Born To Run: The Myth of the American Rebel
The image of the rebel is deeply embedded in American culture. A particular version of American manhood looms large — rule-breaking, free-spirited, untameable. This mythic figure fights for liberty against a backdrop of authority and conformity. He’s the outlaw hero, the lone wolf, the cowboy. And, of course, he’s almost always male. And white.
From Elvis to Springsteen, from Brando to James Dean, this archetype saturates American pop culture. It holds sacred status in the national imagination — a cornerstone of masculinity wrapped in denim and leather. It’s never quite died, only morphed, rebranded and recycled.
The Rebel as American Origin Story
Some Americans believe that men like this created the nation: rebels who stood against British tyranny, conquered the frontier with guns and grit, and forged a constitution that enshrined their right to do whatever they damn well pleased. The Founding Fathers become avatars of this myth — romanticised as mavericks who hated rules and lived free.
This mythology bleeds into everything: politics, film, music, even branding. The rebel becomes a symbol of authenticity — defying the status quo, embracing nonconformity, standing against ‘The Man.’
But let’s be honest: it’s a bit of a con.
Rock ’n’ Roll and the Evolution of the Rebel
Rock music has always flirted with rebellion. In the 1950s, it kicked against segregation and racial mixing taboos. In the 60s, it pushed back on sexual repression and the Vietnam War. Punk rebelled against corporate excess, grunge against pre-packaged pop culture. Even glam rock was a rebellion of sorts — sequins against straightness.
But each wave has faded or been co-opted. Rebellion, in America, is quickly packaged and sold back to the masses.
Trump, Musk and the Rebel Pose
Donald Trump’s success rests in part on his ability to cast himself as a rebel — an outsider breaking the rules, shaking up the corrupt political elite. Elon Musk plays the same game, draping himself in the rhetoric of libertarianism and disruption.
But the truth is, these men aren’t rebels. They’re conformists masquerading as iconoclasts — defending rigid social hierarchies while claiming to fight them. They’re not challenging oppression; they’re reinforcing it.
They don’t want freedom for everyone. They want impunity for themselves.
They aren’t anti-authoritarian. They are authoritarian — they just want to be the ones giving the orders.
Libertarianism for the Rich, Authoritarianism for the Rest
Musk’s brand of libertarianism only works if the rest of us live under authoritarian rule — unable to protest, unable to push back, unable to challenge the privileges of the ultra-wealthy. Freedom for billionaires means silence for the rest.
This isn’t new. It’s just the old right-wing mantra: the rich can do what they please; the rest of us can do as we’re told.
And it’s precisely how American rebels operate. For them to live “free,” the rest of us must conform to their vision of society — rigid, patriarchal, reactionary.
The Gun as a Tool of Conformity
Nowhere is this clearer than with gun culture. The American rebel claims to need guns to protect freedom — but whose freedom?
Guns aren’t symbols of liberty. They’re tools of control. A way to keep others in line. A threat against anyone who steps out of their place.
It’s about enforcing order, not resisting it.
A vision of America where:
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Women are back in the kitchen
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LGBT+ people are back in the closet
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Immigrants are back behind the takeaway counter
Freedom for the few, fear for the rest.
The Confederate Flag and the Fantasy of Rebellion
The Confederate flag — and its accompanying rebel yell — is often waved as a symbol of defiance. But what exactly was being defied?
The Confederates weren’t fighting oppression. They were fighting to preserve white supremacy and slavery. The romanticised mythology of the “noble lost cause” is just that: a fabrication. Even the flag itself isn’t authentic — it was popularised during the backlash to the civil rights movement, not during the Civil War.
The rebel image has been hijacked by reactionaries cosplaying as revolutionaries.
Conformist Rebels and Weak Strongmen
Trump is the perfect embodiment of this contradiction:
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A conformist rebel
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A weak strongman
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A conservative playing at being a radical
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A “free thinker” parroting Fox News talking points
He and his supporters dress up in the rhetoric, language, and aesthetics of past rebellions to disguise their own reactionary politics. RFK Jr. tries to borrow the legacy of John and Bobby Kennedy — but the suit doesn’t fit.
Marx saw it coming. In The Eighteenth Brumaire, he wrote:
“All great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice… the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce...
Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please…
They conjure up the spirits of the past… borrowing from them names, battle slogans, and costumes…”
That’s Trumpism in a nutshell. A farce dressed as revolution. A pantomime of power and rebellion, put on by men terrified of losing either.
That doesn't, of course, mean that the music was always awful because it was fake. Springsteen's Born To Run may have had some of the worst lyrics ever set to music, but it does rock.
Just wrap your legs 'round these velvet rimsAnd strap your hands 'cross my engines
I still prefer the Frankie version: