Create a dull person, create a killer

"Creativity is a drug I cannot live without."
- Cecil B. DeMille

An icon of film epics, DeMille lacked experiences that most people have within the first ten years of their lives, those that would bring about the destruction of his natural creativity.

Children are born creative. They create worlds for themselves within their own bedrooms or their play areas. They role play to bring to reality the characters they want portrayed in their imaginary worlds.

Somewhere through those first years of elementary school, sometimes before, we beat the creativity out of kids by telling them in various ways that what they have created is not in line with the realities of adult life. We convince them that adult life is dull, routine and hard work, with little in the way of excitement except tiny escapes they can get through hobbies, crafts, mind-altering substances or socially dubious or illegal pursuits.

Adult life is dull because adults have made it dull. We made it dull because that's the way that social leaders want us to be. Dull followers are easier to manipulate than those who think and act for themselves.

Creative people break out of the mold made for them, for each of us, and take lifestyle paths that violate the norms of adult boredom and followership. Creative people, while admired at some times, are social outcasts for much of their lives because they are different.

Only when we begin to acknowledge and appreciate the value of being different, without prejudice, will we make worthwile advances toward world peace and social justice for all. Dull people fight, creative people actively avoid such primitive tendencies.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' striving to steer us away from boring lives that lead us to violence and toward interesting lives that lead us to creativity.
Learn more at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl