Brainwashing and how YOU can avoid it!

I see a lot of topics on ATS about how we're all being brainwashed by various sources and government officials. I believe there is definitely some truth to these theories, because i can't hide from the fact that certain aspects of this world are just utterly ridiculous. When i say that i'm not just talking about specific examples like the corruption in the financial industry and the government, but prospects that are much closer to home. But at the same time i feel as though certain people (dare i say myself) have been mostly unaffected by someone's attempt to brainwash me.

A lot of brainwashing has to do with the media that we are exposed to in our everyday lives, and lets face it, we are exposed to a ton of information in the modern age. Advertising in itself is a whole industry based on the concept of manipulating people into believing that they have a 'need' for a product. If we were never exposed to such massive amounts of products, would we ever feel as though we 'need' certain products? no! As a teenager, i've grown up on the less spoiled side of life in a pretty rich town (a lot my friends have cars laptops ect but i don't feel the need) So for them, many feel as though they need these products when i know i don't need them, therefore they could live without them too, so conceptually, have they been brainwashed into believing they need these products? For some of them, probably.

Next i'll move on to my man John Locke; British Philosopher. John Locke believed that each human is born with a tabula rasa, or blank slate. Meaning that our experiences and what we are exposed to directly affects what we come to know and believe. Evidence in this can be seen in the differences between the Northeastern and Southeastern regions of the United States. For (a significant part) our believes differ, our traditions, values, and even our political parties.

So take me as a child for an example. My mother was always home to raise me, she always took great care to make sure i didn't watch too much tv and i always kept myself busy. She also made sure i solved my own problems at a young age, i believe those parameters have had a very significant effect on me, because i know i am less prone to what i see on tv then some of my friends, who are completely enthralled with consumerism and tv shows in which they end up subconsciously emulating (like the Jersey Shore, it's terrible)

So consider how much information is being thrown at us every day, for some people the media has played a major role in their development as a human being. in the 1950's when TVs became really popular, the government made sure that certain shows would show the 'ideal' american family, such as the show 'Father Knows Best' featuring a strong father, helpful mother, and two well mannered but mischievous children. Upon being exposed to this ideal family people would simply start trying to emulate what they saw, talk and act like these characters, thus, brainwashing.

The government is fully aware of this and that is why TV is going so far downhill, because it is a lot easier to control people who have been exposed to ignorance on media devices then those who are constantly thinking for themselves, by themselves. Notice the crap on TV now is all playing to a certain agenda, a major one would be trusting your authority, and since most of the people in the world aren't skeptics, they take what they see and believe it. They've been brainwashed, and they probably wont be convinced otherwise.

Now i'll ask you all that next time you're at your local shopping mall, take a long look around at the people around you, look at what they're buying, how they're talking, and what they're wearing and ask yourself; is that how a human should be acting? is that right? I can't talk for all of you but i'm fairly certain you'll see these a lot of these people like i do: sheep.

reply to post by minnow329


www.age-of-the-sage.org...

information on the clean slate theory

reply to post by minnow329


www.youtube.com...
This a video I found on youtubby, It is graphic and shows some deformities of children. So I wanted to warn the weak of heart like myself. It touches on your subject and expounds on the companies that are (have been) using just about every trick in the trade to get us to buy. I'm quite old now and believe me, my head and body are filled with this stuff.
Spike

reply to post by minnow329


I'm guilty of watching Jersey Shore, but i swear it's only because i think they're idiots!

With people feeling the need to own things, that's kind of the ultimate manipulation. It's been put into our heads from a very young age, if you don't have the latest craze or fashion, you are not cool, you don't want to be uncool right?

In my opinion, personality over takes all this, i would rather talk to a person with a personality, and learn abit about them, rather then talk about how awesome my new iphone app is.

Great thread

reply to post by spikester


scary stuff mate, thanks for the video.

reply to post by Mentalistbee


it's so obvious i want to know why someone doesn't try to stop it. oh wait the economy is more important then our well being i forgot.

I have been feeling like I have or was brain washed by the media and consumerism, I had no interest in my own life and spending all my free time watching fictional tv characters and spending literally 1000's on stupid s%&t I don't need like computers, consoles, games and other device's and non of that makes my happy,

infact I used to see commecials repeat all day while watching garbage on tv then without even thinking about it if I saw that item or video game at the store or for sale online i'd buy it, making me happy for that day but then the next day i'd still be unhappy again.

