Why Weren't We Trapped?

A friend of mine and myself had a discussion with a very similar tone. What the resolution was, excuse me if someone has said something akin to it, is that people must want to accept all that is going on around them; they must truthfully want to remove the veil from their eyes. If they simply do not want to change and realize what most on this site see, then they will not. If we forced people to open their eyes, IMHO, we would be the same as the people we are trying to distance ourselves from.

I don't think I was trapped because I always wanted to learn more, look deeper into everything. That drive lead me to the 9/11 conspiracy and found this site a few years after that. I find others simply don't care or don't want to know. My parents are perfect examples of "just don't want to know." I've brought up different things and they just say stop, I don't want to get into this. alot of my friends just don't care.

reply to post by ohhwataloser


the feeling of helplessness in helping friends and family is the worst, or i can only insinuate you might feel the same, that is at least people like you and i and many others on this site are trying to broaden our horizons in an attempt to help people who seek it.

Oh the "trap" has many levels.

These are the 4 major ones

Political Systems
Commercial/Economic Systems
Military Systems
Religious Systems

It is rare that a person can understand and not be trapped in ignorance by at least one or more of these. And even if you fully understand them you may still remain trapped and ensnared by them. Understanding them doesn't mean you are free of the trap.

Originally posted by Full_Vision

Greetings to all

For some time now, I have wondered something that I would be very interested in hearing my fellow ATSers thoughts and opinions on..I am not sure if this question is even worth a Thread of its own, or if it should just go into blog form, but either way I am going to give it a go..

The question is this: Why. Why have people such as ourselves on this site, those who are free thinkers, who question our so called reality and the world around us..why have we slipped through the net- so to say- of the lies and controls while the mass majority have become caught up in it?
Some (myself included) have felt since early childhood that something just wasn't... right in the world..most often even before we had any real understanding of politics or belief systems in general..
Everyone living on Earth at this point in time, has, in various ways depending on the time frame each person grew up in, had social indoctrination since birth via media (be it news papers, radio or television), the schooling systems etc..
So why have we escaped while others have become trapped? I guess thats the real question I am trying to get at. From upbringing to DNA differences/changes, I would very much like to hear your ideas on this..
Thanks in advance,
Tessa Lynn

Very good question and post. As for me, I was always on the outside of groups growing up and when I became an adult. On many occasions I could see through the BS that somebody or a figure of authority was telling us but many of the others where taking his word as literally gospel and even trying to cower me into agreeing with their view. I think that many of us that aren't trapped and able to see more of the picture than a small section are people that try to look out for others. For a person who is selfish or power hungry or greedy, they just care about their little slice of the world and damn everything else. If you don't fit their view of how things should be then your wrong, pure and simple. They haven't figured out how to question even their own view of the universe or their assumptions. Have you ever heard the old japanese saying that "The nail that sticks out is hammered back in". We don't conform to the majority and the rest of the group and through the "group leaders" guidance try to make you conform even if your right. The others may believe its wrong to, but as with anything it goes with character of an individual they are scared to be that nail.

We question, we ask and we take alot of crap from everyone because we don't fit in our designated place. Some hate you or try to disuade you because they are scared. Others hate you because you have the gaul to question something they believe in or think is right. A large section hate you because it reminds them of what cowards they are and why this lone person or persons are questioning the way things are. People hate to be reminded of their foibles or problems or lack off whatever. The Powers that Be hate people like us and use the others to try to keep us quiet. And thats because they know eventually the questioners of policy or tradition or conspiracy will get through to the people and that is something they can't let happen.

I've came to accept my ability or way of looking at things when others can't see as a good thing. It has helped me in my life and it has helped me figure out problems that have caught other people who weren't looking. Consider you have a bunch of people on ATS that have the ability to see through the looking glass, so your not alone thats for sure. The others, they will come around especially when the US economy implodes and they finally see that they weren't special as their leaders have told them for decades.

I for one wanted to be ignorant. I grew up with a druggie for a mother and wanted nothing more to be middle class sheeple. To me I equated that with happiness. I never spent much time in school, and some how the authorities never seemed to notice that my mother never sent me and as I grew older I was so vocal against my mothers drug use she didn't want me to go afraid I would rat her out, (meth paranoia on top of my vocalness) I was never in school enough to be indoctrinated, but I was an avid reader determined to be self taught. For years I still tried to be asleep but everything that happened in my life wouldn't let me. Finally a few years ago I surrendered to the fact that i was to aware to live in ignorant bliss and embraced it.

this is a really interesting question

In my opinion, fear and paranoia is embedded in our DNA. it makes us question things constantly. some just more than others. every since the beginning of humans, we as a species, are paranoid. living in a world, doesn't matter what time period, can you blame us? whether it be freezing in a cave or worried about getting mauled by a saber tooth or to the more modern time period, our government is lying to us about everything or am i going to make it through college, will i get a good job. all results of paranoia.

