Here is a guide to ethical, harmless rebellion: Do something utterly benign but keep it to yourself for 24 hours. Try on an expensive coat in a store you have no intention of buying from. Walk the "wrong" way down a one-way street (on an empty sidewalk). Write a haiku about your boss and burn it. The rule: Tell no one. 2. The Ritual Break Identify a "rule" you follow that has no moral weight. For example: always matching your socks, always making the bed, always eating vegetables first. Break exactly one of these rules today. Eat the dessert before the dinner. Wear mismatched shoes to take out the trash. Notice how the world does not end. 3. The Forbidden Hour Claim 15 minutes of your day as the "Taboo Hour." During this hour, you are allowed to do one small thing your social role forbids. The CEO can doodle like a child. The strict parent can jump on the bed. The diligent student can watch reality TV. No one needs to know. The Philosophy: In Praise of a Little Naughtiness The great psychoanalyst Adam Phillips once wrote that "the ability to keep a secret is the first sign of an inner life." The little innocent taboo is the secret's playful cousin. It is the inner life having a party.
And never, ever tell. What is your little innocent taboo? The answer is yours to keep. little innocent taboo
Keeping a secret—even a silly one—is an act of identity preservation. "I eat cereal for dinner when my spouse travels for work." "I pretend to have read that classic novel." These tiny lies and transgressions are not pathologies; they are fences around the garden of your inner self. Human beings are hardwired for moral drama. We love the narrative of transgression and redemption. However, real moral failures—infidelity, theft, cruelty—come with devastating psychological costs. The little innocent taboo offers the shape of a transgression without the substance of harm. Here is a guide to ethical, harmless rebellion: