Nine great ways to stick it to The Man

Nine great ways to stick it to The Man:

1. Be deviant. I'm not talking about criminal deviance, just throwing small monkey wrenches into the Matrix every now and again. Wear a funny hat. Go over the top in your "What I did over summer vacation" essay. The Man wants every guy to have a buzz cut and every girl to wear nylons. He's all about conformity.

2. Don't borrow money, especially from Man-approved institutions like banks. Borrowing money from The Man is like handing him the chains he will use to shackle you.

3. Generate your own power. Build your own solar panels or to make it super-simple, your own solar water heater.

4. Make your own stuff. Sell it for cash. The Man hates cash, especially when it's in your hands. He also hates it when people make their own stuff because it means he sells less stuff.

5. Cut out cable TV. This is a bold and revolutionary act, but you will be glad you did it. The Man wants you to waste your time in front of the TV, and he especially wants you to pay for the privilege.

6. Grow your own food from heirloom seeds and save your seeds. The Man hates this more than anything. He loves to force-feed you the genetically engineered crap on his supermarket's shelves. He loves to sell terminator seeds to farmers. The last thing he wants is for you to realize that with just a little effort you can coax great food out of the ground on your very own.

7. Make art or music. The Man finds creativity threatening unless it's being deployed to sell the things he sells. When people are creative, they are free, and freedom leads to dangerous thinking.

8. Practice random acts of kindness. These rattle The Man's nerves like nothing else. He likes it when we fight amongst ourselves -- divide and conquer -- because it keeps our eyes off our real problem, namely, The Man being all up in our asses all the time.

9. Be fearless. The Man enjoys our fear very much because it makes us easy to herd around like sheep.