Consciousness is the greatest mystery of life. To be self-knowing, to think, to question, to invent, seems both miraculous and burdensome. Human beings, uniquely among animals, are able to withdraw themselves from the immanence of existence and introspect upon their own life. Since ancient times, philosophers have disputed whether this power is a blessing, a curse, or even an insult to nature itself. By becoming conscious, man intrudes into the instinctive stream, questioning the rhythms that govern all other animals. Evolutionarily, consciousness might have been a survival advantage. Awareness allows planning, problem-solving, and cooperation, advantages that increase opportunities for survival. But awareness comes at a cost. Humans are beset by anxiety, regret, and questions of meaning simply because they are aware. Unlike animals that act on instinct, humans contemplate possibilities, confront mortality, and grapple with meaning. That way, self-awareness is a quiet rebellion against natural determinism: a refusal to live only within cycles determined by biology.
For teenagers, this conflict can be particularly sharp.
Teen years are a period of heightened self-consciousness, with identity, morality, and purpose defining themselves. Teenagers exist in an intensely deep but abstract reflective manner, understanding societal patterns, questioning authority, and imagining alternative worlds. The human capacity for consciousness makes it possible for teenagers to rebel, not socially, but also inwardly, against accepted convention and natural urges. Consciousness itself is a resistance. Consciousness as resistance is a deeply ethical and existential issue philosophically.
If consciousness separates human beings from the natural stream, what are the charges of this separation? Does the ability to reflect commit human beings to behave differently than the other animals, to exercise moral judgment and shape the environment responsibly? There are some philosophers who hold that morality is the product of this conflict precisely: consciousness is what makes the decision of actions available in lieu of responding to stimuli. Consciousness, without which there can be no consideration of morality, no ethical choice, no feeling of harm or injustice, would otherwise not exist. Consciousness is not, however, just a path to progress or morality.
Consciousness enables alienation also. Consciousness allows human beings to behold the impermanence of life, the inevitability of death, and the uncertainty of existence. As seen by most philosophers, this realization can lead to existential anguish. Consciousness is thus a curse and a revolt in the sense that it drags humans out of the immediacy and simplicity of nature and affords the glorious ability for reflection, fantasy, and meaning. To some, like Albert Camus, rebellion of consciousness is identical with human freedom.
The activity of consciousness entails that human beings have to confront absurdity and make choices in the midst of uncertainty. Nature behaves unthinkingly, but human beings do not. To be conscious is to struggle against passivity, to revolt against the inexorability of nature, and to leave space for deliberation, imagination, and moral judgment. Consciousness here can be regarded as the last act of rebellion: refusal to accept life as predetermined. Consciousness makes it finally possible to be human.
Consciousness is a double-edged blessing, which makes moral concern, creativity, and self-determination possible and subjects humanity to suffering and uncertainty. Awareness is not passivity but active engagement with being, an act of defiance of the determinist path of nature. To view consciousness as gift and resistance is to permit humans to live on purpose, employing awareness to battle through suffering, create meaning, and create moral journeys in an uncertain world. Self-awareness is not survival, it is rebellion, responsibility, and the very texture of human life.