Always come at life, I say, at an angle. Don't come at things straight-on. Don't just do what everyone is doing. Don't think exactly what everyone else thinks. Get a bit of daylight, cultivate an bit of separation, between you and everyone else. Not a lot. You don't have to come in a people sideways, at a 90° angle. You don't have to come at them head on at an 180° angle. Just be a bit off. Try 10° off.
Always come at the world, I say, at a 10° angle.
Why?
To build up your moral immune system. You have to develop some shame-resistance to the social pressures you'll face when you venture dissent or disagreement. You have to practice being odd and weird. You have to practice being alone in an opinion. You have to experiment with courage.
Why?
Well, to be sure, small acts of dissent and nonconformity aren't big deals, but practiced acts of nonconformity--my 10° Rule--create over time the psychological and relational capacity for resistance for the time when things really do matter. There will be times when you feel like you need, morally speaking, to take a stand. There will be times when you feel that you have to come at the world sideways at 90° or take the world head on at 180°. And dissent of that sort will require immense courage and shame-resistance.
But those capacities don't emerge overnight. Courage and shame-resistance in dissent have to be practiced in small acts of everyday resistance.
Day in and day out you practice at 10° so that, when the time comes, you're ready for something much greater.
