Random Thoughts

[Belacqua]

Religion creates people who think they are rebelling against the status quo, when in reality they are not, but they all think that about themselves.

I think this is not just religion. Probably the most widespread value in all of American culture is that each of us believes we are rebelling against the status quo. Atheists think they are. Many Christians think they are. 

Maybe the most insulting thing you can tell an American is "you aren't an independent thinker. You aren't a rebel. You get all your values from your society."

Yet very little of the "rebellion" is real. It's mostly performative. For example, the fashion industry tells us exactly what clothes to wear if we want to tell others that we're free-thinkers and not influenced by the fashion industry. Blue jeans and Chucks. A conformist performance of non-conformity. 

Values and ideology are extremely deep and widespread, and mostly the same for both religious and non-religious. (Nor am I exempt!)

 The real sheep are the ones who have such a deep longing to be with God that this world simply doesn't matter to them.

To me, anyone who genuinely ignores the values of his culture to pursue some other value is a sheep in one way, and a rebel in another. If you are passionate about some goal I guess you could say you are obedient to that goal. But you're not sheep-like to the rest of the culture. 

I admire those eccentrics who can genuinely focus on their own thing, and step outside the web that our society traps us in. We know that such people will be vilified by the normies, but they have their own reward.