Quote 1

Grant Wood – American Gothic. 1930. Wikimedia Commons

“If, when he first begins tentatively to say “No,” his parents beat him down rather than love and encourage him, he thereafter will say “No” not as a form of true independent strength but as a mere rebellion.”

Rollo May, Man’s Search for Himself

This initial quotation expresses something of considerable importance in relation to the early development of a rebellious attitude. Quashing a child’s individuality and their embryonic attempts to form their own unique identity can result in a lifetime for that child of rebellious acts and decisions.

These can take the form of, for example, choice of a job, partner, clothes, or political views. It is sad to witness someone making choices that appear to be unconsciously based on rebellion against parental strictures and rigidities, rather than, as Rollo May, says, ‘as a form of true independent strength.’

Quote 2

Jean-François de Troy – An Allegory of Time Unveiling Truth – WGA23082.jpg. Wikimedia Commons

“Every act of rebellion expresses a nostalgia for innocence and an appeal to the essence of being.”

 Albert Camus, The Rebel

I would see these words as referring, not necessarily to the innocence of childhood, but to the importance of maintaining a desire for the truth, for justice and for clarity. Camus regards rebellion as a way of seeking these qualities, a way of achieving a world where there is a lack of dishonesty, meaninglessness, and corruption. It is about seeking a better world, a more genuine and authentic world, one that captures something of the ‘essence of being.’

Quote 3

Rosa Parks defying race segregation rules on a bus, Alabama, 1956.

Police mugshot of Rosa Parks taken in Montgomery, Alabama on 21 February 1956

“Every human being must have a point at which he stands against the culture, where he says, this is me and the damned world can go to hell”.

Rollo May

This photographs of Rosa Parks defiantly sitting in the ‘white’ section of a racially segregated bus and then looking at a police camera, perfectly illustrates the quotation above it.  It is well known that this is the courageous woman who rebelled against the racist rule that black and white people had to be seated apart on a bus. She refused to give up her seat and was subsequently arrested.

Her action led to ‘The Montgomery Bus Boycott.’ It was mainly African Americans who used the buses, and for 381 days, they did not use them, which dramatically affected the bus company’s revenue. 

People walked miles to work, carpooled, or took locally organised community taxis. As a result, a subsequent court case led to the abolishment of racial segregation on buses, thanks to the resolute and indefatigable Rosa Parks and her spirit of justified rebellion.

“The rebel is committed to giving a form and pattern to the world. It is a pattern born of the indomitable thrust of the human mind”

Rollo May

Quote 4

Boy Bitten by a Lizard-Caravaggio (1571-1610) Wikimedia Commons

“…it’s just another one of those things I don’t understand: everyone impresses upon you how unique you are, encouraging you to cultivate your individuality while at the same time trying to squish you and everyone else into the same ridiculous mould. It’s an artist’s right to rebel against the world’s stupidity.”

E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly

Art can be a powerful and effective way of rebelling against established mores and societal or cultural rules.

The artist Caravaggio rebelled against the stylised, idealistic art of his time by painting raw and gritty works that often reflected street life and everyday, sometimes violent, realities.

Art can also graphically highlight injustices and inequities…

Photo: Mike Peel, Ai Weiwei’s Sunflower Seeds, 2010, Tate Modern, CC-BY-SA 4.0.

“Art is a very important weapon to achieve human freedom.”

Ai Weiwei

The Chinese artist Ai Weiwei repeatedly criticises the Chinese authorities, highlighting issues of censorship, authoritarian attitudes and human rights. He expresses this kind of rebellion through his artistic works, to great acclaim throughout the world.

Ai Weiwei created a stunning installation at the Tate Modern made entirely of artisan hand crafted porcelain sunflower seeds – about 100 million of them.

Made by Chinese craftsmen, the seeds represented society, people, the individual and the mass. Each tiny fragment, each human being amongst the enormous multitude is unique, even though they might all look alike at first glance. The seeds symbolised the Chinese people, and are a critique of contemporary mass-production, especially relevant to China.

During the Mao-Zedong era, the Chinese people were likened to sunflowers with their heads turned towards their leader in propaganda posters, and this work references these images and ideas.

This courageous artist’s works generally express the wish for freedom of expression and the end of the oppression he has perceived in China, at much personal risk.

“Artists are generally soft-spoken persons who are concerned with their inner visions and images. But that is precisely what makes them feared by any coercive society. For they are the bearers of the human being’s age-old capacity to be insurgent”.

Rollo May

Marcel Duchamp also challenged current attitudes to art by using readymade objects and presenting them in an artistic way, confronting the establishment and its elitism. 

Matt Brown. Duchamp’s Urinal. Taken 2018. Flickr.

Quote 5

 Girl with Pigtails. Jawlensky. Wikimedia Commons

“The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it is conformity”.

Rollo May

This quotation expresses a profound and meaningful truth. Rollo May’s existentialist approach encouraged people to stand up for themselves, avoiding fitting in for the sake of conformity, refusing to passively accept other people’s dictates.

May urged us to question, to develop our own views and identity, and not to succumb to societal pressures urging us to be like other people. This does not mean that we need behave with reckless or careless rebellion, but with a thoughtful and reflective attitude, in order to work towards becoming authentic and true to ourselves.

May sees excessive conformity as cowardly, in that we are submitting to the rules of other people and denying our own agency and power. We give this power away when we feel dependent on their constant affirmation and assent. 

“Care about people’s approval and you will always be their prisoner.”