Dissenting individuals: my life on the margins

Dissent goes back as far as civilisation, and will persist in the future. I t is necessary for the protection of social systems from corruption, but it s relations with the establishment is inevitably based on conflict. Dissent ers can destroy and can be destroyed in the pursuit of their goal of uncomf ortable truth. Through a personal narrative, the author describes how he es caped this fate (so far) by being self-aware and detached, on the margin bo th of regular establishments and of dissenting establishments as well. Up t o now dissent has flourished, by having clear targets in dogma and corrupti on; but in the bland Disneyfied world of consumerism and spectacle, real di ssent will need to focus directly on fundamentals-a genuinely unpopular und ertaking. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.