On dissidence and creativity

Many are the quotes on dissidence…and creativity

“Every act of creation is first an act of destruction” – Picasso

“Never forget that only dead fish swim with the stream” Malcolm Muggeridge

“Kites fly highest against the wind” Winston Churchill

Some educators, by wearing the “edupunk” label and embracing the DIY cause, remind me of Camus:

“Every act of rebellion expresses a nostalgia for innocence and an appeal to the essence of being.”

However, this quote by Vaclav Havel is the one which for me illustrates best how I have felt this tension.

“You do not become a “dissident” just because you decide one day to take up this most unusual career. You are thrown into it by your personal sense of responsibility, combined with a complex set of external circumstances. You are cast out of the existing structures and placed in a position of conflict with them. It begins as an attempt to do your work well, and ends with being branded an enemy of society.”