I'm sure I've said it many times over, but shows like The Prisoner really resonate with me. Not the remake, of course, because it was garbage. The actual one. At its core, it was a single man against the system. Maintaining his individuality in the face of conforming to a homogeneous society. But more fundamental than a social struggle. It was the single man resisting the power that was both corrupt and absolute. Even though everybody else complied and tried to break him down, he still held to what he knew to be right and wrong.
And that stuck with me.
At the end of our conversation, whatever it had been about, my dad turned to me. "It's not something people like to acknowledge. The only rights you have are the ones you are willing to fight for." He pulled the truck to a stop and killed the engine. "You are a free man," he said. "Whether or not you realize it. Whether or not you choose to realize it." And with that, we went inside the house and went our separate ways.
I try, or at least go to great lengths, to abstain from political discourse in a public forum. It is a virtual absolute that, despite their emphatic assertions otherwise, people are just as closed-minded as the worst. We have opinions and we hold them so closely that any efforts to change our minds only serves to cement those beliefs. This is especially true with politics. Unconsciously, friends think differently of each other when they discover their political leanings. It's terrible, sure, but what can you do.
Except avoid it all together.
But there are certain things that have been happening recently, political in nature, that have drawn me increasingly further out of my neutral position. Notably, the advent of things like the local police department's "no refusal" policy, mandatory DUI/DWI checkpoints, and forced blood draws. I mean, sure, I hate drunk drivers as much as the next person but not to the extent that I'm going to consent to any of that shit. The police chief was quoted as saying, "My intent in the future is to make it so there is no such thing as a refusal." The people I've talked to don't seem to be concerned, though. I must be overreacting, I guess, because I don't have a problem with any of it.
They may have the power to make rules, but they don't have the authority to make me follow them--especially when they're wrong. It's not just some bullshit fantasy of heroic rebellion or some prepubescent pseudo-anarchist shit, it's a response to a fundamental violation of what I believe to be just. And the alarmed response to the people who are so uninterested. I'm not sure why people think we live in this "college bubble" where the real world doesn't touch us. That's the compliance I can't stand. That's the attitude that makes it illegal for us to refuse being subjected to a blood test at a police checkpoint.
That's the attitude that allows worse things to happen.
And that stuck with me.
At the end of our conversation, whatever it had been about, my dad turned to me. "It's not something people like to acknowledge. The only rights you have are the ones you are willing to fight for." He pulled the truck to a stop and killed the engine. "You are a free man," he said. "Whether or not you realize it. Whether or not you choose to realize it." And with that, we went inside the house and went our separate ways.
I try, or at least go to great lengths, to abstain from political discourse in a public forum. It is a virtual absolute that, despite their emphatic assertions otherwise, people are just as closed-minded as the worst. We have opinions and we hold them so closely that any efforts to change our minds only serves to cement those beliefs. This is especially true with politics. Unconsciously, friends think differently of each other when they discover their political leanings. It's terrible, sure, but what can you do.
Except avoid it all together.
But there are certain things that have been happening recently, political in nature, that have drawn me increasingly further out of my neutral position. Notably, the advent of things like the local police department's "no refusal" policy, mandatory DUI/DWI checkpoints, and forced blood draws. I mean, sure, I hate drunk drivers as much as the next person but not to the extent that I'm going to consent to any of that shit. The police chief was quoted as saying, "My intent in the future is to make it so there is no such thing as a refusal." The people I've talked to don't seem to be concerned, though. I must be overreacting, I guess, because I don't have a problem with any of it.
They may have the power to make rules, but they don't have the authority to make me follow them--especially when they're wrong. It's not just some bullshit fantasy of heroic rebellion or some prepubescent pseudo-anarchist shit, it's a response to a fundamental violation of what I believe to be just. And the alarmed response to the people who are so uninterested. I'm not sure why people think we live in this "college bubble" where the real world doesn't touch us. That's the compliance I can't stand. That's the attitude that makes it illegal for us to refuse being subjected to a blood test at a police checkpoint.
That's the attitude that allows worse things to happen.
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