Now im turning my life around, keeping only one computer and selling everything I don't need.
Limit myself to half an hour of tv or less per day and not let the brain washing continue.

reply to post by NeoSpace


indeed, we gotta start spreading the word! i'm happier this way then i could ever be playing xbox live all day

Great post, OP. Sounds like you have wisdom beyond your years. This is going to benefit you all your life. Nice too to read of someone having good parenting. Bless your Mom

Advertising is huge. Yes, avoiding that imagery is much healthier than exposing yourself to it, IMHO. When my eyes were opened a little while ago it began to greatly bother me, all the advertising in my own home. I tend to tuck things away more well now, instead of letting things linger about. I don't want to see name brands and logos everywhere. My home is my only hiding space.

So many commercials also glorify the free-spending lifestyle. Where I live is a TV ad campaign to get parents to buy incredibly over-priced sports gear for their little boys of summer. The ads just scream of spoiled, entitled children with doting parents. Makes me want to spit. I've been a big fan of the MUTE button on the Remote Control for a long time. TV commercials are vile rubbish for the most part.

TV and Movies do have way too much impact on the American culture, IMHO. Herds of people lacking imagination, being duped and using the flotsam and jetsam of scripted dialogue in lieu of speaking original thought. Look at the incredibly huge career of just one actor. Example: John Travolta. Mr. Travolta sounds like a Brooklyn New Yorker in every film he appears in (he's from Englewood, NJ). Anthony Hopkins, he ain't. But Travolta has been in a slew of really huge movies that impacted American culture. 'Saturday Night Fever' sent the disco lifestyle skyrocketing; guys were blow-drying their hair into wind tunnel tested hairdos and strutting about like peacocks in polyester and gold jewelry. It was a tough time to be alive.

"Urban Cowboy" sent America into the country-western mode. Cowboy hat sales were through the roof and suddenly date night included knowing how to Line Dance. #kicker bars never had it so good. Most people can't tell you who their Vice President is, but give them an entertaining storyline and they'll know every character in a movie. Our priorities are so screwed up.

But there is still hope. Lead by example, and maybe others will one day walk the path you swept. I wish you the best.

reply to post by minnow329


I'm not sure avoidance is the answer to avoid brainwashing. Sure it works and abstinence is also the best form of birth control. That doesn't mean one should abstain from everything the modern society has to offer, one just needs to apply logic.

Sure I go to the store and look at the chop-o-matic and take a look at it but I don't buy it because it doesn't stand up to a critical analysis of what I need. This leads to the question of what you need, your wants and desires, hobbies etc... these can also be determined through media propaganda. If it works so well you get true joy from the activity so what?

The most important thing is to make sure you are truly enjoying what it is you do. If you don't stop and find what you enjoy.

I honestly believe many people are much better off in the brainwashed state. I just wish I was part of the machine doing the brainwashing. Lets face it, most people are cruel, stupid, and spiteful and I don't mind them being told how to live as long as it will make them kinder and stay out of the way. The smart people aren't affected by brainwashing because critical thinking negates it.

reply to post by minnow329

As a teenager, i've grown up on the less spoiled side of life in a pretty rich town (a lot my friends have cars laptops ect but i don't feel the need) So for them, many feel as though they need these products when i know i don't need them, therefore they could live without them too, so conceptually, have they been brainwashed into believing they need these products? For some of them, probably.

Or were you brainwashed into thinking you didn't need these things?

It goes both ways, there is nothing wrong with wanting stuff as long as you use it.

reply to post by Jinglelord


you gotta feel bad for those people though, i mean i've taken my free time to learn to meditate and go longboarding and what not, stuff that really makes me tick, some people never get to experience those simple pleasures because they're so enthralled with xbox live ]=

reply to post by boncho


i dunno mate, watch this movie, i think there comes a point when products are unnecessary and their production and distribution is just harmful, but at least someones making a quick buck right?

www.youtube.com...

reply to post by minnow329

Now i'll ask you all that next time you're at your local shopping mall, take a long look around at the people around you, look at what they're buying, how they're talking, and what they're wearing and ask yourself; is that how a human should be acting? is that right? I can't talk for all of you but i'm fairly certain you'll see these a lot of these people like i do: sheep.

You argument is very superficial. The fact that you use the term "sheep" really shows that you are one yourself, but on the opposite side of the spectrum of those you are talking out about.

Brainwashing and control are much deeper than Jersey Shore and fancy pants with glitter on them. Would you say the majority of Muslims, Amish and.or Jehovah Witness' fit in with your anti-consumerism sans brainwashing viewpoint?

They do. Does this mean they are not brainwashed, cannot be and will forever have a more critical outlook on the world? No.

I suspect your family has brainwashed you somewhat.

reply to post by minnow329



That's what i mean about the blank slate and john locke, you can be raised to believe whatever you're exposed to and whatever you're taught, and what im trying to convey is that a lot of people have been raised into this consumer society where they lose a lot of what i think are true joys in life.

so with what you said i guess we;re all brainwashed in some way, and it's really very easy to be brainwashed, and yes i totally think that blind followers of religion are in fact under the similar concept of brainwashing.

