Sunday, April 10, 2005

It pays to be weird, deviant and different

I have been reading Frankfurt School. A known school in Sociology which is an advocate of Marxian Ideology. They are classified as Neo-Marxist but there is something about them that differentiate them from other Neo Marxist Ideologies.. and that is, THEY ALREADY LOST HOPE IN THE PROLETARIATS! They lost hope because they believe that the proletariats today, unlike in marx's times are already cooped by the capitalist system. what then is their hope in order to change the world and get rid of the capitalist system? It's a simple and "cute" answer. Their hope are the GREAT REFUSALs. Those who refused to buy the mainstream culture. Those who disregard what the culture is peddling them. The so-called deviant and weird people who chose not to conform. The unaware revolutionaries. Still thinking of what I read, I realized that there is somewhat truth in what the Frankfurt school suggests. Those who choose to conform to culture remain passive. They have the same thinking and determined minds because they are conditioned to think that way. They lost their ability to think critically and negative about society therefore, it made them robots of the capitalist system. On the other hand, those who refuse to exercise great refusal to what the culture is giving them is really out of the system. They are the ones who created brilliant ideas and they are the ones who invent new things. They can be considered revolutionary even if their consciousness is not because they are countering the culture. Their minds don't have limits because no social control is preventing them from violating the norms. They are free from the falseness, pacifying, repressiveness and stupefying effect of the mass culture on the society. By this thoughts, it is positive to say that IT PAYS TO BE WEIRD: DEVIANT AND DIFFERENT. Inspired by Sir Ogot's Lecture that Dona and I entitled: "It pays to be weird.. Deviant and Different"