I liked this post.

I needed a few solid years of good strong individualist pep-talks before I was at all ready to be an adult.

"Non serviam,"

"I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine,"

"Listen to the fools reproach! It is a kingly title!"

"I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do."

"Truth forever on the scaffold/ Wrong forever on the throne,"

and so on. (This song is in the same vein. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZnV6hKhFDs)

There's a cluster of writers (generally science fiction, libertarian, and atheist, with a little Tom Paine and Blake and Joyce in the mix) who were really good at inspiring me to be less automatically servile, more willing to stand for things on my own, less excessively guilty. I actually knew some people who were like that in real life, and would say things to the effect that they'd rather die on their feet than live on their knees. Wonderful folks.

As time goes by, I find that the more I internalize personal independence, the less overt it becomes, and the less I seek out writing that has a propagandistic tone -- I find I need it less and less. This might be why the post has a lukewarm reception around here -- it's the sort of writing that's for inspiring people not to be lapdogs. People who have not been lapdogs for a long time sometimes forget how important this kind of language can be. And people who are still between "denunciation and confession" like b1shop find it hard to imagine that there will be a time when they'll completely take personal independence for granted.