The Prisoner As An Individual

    "He simply resigns as a matter of choice. He shouldn't have to answer to anyone. It's entirely his prerogative, his God-given right as an individual, to proceed in any way he sees fit. That's the whole point of it all."

    Well I'm not so sure about the "God-given right" bit, prerogative may be. And as for not having to answer to anyone, I think Janet Portland would have something to say about that, as well as her father Sir Charles, who would at the very least want to know how his future son in-law is going to support his daughter. Oh yes, and ask why he resigned!

    And what if we all took up that  so called "God-given right" to proceed as an individual in any way we see fit. Where would society stand then? An individual may choose to go the way he or she sees fit, but not en mass. That path would lie the way to anarchy, revolution, or simply the breakdown of society as we know it.

   I was, in the past, aware of certain individuals who used to write of being a rebel, and of rebellion against society. But when the whiff of revolution began to fill the very air we breathed, those authors of such written words of rebellion, and the desire to be a rebel, simply vanish like some "will-o-the-wisps!"

   The bottom line is, that for the vast majority of people cannot simply do as they should like. They have responsibilities, either in work, or in the family. And those who write of rebellion, of being a rebel, more often than not have no cause to rebel against. Or when push comes to shove, they do not wish to lose their comfortable lives in some revolution which they want nothing to do with.

  It is a sad thing to be a "Rebel without a cause." Its even sadder to be a "rebel only on paper!"

I'll be seeing you at the barricades!