The Non-Conformist bible is not my doing!

a few of my friends clicked on the next entry (a link to a great blog) and thought that it was my writing.

i did not write nor do i even know the writer of the non-conformist bible.
i dig his ideas and thought that if you liked mine you'd like his.
i did however write the following comment in regards to one of his earlier postings "I have the greatest admiration and respect for...."

i have been reading your blog for the past week or so and find your postings extremely inspiring. I consider myself a non-conformist however after reading this particular posting several times it caused me to rethink some of the ideas stated. please forgive me for i am not a person of scholarly thought, but one of artistic contemplation. i am not, nor do i attempt to be a master of words i only amuse myself with intracate thought.

to begin with, i believe a true non-conformist does not simply free themselves from culture. instead, i would like to believe that we must recreate our culture.

american heritage dictionary defines culture as: The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought.
developing a strong culture is a positive thing. in the past, cultural traights have been determined by society as a whole and was merely a catagorization of common traights which defined how we lived and what we believed. it is true that most of these traights were defineded by those within proximity of each other and those which had been given religious and political power, but those who had power's influence were complemented by those who had no power except to influence thought: Artists and Scholars.

over time we who are considered non-conformists have discovered that religious and political leaders tend to fulfill their own agendas. rarely are they truly concerned for the common good. we can now see a larger picture. we realize that our ancestors and those around us have made huge mistakes the largest being that they are no longer developing a culture. many are blindly following popular thought as opposed to creating popular thought.

we live in a time where journalism, education and art are marketed instead of discovered and created. currently most of us no longer create our own culture instead we buy into one that has been created for us. we now live in a place and time where we can be and are influenced by resources from every direction. as a non-conformist i realize that defining who i am must come from critically examining all these resources and searching for others that are not as easily available to me. as a non conformist i create and discover my own truth and am defined by my own unique culture.

all to often i am bothered by those that deam themselves "non-conformists" simply because they have conformed to a sub-culture that is not mainstream. while i tend to share a lot of opions and ideologies with such people i still morn for their inabilities to discover themselves.
for this reason i have no distaste for these people or others culturally bound. how can i feel contempt or discust? if anything i should feel ashamed that we as artist have not been able to open their minds to a new way of thinking. that we the artist have not made a stronger impact on society as a whole. i feel that perhaps we've spent to much time lost in own cultural dilemmas and would rather criticize society than take on the responsibility of changing it. after all isn't it our job to make them look at, not only the world, but themselves and society in a different way.

the only reality is the one you create.

a dream becomes a goal only after you work towards it.