"when's there nothing left to question, there's nothing left to wonder"

Kurt Vonnegut is giving a lecture in Room 1A, and Newt Gingrich is giving a lecture in Room 2A.
If you "know" things most others don't, and you've always had that special insight, you're going for room 1A! That's all there is to it.
End of story.

Originally posted by Full_Vision
reply to post by Karlhungis

 

Very good

thank you for contributing! So in this case it would really be the difference between strong minded individuals and weaker minded 'sheep' ? where as the strong minded want to know, and ache to find out what is going on.. the sheep don't care and continue munchy crunching their grass! Ignorance is bliss for them indeed ..until it leads to their demise (might not be quite the right word) eventually..

Your assuming we are the "Stronger" minded individuals.

What if the "sheep" have it right and all there is to life is eating nice green grass and reproducing while we "stronger" minded smarter sheep just keep finding ways to NOT enjoy life and run around the pasture all day looking for something wrong with the grass. ya ever think we are the weak minded ones? No. I am sure our ego won't let us accept that.

Not saying I agree because I am the same as all the rest of you but if kinda makes you wonder. I am not above considering that I may be the one who is looney.

Thanks for the post. I can't speak for everyone but for me. It is fear.

I'm affraid of not being accepted. That my talents and my gifts would be not be wanted or embraced. Or that I could make this wrong. That if somehow I walked out there, others would see me as not worthy. I'm affraid of the others because I see many flaunt who they are, and they seem to fit in much more. And Im someone who can make this so right and sometimes so wrong. I'm happy for them, I love them, I just don't know if they are ready for me yet.

I walk with a cloak, and I see others walk with pipes. I did go out there and do it a little bit. And I feel great when I go out, with people I love it. But something keeps me hidden in my bed sleeping, until I feel more comfortable with who I am. I don't want to miss life and I want to have fun. Please enjoy every moment you can. Im a lover and I worry people will love me. The crowd is great, but others I just make them sad. I feel joy from them and remember what happiness is, but if the cards are not right, I sit in my room until they are. So I never can make any stable friends currently. Thanks for the post.

Edit after re-reading your post.

I think it all has to do with our different "talents". I just worry that who and what I am is just not acceptable, but I do feel that is changing. Im affraid the things I can do for others is just not wanted. Like touching DNA or energizing. Love and my Faith. Others have said just pick a room and do it. Thats true too, but for me I see potential in every room and things change when I enter for better or for worse. That is scary for me.

[edit on 16-3-2010 by DarkCyrus]

Nice thread you created here for sure.

I think that it has to do with spiritual guidance, fate that each of us create for ourselves and chance.

Spiritual guidance meaning that each of us our souls in a shell. I truly think we are guided by a higher power. Whatever it is I don't know, but often I have felt it giving me guidance in some very dangerous & hostile situations.

Fate in that I think we all create our own fate via decisions, indecision and where are at any given time. For those who say they do not believe in fate, I believe they are saying they do not believe in their own selves as THAT is what creates fate.

Chance. For many when combined with the other two are the most powerful opportunity there are. Although hard to see when it is actually in front of you, when your perception is aligned well with your soul, all things are possible.

Maybe any of these three is why we have been fortunate to have been spared from the cruel world we have arrived at this point and now recognize.

Maybe because we burden ourselves with knowing, but knowing is impossible. The system is set up. It will run its course. But it will end as well. I think we should give ourselves a break more often. Yes, the world is under a vast web, a super contract of sorts, but I think our need to have control over our own lives oftentimes puts us at odds with a vast system of control. Maybe we should just let go of a need for control and be in a way that our perspectives naturally ripple across the board. I think as long as there are at least two beings, there is a web that exists between them, but it can be flexible. I think the problem most have with the current web is that it rewards those who have a half and self-interested view that could give two craps about the other. It is the blind leading the blind. It hurts those with a whole lens. Because the system has power in the place of the whole view.

We ate from the garden, so to speak, needing control over our fellow human beings as if they were mere things. Us vs them. Men and women often have an objective that negates the humanity of the other, and as such is blind to the other's consciousness. Thus, each side is spouting self-interested lies in a dialogue, and the monologue created is one of total external control to the point that it eventually becomes total contraction around all. Democracy in a nation of fools is the best path to total tyranny, because there are many tyrants all enslaving the other. When enough realize, it will systematically metamorphose. But enough must realize, and they will. It is only a matter of time. Domination and manipulation, master and slave, this is truly the foolish and callous and uncaring morality of this age. There is nothing MORE under it. It is just a relentless cycle. But it reaches a dead end. And there is another story that follows. Consider your choices and beliefs wisely, but, as hitchhiker's guide says, "Don't panic."

[edit on 16-3-2010 by orwellianunenlightenment]

Excellent question, TL.

