As the quote from Andrew Breitbart states, “Politics is downstream from culture.” We are in the business of collectively creating a new culture—one that is people-centric, pro-humanity, and pro-freedom. As a movement creating a prosperous culture, we know we are upstream of politics, and how we conduct ourselves in these meetings will eventually inform politics. Yes, we believe that we are that significant as a group—it doesn’t take many people to co-create a new, attractive, exciting, and motivating vision for others.
Is Rebel Heart a Political Organization?
I have been considering whether Rebel Heart is a political organization. After delving deep, I genuinely think we are a culture club—potentially responding to a political shift towards authoritarianism due to globalism and its desire to homogenize culture into a compliant hive mind. After all, if there is an authoritarian push, all other hierarchies need to be removed. Marxism, for example, seeks to remove family, God, and other components to make the citizen reliant on a single source of power—the government or, in a modern sense, the technocrats.
Independent Businesses as a Source of Leadership
Independent businesses are also a source of leadership, hierarchy, and potential liberation from this hegemony. People tend to protect systems that give them status, which is a reason to deconstruct families and communities. Small business ownership gives people status in their own personal system—they earn money with autonomy. The expansion of federal and state workers, who are given titles and higher pay rates, means they protect the system, union heads, and all large organizations. The cogs of the machine are elevated to protect it. That’s why it’s never surprising that anti-establishment musicians like Neil Young and Rage Against the Machine fell into line to promote vaccines when they saw people de-platformed—their system showed them very quickly that their status, income, and hierarchy would be removed if they decided to step out of line.
Rebel Heart: A Culture Club, Not a Political Organization
Rebel Heart is a culture club, not a political organization. We will never tell you how to vote. Our mantra is to support local independent businesses. It’s grassroots, and its closest political ideology would be localism. Look after the people in your community because it will have a compounding effect. But it doesn’t come with dogma—we understand we are all trying to do our best and juggle resources, time, money, and mental capacity. So we aren’t even advocating the exit of the systems, nor are we boycotting Amazon. That one-click, same-day delivery might buy you time to call a few leads and sign up new clients.
This culture club is aware that politics is downstream of culture. So we start looking at our culture—what do we want to create?
Embracing Freedom as a Core Value
When I looked at freedom as a high-level value, it was in response to politicians working with organizations to remove freedoms. Whether it’s freedom of bodily autonomy, movement, or even speech, we want to create a culture where people can create, think, and speak prosperously. We want to ensure the bonds are strong financially and in connection. If we work together to create a culture of integrity, heart-led conversations, and honest commerce, and our grassroots vision becomes a steadfast, reliable way for people to elevate their experience, it will spread. We get to offer a contagious, contagious version of creativity, connection, and commerce. Our culture will become upstream of the politics. Over time, our value system will be building out the political landscape.
A Non-Political Approach to Building Community
So, while it may feel a little edgy politically, it’s not. The freedom to create, stay open, make money, and shop with locals is not political—it’s simply a desire to have these aspects as cultural norms. Maybe it’s a return to older times or an advancement to a new reality, enlightened by the contrast we have been experiencing. We can drive down a road, and the bumps along the way don’t have to steer us toward where it is advantageous for the powerful to accumulate more money. Our culture is to look after our own first when we can. Consciously doing what we can to support the people we know, not the faceless (or celebrity facade) corporations who are secretly meeting in Davos to manipulate us into their hive-mind serfs.
Let’s continue to focus on our shared goals, support each other’s businesses, and build the vibrant, awakened community we all aspire to be a part of. Together, we can make a difference.
