This also leads me to believe this is why we have teenage rebellion.
Teenage rebellion is when adolescent humans decide to invent an independent identity for themselves and make decisions without help from their parents.
It is also defined as when teens supersede the “norm;” class, race, or culture.
Why do we put a negative interpretation on the term itself when the definition isn’t negative?
Oursminds tend to focus specially on the word “rebellion.”
Why?
Because rebellion is a negative word.
When I think of rebellion, I automatically think of things or activities that aren’t really good, and we don’t accept them in society. For instance, drugs, alcohol, sex, and getting tattoos are some of these taboos in our society.
The way I see it, these things aren’t all bad, it’s how we use them in our society that makes it bad.
For example, getting tattoos is a way to express yourself. Your body is a canvas, so why not do something with it? That doesn’t mean go overkill in getting them though…
If something means a lot to you and you want to put in on your body, I see no issue with that.
Whether it be a favorite quote or a name of a loved one, it shouldn’t be so frowned upon in our society.
Once again, I believe the reason it is frowned upon is because we go overkill in our society to get them. We don’t make logical decisions when getting them and that often leads to regret.
The same thing could be said about alcohol, sex, and drugs.
It’s alright to drink alcohol in moderation. Just don’t do it everyday or get drunk.
As for drugs, not all of them are bad. This is another one of those words we tend to put a negative interpretation on because of how we use them.
Over the counter drugs are safe. Any drugs used for medical purposes are safe.
It’s the addictive chemicals found in non-medical drugs that are the problem. (Heroin, opioids, marijuana, etc.)
I notice how the United States struggles with all of these “taboos” more than other countries.
Is it because of teenage rebellion or a matter of we look upon it as a taboo that everyone wants to do it?
It’s like a red button. You tell someone not to push the red button, they are going to want to press the red button.
Looking at other countries, I notice that European countries don’t struggle with these issues as much as the United States.
Take alcohol for instance… Many of these countries have their legal drinking age at the age of 16, yet you don’t see alcohol being a pressing issue, unlike in our country.
Teenage rebellion still exists in European countries, so it is evident to me that teenage rebellion is not the root to our problems.
The root of our problems is simply all the negative opinions we have towards these things.
Maybe if we were to stop frowning upon all these things in society, there would be a positive change in the amount of people who get tattoos, have sex, or use alcohol and drugs.
Let’s not use rebellion as our excuse for these “taboos” in our society.
We must remember that rebellion isn’t all bad. There can be good things to come out of rebellion as well.
We don’t need to rewire our society in order to make positive change.
We simply need to have less negative opinion toward rebellion.
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