One of my earliest memories is being taken back home by a neighbor who found me in the middle of a field with my lil' flashlight at 2:00ish a.m. He was very ticked off at my parents. Apparently, I was turning over rocks and looking at what was underneath. I was 5 years old. My parents didn't know I'd slipped out of the house, and I don't recall what motivated me to do such a thing. My Mom said that I told her "I already looked at the day bugs. I wanted to see the night bugs."

In first grade, I proclaimed that I would be an astronaut when I grew up. Missed that by several AU.

I think for me that a fascination with science led me toward thinking that was adrift of some mainstream thinking. I would guess that many of us found safe harbor in either sciences/math or creative arts. What do the two have in common? They engage the brain toward asking questions, often tall questions for which there are no pat answers, or worse yet, the pat answers don't seem credible.

I'd also guess that many of us tend[ed] toward defaulting to our own intuitions in the absence of credible trumping data.

We here at ATS -- and other related sites -- we feed each other; we have hungry minds that want to know things, even if those truths are uncomfortable. I think we tend to reinforce amongst ourselves the view that things are often not as they were relayed to us, and once a person begins to question the classical view of the world, the galaxy and its systems, we've come to realize that us human creatures are not nearly so far from the Savannah as we are led to believe. We are higher order primates with shiny toys, and our individual knowledge parted with progressive technology two hundred years ago or more. We've lost many of the basic skills our ancestors took for granted in favor of being able to manipulate cutting edge technology.

Few of us could build a television, even with all the tools and materials of the trade, but it is no longer important to be able to even understand the process. Few of us could make our own soap if necessary, and that too, is not currently necessary. Or is it?

What is necessary -- at least among ATS/BTS -- is the ability to question, to analyze, and [insert diety of choice] help us, the preservation of wonder. Wonder, the simple thing that has made better people that me say to themselves, "what if??" May we never stop asking that question, for the effort to answer it is the process that makes us better people.

I Have thought the same thing. I didn't start questioning the world till I was 19.

I have often wondered, why? I have a few theorys one of which is the fact that I didn't listen to a word I school. Therefore my Indoctrination wasn't complete.

There is no-one more enslaved than he who thinks he is free. Chew on that.

There are so many layers of trappage, we're all trapped in various ways, from various angles, at various levels. You are not untrapped by comparing yourself to a common ignorant and claiming to be free.

For me at least... It wasn't knowing that something was wrong with the world that brought me here; it was an open mind.

I would ask a lot of questions as a child... ones that my parents wouldn't be able to answer to my expectations. These questions from my quest for knowledge and information, to see the WHOLE side of the story, eventually led me to places like ATS.

I still watch the news, go on CNN, even listen to the priest's homilies at my church. I think even if the information is false, it is critical to know that that information, and to know why that information is being presented in such a way, and what is gained by who from it.

I think why you could call people like "us" a minority, is because the regular person just doesn't care enough about the quest for knowledge and truth to pursue it. As long as Mr. Smith has his wife, his car, and food on his table, he won't try and get out of the rut.

Ignorance is bliss.

reply to post by ALOSTSOUL


Why is an infinite regress into nothingness. Sure, it is OK to ask on occasion, but it must not become an obsession. Watch Donnie Darko if you haven't already. I have been there. It is not a good place to be, because it isn't being at all. Why am I here? I am here, that is why.

First of all, it's very hard to apply blanket characterizations to ATS. There is no "we" here. There are people here who believe things I think are frankly delusional if not out-and-out insane, and I'm sure some feel the same about some of my beliefs.

In my own personal case, many years reading history led me to a very pessimistic view of humanity and society. I see the era that is drawing to a close as a kind of historical anomoly, where the developed world was able to amass a huge amount of wealth and comfort based on a confluence of unique, not-to-be-repeated factors. These factors are numerous. There is the demographic factor. There was a spike in technological development and innovation (Technology does not increase linearally; history shows lurches and spikes followed by periods of relative stagnation or even regression. The Renaissance did not continue forever.) There were facts stemming from the way destruction impacted different nations after WWI and WWII. There was financial innovation (or chicanery, if you prefer). There was the role of fossil fuels and other resources that are likely to dwindle in supply in the future. There were cultural factors. And so on.

Its easy to think the last 60 years are "normal" when they have been anything but. History shows that moments of prosperity such as that the devloped world has experienced over the last 60 years are fleeting at best. Our day in the sun is drawing to a close as we revert to a grimmer, darker, grimier historical norm. Reversion to the mean is the law in history.

the connection COULD be that we all have had some sort of experience in our lives that drive us to find the true answers. maybe people ignorant of these things just live how "they were raised" to believe certain things. s&f!

reply to post by silent thunder


Maybe it should become ourstory? Simple solution to divide and conquer, I know, but simplicity works.