Originally posted by minnow329
reply to post by boncho

 

i dunno mate, watch this movie, i think there comes a point when products are unnecessary and their production and distribution is just harmful, but at least someones making a quick buck right?

www.youtube.com...

Again, a very superficial video to attempt to justify a superficial argument.

And your comments earlier on reality TV are short sighted. There are many benefits to Reality TV for the people producing them. They took of during the writers' strike over a decade ago, which caused those types of shows to be some of the only ones that could be made at the time. After the success of them, the profit margins were realized, leading to a new way to earn fortunes without having to pay top end writers, actors, etc. No cost, major gain. But you failed to mention that in your OP.

reply to post by minnow329

That's what i mean about the blank slate and john locke, you can be raised to believe whatever you're exposed to and whatever you're taught, and what im trying to convey is that a lot of people have been raised into this consumer society where they lose a lot of what i think are true joys in life.

so with what you said i guess we;re all brainwashed in some way, and it's really very easy to be brainwashed, and yes i totally think that blind followers of religion are in fact under the similar concept of brainwashing.

I'm a stranger to the description of "we" that you are using.

You have found the true joys in life yet you write the following:

you gotta feel bad for those people though, i mean i've taken my free time to learn to meditate and go longboarding and what not, stuff that really makes me tick, some people never get to experience those simple pleasures because they're so enthralled with xbox live ]=

*This is an arrogant attempt at divulging your own superiority. Your life is better because you found things that you claim make you happy, but that happiness is based off not being subjected to the material things you see around you.

How bout just lightening up and play BlackOps or Halo once in awhile...

If you want to critique people that's fine, but save the self-righteousness for a sermon.

reply to post by minnow329


I agree with you.
This whole phenomenon is dangerous because it grows bigger and bigger. Just think about Facebook or similar community sites! I suppose, the goal of these sites is mass manipulation, it is an improvement in brainwashing: they can aim at people personally, so it is more efficient than regular media! The 'sheep factory' is getting more and more disgusting, but many people don't recognise that it is against them.
I red a statistics that 20% of mankind has the 80% of money in the world. It is obvious that a small elite is trying to form the mentality of the rest (the 80%, the workers) to be more and more controllable (which means: obedience by fear/ by laziness, following the others like sheeps/without critical thinking, loosing contact with nature... a well designed 'sheep' , living in a city, would die if supermarkets closed -because he doesn't have a garden or a cow, he doesn't know which are the edible mushrooms in the forest or which herbs can he use if he's got a disease...) The elite is designing the mass in a wicked way- like in a KFC chicken farm, we should produce more and more profit for them ,more and more quickly, they don't care how we feel. (We work 8-10 hours daily for a living- a bushman in the wilderness spends 2 hours with hunting and he's okay...)
Leader class is programming us- not just through modern media, it has a history (or evolution) of it's own. There are many elements in several cultures which are suspicious. Manipulators are getting better and better, so the first steps to avoid brainwashing: AVOID TRUST, AVOID BELIEF! Trust your own logic and experience, believe what you see!

reply to post by boncho


so producers making a fortune off of cheap entertainment is now a good thing. And i was never talking about the positive effects of anything, when you have young kids sitting at home watching a group of teenagers acting obnoxious and 'cool' with the term 'reality' pasted on top of it then the lasting effects get bad, because now who does the the kid think is 'cool' and wants to emulate? J wow, the scantly clad s**t from the jersey shore.

and it's not like i've never experience videogames and the like, i just don't care for them, because i feel as though i have better things to do, which in the end, im covering more ground learning a skill at something then playing a video game. call me arrogant i agree with you because ignorance like preaching how great reality tv is just drives home my point.

reply to post by minnow329


We can take it further and assume people who succumb to corporate advertisements are also going to succumb to other forms of propaganda.

These people are the reason our society is full of stupid laws for people to protect themselves. These are the people that listen to PSAs, they are the the sheep because they choose to follow rather than think for themselves.

As boncho pointed out just because you don't feel like you need the trappings is not what differentiates you and if you are rebelling against the trappings without a well thought out reason and subject it to change at any time if you should happen to really like a trapping you are a sheep too.

I don't consider myself a sheep but would take no shame in being one and have often tried on the wool when I need life to easier for some reason. Your life will be easier and the satisfaction of contentment can only be had by the sheep of the world.

So in a round-a-bout way if you are heading down the path of a free thinker and one who will not follow prepare for a life without ever knowing true contentment and a feeling of belonging to the greater mass of your species. Welcome, and it is you I feel sorry for, not them.