. But before the reader can realize the magnitude of the conspiracy, I will have to lay bare the whole issue. Basic to the nature of all human beings is the need to rebel against authority. But the up-thrusting drive toward freedom free-dom is quickly crushed in most mon-first mon-first by parents, themselves prostrate under the weight of centuries of repression, repres-sion, and later by society, with its strangling norms of "acceptable behavior." be-havior." And then there is the ultimate expression of man's attempts to enslave himself The Law. Nevertheless, there are an elect few who maintain a fierce independence in the face of all these things. Rules, guides, advice are in any form an assault as-sault on our autonomy. But the supreme irony of all attempts of coercion in this: It is The Law that gives the truly unfettered un-fettered soul his greatest opportunity of self-assertion. To him, The Law exists to be broken to be shattered, and triumphed over. He hurls defiance at the Establishment, and spits in the face of Authority. In its finest expression rebellion is a religion. It has its own symbols and sacraments by which one can proclaim his liberation the use of marijuana and LSD, for example. Many Envious Unfortunately, there are multitudes who envy our emancipation, and use the symbols in vain in the attempt to imitate. Consider what is happening to pornography; e.g., Hugh Hefner's insidious in-sidious attempt to make it "sophisticated," "sophisti-cated," and hence acceptable to liberals and intellectuals. Those who liked obscenity ob-scenity when it was just p'ain dirty have turned away in disgust. What good is forbidden fruit when it's no longer forbidden? They have nothing in common com-mon with the new breed of psuedo-sophisticates psuedo-sophisticates who read the stuff as as a symbol of liberal acceptability Freedom Free-dom is the last thing status-seekers want. Worse yet are the hypocrites who profess pro-fess to rebel while merely seeking a new source of security-who trade one set of conditioned responses for another and call themselves uninhibited Thev can best be summed up in the person of a fnend whom I met a few weeks ago When I found him in the Huddle, he was curled up in the fetal position sucking a cigaret, his long hair matted against an unwashed face. In the course of our brief conversation he unburdened him-self him-self on me. "I can no longer believe in the things I was taught to believe in " he sighed. "Like Santa Claus and the devil and the International Communist Conspiracy." As I got up to go, he clutched my arm. "Religion is a crutch," he told me, gesturing with his cigaret. fetus "It's an opiate." And he took anoW- fe?ers swig of Huddle coffee. Pathetic Figure What a pathetic figure-a slave to J . own freedom symbols! Worse than irThe he was pitifully unaware that theobjs that pass for symbols of rebellion in i sheltered valley are fundamentally f:ollfiiB adequate. ttfc This brings me abruptly back to J plot I spoke of earlier. With paternal concern, certain zealots are launcOT campaign to repeal the laws agains i use of marijuana. Their professed P "V pose is to come to the rescue of us RJ leagured "users." Nothing could w vj reveal their total misapprehension o situation. As I have tried to make i it is marijuana's illegal status th at LR5; it its attraction and its rrte,hall- hj power. Remove that, and you 'iu nothing left but a stupid weed, nff i' worse, it could become a fad ,;;. symbol of conformity for the. u o,,; The unfettered few (not more t few million of us, splendidly A St:D from the rest of humanity) 1 worshipped at its shrine will find 1 faned in the insensitive hands o masses. We will be forced to turn where in search of means to expre- independence to heroin, PcrhapS' Russian Roulette. .i What are you trying to do - P s, us? |