I know anarchists who feel themselves naturally inclined towards a life of disobedience and perhaps even revolt. I have many friends who recount a life extending far back into childhood of questioning or even despising authority, a seamless transition from heated words and rocks thrown at overbearing fathers, abusive social workers and authoritarian school principals to those same projectiles directed at police, politicians, and white supremacists in their adult lives. But I know just as many for whom the cop inside the head was quite strong until they were convinced to try and kill it, who preferred to run and hide from schoolyard bullies rather than stand and fight, who felt no natural inclination towards rebellion before they stumbled upon it, either by persuasion or demonstration. I know people who faced terrible circumstances and endured them quietly, and people who lived privileged and comfortable lives and still couldn’t stomach obedience. This difference may be a matter of character and luck as well as circumstance, and I therefore refuse to elevate the “naturally” rebellious over those who need to claw their way out of obedience through perseverance and self-work. In fact, having known a fair number of both kinds of people, I have no preference as to which constitute my own close comrades the self-workers often tend towards self-righteousness and rigidity, but the rebels can be unkind, selfish assholes. What matters to me is that we are here now, and that we remain open to others who might one day join us in struggle.
From https://raddle.me/f/Zines_and_Publications/42240/entanglement-on-anarchism-and-individualism
zzuum wrote
Nope. I was a quiet child who just went along. I'm maybe 5 years in.