“Disobedience, in the eyes of any one who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.”

— Oscar Wilde

1. Authorities make mistakes:

Beware whenever someone says this is the final truth and this is how you should act. Question authority. Nothing is out of bounds. Some things may seem like they are. But in reality, they’re only waiting to be questioned, criticized, corrected. When you realize authorities make mistakes, you never look at the world the same again.

2. To right the wrongs:

So many tyrannical rulers got their way because no one questioned their ways. No one challenged their ideas. But errors can be corrected. It may seem impossible but all evil is due to a lack of knowledge.

3. You don’t owe anyone anything:

What people did “for you” is actually what they did for themselves. All the time, effort, and money someone may have spent on you was in the hope that all of it would lead you to a life favorable to them.

4. No one discovers anything by being obedient:

Logic tells that discovery requires disobedience of contemporary ideas. It requires exploration and criticism. You won’t discover anything new in the world reading old textbooks.

5. Conformity is (objectively) bad for the world:

We are told sacrifice is good for the world and that selfishness destroys it. The people who question it know that its false. It is the other way around. Whoever said “happiness is sacrificing for other people’s happiness” never brought that thesis to its logical conclusion, that is: if everyone sacrifices their happiness for everyone else, everyone is unhappy and the world is worse off.

6. Obedience kills:

Obedience is stasis. Stasis is death. Keeping things the same, stability, slowing down progress, these are all terrible things. Death is not something we should strive for. Obedience causes a person to no longer remain themselves, a separate individual, a free thinker and instead forces the soldier to adopt a common temperament that isn’t true to them.

7. It’s the only way to make progress:

Progress comes from the growth of knowledge and of wealth. Disobedience is the source of both of those things. Creativity enables the capacity of humans to understand and explain the world. Creativity is inhibited in an unfree place. Where there’s a need for obedience, creativity and hence the growth of knowledge is hampered. Wealth is created at a slower rate. Things are more controlled. But there’s only an illusion of control. A slow rate of progress eventually leads to the demise of a society.

8. Disobedience is a test of being human:

Obedience for the sake of obeying is the mark of a person who has ceased to think. Dumb computers don’t disobey their programmers and their programming since they cannot do that. People can. Disobedience is a test of being a person. When someone obeys every rule for the sake of obeying a rule, never questions, makes sacrifices that don’t seem like sacrifices because the only thing the person cares about is obedience—it’s hard to distinguish that person from a robot that can’t think.

9. To live instead of sacrifice your life:

Why sacrifice your life when you can live it? Sacrificing leaves the world worse off than following your own interests. The irony is in the purpose of one’s unselfishness. Who’s getting happier? Who are we all sacrificing for? It would inevitably be a selfish person who is benefitting from your sacrifice—an immoral person by your standards. You don’t have to stay in this trap. You don’t owe anyone anything. Remember: people have a mind of their own. Society doesn’t.

10. To be free:

You get one life. You can waste it living someone else’s or you can disobey. Disobey so you can be free. The goal of freedom is completely realistic. If someone fails to achieve it, it is the means that has an issue not the objective. Anyone who says the goal of freedom is unrealistic, unsurprisingly, isn’t free and is making an excuse to cover for their failed attempt at freedom, if there was any attempt. Many don’t even try because “the elders already tried and well, they couldn’t do it so how can I?” The unfree choose between the few options that make them least miserable. The free choose between the several alternatives that make them most happy while creating alternatives that weren’t possible before. That’s important. The free generate choices. They don’t settle for least miserable. That’s not being happy and that’s not being free.

The weekly roundup

1. Book I’m rereading

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

― Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

2. Podcast I’m listening to

Lulie Tanett talks to David Deutsch about Effective Altruism, existential risk, and more!

#0 - Effective Altruism, X-risk, (e/acc) Reason Is Fun 1:40:03

3. To Mars

What a time to be alive.

4. This is a quote on learning

“One who makes no mistakes makes nothing at all.”

― Giacomo Casanova

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