Rebellion

Being a rebel for the sake of rebellion has no intrinsic value. Trust me. Rebelling against rules, propriety and manners is not difficult--most one year old's and every two year old can do it! Rebellion itself is not great or glorious. Rules, propriety, manners and culture exist to make us better individually and as a society, and blind rebellion weakens us individually and as a whole.

However, Rebellion for the sake of changing parts of society that are "broken" is of tremendous value. It is also much more difficult. There will always be people who hold the Andy Warhol's and Jack Kerouac's up as examples, simply because they behaved badly--but with flair. That is not true rebellion of change--it is merely bad behavior and public demands for attention.

The symbol of Gandhi's revolution was--a spinning wheel. The Charkha is a small, compact, portable spinning wheel that Gandhi invented. He understood that there was no point in overthrowing a government if your people don't have a way to support themselves. Spinning cotton was an ideal solution--India's tropical climate is ideal for growing cotton, 1 cotton plant provides enough fiber for 3 dishtowels or 1 small t-shirt (as well as seeds to continue growing more supplies!), and the box charkas are cheap to make (there are even plans available for making them from cardboard!) This is truly revolutionary thinking!

Any moron can destroy what others have built. It takes true genius and leadership to inspire every one around you to build up and improve.