The inclination to rebel against a perceived injustice is a natural human phenomenon. Yet, while rebellion is often romanticized, historically, it has a mixed record at best. Indeed, Americans have long had a love/hate relationship with rebels. The Minutemen were rebels who risked life and limb to establish this nation. The Confederates were rebels, but their legacy in rebelling to preserve the institution of slavery is (or should be) one of ignominy, given that they precipitated the greatest cataclysm in American history and nearly ended the modern world’s first great democratic experiment.
Albert Camus thought hard and wrote extensively on rebellion, best captured in his 1951 book, The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt. Through this extensive historical and philosophical examination, he concluded that most rebellions tend to the extreme and are taken over by fanatics who, if successful, impose a new tyranny in the name of “justice.” The ones that do not are the exception, an observation that makes the American revolution all the more remarkable—a miracle even.
