Create Rebellion Chapter 2 Review

Chapter 1 Review

Chapter 2 Review
Page 12-18

Like nearly every passage in this book, chapter 2 starts out with a melodramatic bang: “Blitzkrieg the cowardly corporations with your open awareness of their misdeeds.”

A sentence like this is too insane to blow past but I have more questions than anything.

Unnecessary definition of blitzkrieg: “an intense military campaign intended to bring about a swift victory”.

What is a “cowardly corporation”?

What is the difference between “open awareness” and “awareness”? (Aside from a minimum word count.)

What “misdeeds” is he referring to? Corporations, like people, can commit any number of “misdeeds”.

Finally, how does the reader identify the misdeeds of the cowardly corporations? The author doesn’t say.

So why would the reader go about “blitzkrieging” the aforementioned cowardly corporations if we don’t know what they did in the first place? Even if we knew what their misdeeds were, would a BLITZKRIEG be appropriate? Seems aggressive and overly angry. It’s as if the author has a grudge against large companies. There’s no explanation for this seething rage he seems to have against the corporate world. Did Robbie lose a job or two along the way? Was he a misfit in the corporate world? We know he didn’t finish college but he could have been employed in a lower-level capacity, and possibly lost his job, maybe even more than once?

The second sentence actually lends credence to this theory: “You must make them understand that you are no longer a marionette that is subject to the inconsiderate movements of their wretched wrists.”

Robbie is sensitive to being under the direction of authority. He wants to be in charge of himself (uh, who doesn’t?) and feels he is above being in a position of subordination. And he wants the big companies who wronged him to know that he’s a grown-up who doesn’t need them.

He encourages the reader to “become a variable, an unquantifiable figure that can’t be marginalized...”

“Express complete indifference toward instructions that instruct the masses to become slaves to their instructors.”

(Side effects from reading “Create Rebellion” include but are not limited to spinning head syndrome, dizziness upon standing, twitching of the eyes, severely rolling eyeballs, and General Irritation Disorder.)

Robbie informs the reader that your “inner rebellion” will be the “outward insignia” to the “light-seekers” (translation: sycophants) and “dark-dwellers” (translation: haters). He states that you will receive camaraderie and respect from the “light-seekers” while the “dark-dwellers” will “demonize your existence”. Interesting that he mentions being respected in this passage. Robbie wants to be and feels he deserves respect. At this point in his life (5-6 years ago) he had not really accomplished anything. Nevertheless he feels he deserves respect for...what exactly? Self-publishing a deluxe pamphlet? He had just started taking pictures for SRL and got married. What else had he done?

Robbie goes on to say a big bunch of nonsense about leading an insurrection, being disruptive, be an individual, and strike against bureaucracy with “well-calculated mayhem”.

Once again, you’re on your own to figure out the whys and hows.

Robbie writes that it’s important to “exploit the arbitrary restrictions” of “wicked organizations” and use them to “breach the outer walls.” He says the outside might be strong, but the “infrastructure is weak”. This suggests Robbie doesn’t understand big business.

The rest of the chapter, pages 14-16 is dedicated to the instruction of breaking free of any associations with people that don’t share your vision. He says that to breach the outer walls of the wicked corporations you must divest yourself of relationships that drag you down.

I don’t know why it’s important to try to bring down big business in one’s creative journey. Robbie is showing his ass in my opinion. He’s got a personal vendetta against corporations that he’s tried to work into his “book”.

He says that anyone involved in the corporate world (“ignorant individuals”) should be cut loose from your life.

“If another being does not inspire you, motivate you, create with you, elevate you, or simply generate positivity within and around you, you have a responsibility to your journey to cut them loose.”

He insists that you obtain “proper weaponry” by “subterfuge” and “strike with thunderous anarchy”.

He truly thinks he can just write any fucking thing and call it “abstract”. Strike against those who you think aren’t on your team. Why? Why is he so obsessed with retaliation?

Robbie starts to really get steamed about something and suggests throwing “dynamite into caves of doubt” and “hang nooses from the gallows of creative infidelity”.

I can get behind the idea of quashing self-doubt. There have been times when I have doubts about my own creative medium and it can be easy to let doubt replace confidence. But I think it can also be healthy to explore those feelings because it can lead to clarity in the long run. In Robbie’s world, however, there is no room for self-exploration unless it is 100% positive.

I imagine Robbie sitting at his computer writing this with thesaurus.com open. He’s got another tab open with a google search loaded: “alliterative phrases” or “descriptive phrasing”. He’s high on his own strange outlook. He thinks this “book” is going to set the world on fire and he’s going to be recognized as a young visionary.

Where else do phrases like this come from?

“Become an arsonist of adventure” “Become a minister of malcontent”

He recommends that the reader should encourage like-minded people and step over those who “fall to the pressure of marble floors and golden decor”. (Should I assume this doesn’t include borrowed Maseratis?)

The self-proclaimed wordsmith himself, on page 16, states “Remind them that the reward of this journey will be one that does not materialize into a tangible embodiment of wealth”.

UM EXCUSE ME MR. DESERT MONEY TRIPPSWAG WHAT?

That’s a very different narrative that our boy @tripp ascribes to today. This statement is pretty interesting in light of every. damn. thing. that comes out of his mouth now. He is a walking carnival barker for Louis Vuitton.

Further along in the chapter he warns that you may come up against opposition in the form of “the regal bells of skyscrapers ding-donging in vicious reprimand of your beautiful quest”. He stresses that you must “Internalize the contempt of the suit-and-tie clusters that look upon your pursuit with confused callousness” and use “their salty tears and sanctimonious screams as gasoline to fuel your journey”.

I MEAN SERIOUSLY WTF

SKYSCRAPERS DON’T DING-DONG, ROBBIE, not even metaphorically.

Further, who in the business world upset Robbie so much? Because it’s starting to seem like this book was written to clap back at someone somewhere who offended him. He is the definition of Special Snowflake. Is his mom still cutting up his food for him? Or is that Sarah’s job now?

He encourages the reader to burn down “forests of conformity” and “let the heat eradicate the smell of oppression”. It is clear: Robbie has been burned.

“Propagate the death of the propaganda that has been forced down the esophagi of the uninspired” then “bathe in the righteousness of your quest”.

Your guess is as good as mine.

Chapter two comes to a close with the author reminding the reader to celebrate your accomplishments (getting revenge on your haters) but to stay focused on what’s ahead.

“The past holds much warmth” (from all the anarchy, mayhem and blitzkrieg), “The present holds much beauty” (from successfully bringing down those evil corporations somehow, I guess, good job!) and “the future holds much wonder” (I guess it could be a wonder what’s left after everything that’s been decimated in the past).

“The successful amalgamation (thanks thesaurus.com) of these three truths is the key to a happy life. Embracing each one while honoring their distinct importance is an ongoing exercise in emotion that you will practice throughout your voyage.”

Warmth, beauty and wonder. I would argue that the past present and future all have these qualities. Thus I render his theory invalid. I win.