Programming and you, are your thoughts your own?

I will try to explain what i mean with a example.



I eat non-free range meat.

The inmediate conclusions / reaction a person has could be:

I am hungry.
How cruel, free range meat is much better for the animals.
You animal how can you eat meat?
He must have money problems, since free range is more expensive.


The inmediate opinion might be influenced by your social and cultural
programming and your perspective. I am not saying it's a bad thing. But
it is very important that it is understood where that knee-jerk opinion
originated from.

I have found that when you look into your knee-jerk conclusion, you
might be disagreeing with yourself. If you do not do that and stick
with your original conclusion without dissecting it, you might miss a
change for personal growth.

Nobody really likes to discover that their own opinions might be
influenced by a party not looking out for your best interest, it hurts
the ego. But the sooner you can admit you might have be influenced the
better. A red flag would be anything that plays into your basic
instincts, fear for example. Basic instincs might cloud your judgement,
so whenever that red flag goes up, take a second look at the why and
how.
This is IMHO a way to break free from the culture of fear, controlling
and a way to rise above the mass mentality. A red flag would be
anything that plays into your basic instincts, fear for example.


Instinct

Instinct is the inherent inclination of a living organism toward
a particular behavior. The fixed action patterns are unlearned and
inherited.

As you can read from the link above, using instinct is a very good tool
in influencing your behaviour. Because it is inherited, you have almost
no defence against it and because it is ingrained in us, we don't often
question it.


Fear Mongering

Fear mongering is often used in wartime, as a political tactic
to frighten citizens and influence their political views.

So is your political view really your own or did you get tricked into
it?


Cultural Behaviour

For a behavior to be considered cultural it must be shared
extragenetically; that is, it must be taught.

Cultural behaviour is learned behaviour. It does not have to be a bad
thing, but did you consciously pick the parts (good or bad) of that
culture that you practise?




Going back to my example, what was your inmediate conclusion /
reaction?
Did it change when you took a look at why you formed that opinion?

I know the example is a bit lame, but i did not want to use a touchy
subject since people just discovering this might be better off with
starting small, I don't want peoples believe systems shattered right
from the start. I think it is best to ease in to it.
Yes i care that much about you people

[edit on 5/9/10 by locster]

Good luck with your approach. Most folks (outside ATS) can't yet distinguish the thought from thinker, much less have any awareness of thought processes or external influences. You've done a good job of making the concept simple.

gj

I think my thoughts are my own but my reactions are not, as well as my actions.


Why?

My thoughts are my own to my knowledge no one can read my mind. What I think can differ from how I react, due to societies conditioning. I could walk around town in nothing but my pj's but society frowns on it so I don't. I can think about what ever I want but what I do is dictated by societies norms.

A good example I might see $100 drop from an elderly woman's purse. I could take it, I need that money but, society and morals say I should return it. I am able to choose what I do to a certain extent, do I take the money and have society call me a thief or do I return it and look like a good person?

Good thread -

Ideally it would be great if people could distinguish their own thought from the masses, but unfortunately this isn't the case. True, a lot of it is a learned behaviour, and that starts at a young age meaning what is acceptable and what isn't in todays culture, and from there it only ferments with age.

Then you have the culture of fear slammed down our throats via media programming. Telling you to be afraid of the muslim bogey man because he has it out for westerners, or such drivel. I can admit, I have and likely will be influenced to some degree in the future until a time comes to reflect for myself what is truth or not. The bandwagons are easy to get on if you allow yourself too, but at some point you have to wonder... is this the ride I want to take?

People need to learn to be completely objective. It may not come right away, or it might, depending on the person. Opinions are like a**holes - everyones got one, but is it their own? They are the only ones that can judge that.

Hope I interpreted what you were trying to say correctly. Otherwise my face will be red...

We're all inimitable, with slight personalizations of even the most primary of responses. This is inevitable. Yes, people generally fit into predictable patterns, but only if those patterns are generic enough in their structure. Then, you have to consider the accumulative effect of decades of one thought, one response after another - with all of it gathering as a slurry of intellectual context. No two people could ever be more than vaguely similar in their thoughts, whether initiative or reactive. The simple random nature of forward progress in the average life would prohibit intellectual, emotional, psychological development from being anything but unique. Then, you have to consider the electro-chemical volatility of the physiological brain, and the impact it has on how all internal and external stimuli is processed.

Yep, those are your thoughts alright. Yours and no one else's.



[edit on 9/7/2010 by NorEaster]