#DailyWritingChallenge Day 49 Rebellion

Everyone loves a rebel. Where would society be without those people who are willing to stick their neck out and take a risk in order to challenge the status quo? Sometimes the way things are needs to be pulled, pushed and prodded in order to make things improve. Those rebels who are trailblazers, who go off the beaten track but beckon for others to follow are vital to develop society, technology, philosophy.

At times, rebellion seems futile and society pushes back hard against those who are pushing against the way things are. But looking back over history, all the inventors, scientists, philosophers or faith leaders who have given us the big ideas have been rebels. Da Vinci, Newton, Curie, Darwin, Babbage, Einstein, Turing... all had to go against society and common beliefs to carry out their work for the development of knowledge and society. True rebels leave a changed society behind them, a new world with new ideas and new opening for future rebels to take advantage of. I wonder sometimes whether we've created a world where social rebellion is more accepted and so rebels are not as obvious. Rather than a society where big social changes take years, our society is in flux constantly, often driven by Social Media. Rebellion happens on a small scale with little pockets of resistance against the driven of western capitalism and big business.

Often rebellions happen best on this scale, when there is an undertone of change. However, with the current political environments, particularly in the USA and the UK where the current administration are focussed on economy and business and less so on supporting wider society, I wonder whether social rebellion needs to be more organised. I am not suggesting pitch forks and torches at midnight but a rebuilding of the society that we have lost. Movements like the Clap for Carers each Thursday and the way that local groups have drawn together to ensure that vulnerable, often elderly neighbours are cared for, food parcels delivered, medicines picked up from pharmacies etc have developed from the current crisis. This is 'Great Britain' at its best. This is what the rose-tinted views of wartime Britain are based on, a nation as one community. We had lost that over the years since VE Day, becoming more splintered. It has taken the current crisis for me to learn the names of our neighbours having lived in our current house for two years. It has take then current crisis for me to speak to my friends on a daily basis, with weekly zoom calls we have interacted more these past few weeks than we have since High School. It has taken a crisis for us to draw nearer together, to value the small things like hugs and handshakes, a coffee with a friend, the closeness of family. All the things that we take for granted in normal times have become heightened and their loss has shown us their worth. If you asked the general public what they are most looking forward to when this crisis is finally over, I'm guessing some people would say a pint in their local but the vast majority would say a hug from their mum, or to be able to see their children or grandchildren. A return to Church, Mosque, Temple, a chance to go back to the gym or baby groups. What we are missing is people. Our people, but also people in general.

We stand at a unique moment, something that hasn't occurred since wartime. A chance to press reset on our society and start afresh with a new purpose: caring for one another. Those people who in the past would have been rebels by themselves can now for an alliance, to ensure that this moment of change isn't missed, that we press for a new world which can ensure that no one is left behind. A time for change.