SOCIETY: The Quiet Revolution

David Musick (David_Musick@msn.com)
Wed, 25 Dec 96 00:29:39 UT


Chris Hind was saying how we need media hype to get our ideas out and to get
people motivated to do things and that new ideas must be accompanied by a
leader, as a symbol for the 'masses'. E. Shaun Russell expressed his distaste
for the way certain people here want to spread Extropianism like a cult, and
he disagrees with Chris Hind that good ideas need a leader to represent them
or that we need a lot of media hype to spread our ideas.

I agree with Shaun. I didn't get turned on to most of the ideas that
fascinate me so much as the result of media hype or some leader. I was just a
curious mind, and I explored the world of ideas because it was fascinating to
me. This is what I want to encourage: people quietly exploring the ideas
which interest them. No fanfare. No media hype. No leaders. Just people
pursuing their own interests.

I have nothing against highly respected people (a.k.a. "leaders); in fact, I
wish to become one myself. But I believe that people's most influential
leaders should be themselves; that people should look to themselves to decide
what to do with their lives rather than doing what others say they "should"
do.

The revolution that is occuring right now on this planet in freedom and
independence of thought and the general "waking up" of humanity is a very
quiet revolution. It's a revolution that takes place within individual
humans, as individuals start realizing that they can take control of their own
lives and become the people they want to be. It's not something that receives
a lot of media hype, because each time the revolution happens, it only
involves a single person. People just start waking up and getting their lives
figured out; they start realizing what they want and how to make it. It's
nothing that is decided by the government leaders, and they actually have very
little influence over the revolution, since they don't have fine-grained
control over every individual's mind. The revolution is not an organization;
it has no leaders.

Those who do free themselves to run their minds and lives how they want
certainly have influence on other people; especially people they are close to.
People see them and see their freedom; they see someone who is not a sheep,
who doesn't respond to things the same way that the flock does. Some people
are scared to leave the flock and become independent, but many people see the
example of those who do free themselves, and they desire freedom also. So
they start figuring out how to do it, mostly on their own, learning how to
take responsibility for their own lives, their own decisions, their own
thinking.

The single most important thing we can do to advance the quiet revolution is
to continue making ourselves more free and powerful. "Spreading the word" is
not nearly as important as living it. Freedom is not something that can be
pushed on people or hyped up very much. People will come to freedom when they
are ready to take charge of their own lives. Freedom is much more difficult a
lifestyle than the alternative; if it wasn't so tremendously rewarding, there
would be no reason to seek it out.

- David Musick

-- You cannot be given freedom; you must *take* it. --