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My advice to myself and to everyone else, particularly young people, is to turn on, tune in and drop out. By drop out, I mean to detach yourself from involvement in secular, external social games. But the dropping out has to occur internally before it can occur externally. I'm not telling kids just to quit school; I'm not telling people to quit their jobs. That is an inevitable development of the process of turning on and tuning in.

Timothy Leary#32

ChangeSelfActivismDetachment

About this quote

What does it mean?
Leary clarifies turning on and dropping out as internal detachment from social games before external action.
In plain terms
Detach internally from social games before changing external habits.
What can you take from it?
Internal change precedes external change.

Where it applies

  • youth advice
  • activism

Putting it to work

  • practice internal detachment
  • reassess commitments

Questions to consider

  • What social games do you play?
  • How do you detach internally?

Another view

It assumes internal detachment is feasible without addressing material constraints.

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