I often meet people who are shocked to death when they wake up and realize that they have been lied to and manipulated all their lives, being programmed by their parents, teachers, friends, co-workers, marketing and the saddest thing. by themselves.
In a basic neuro-linguistic programming course that I taught, I met a retired teacher who insisted a lot with curious questions and at the same time, on some occasions a bit tricky.
One of his questions was:
How can you explain to me about the programming we have received?
Let me explain more extensively:
You think, feel and act, as you have been told you should think, feel and speak. They have programmed you to be happy when they want you to be happy, you get sad following a programming in your unconscious mind. You laugh when you are told to laugh, you cry when you are told to cry.
They have told you how to live, how to dress, how to socialize, what to buy and where to buy it.
You have been told what you should do for a living, what your goals in life should be, who you should admire. Who should you worship? You have been programmed to know what is good and what is bad, what to consider beautiful or ugly...
I already understood that I did not choose my way of being. So, does that mean I don't choose my actions either?
Well, if you are not aware of your conditioning, no.
Explain to us more clearly about the conditioning because I hear it over and over again and I'm not sure I really understand it.
Look, from the society in which you are born you not only inherit your way of being and thinking but also its expectations, its tastes, its values, its dreams, its hopes, its fears, its beliefs, its moral codes, in short; the way you are expected to act and react.
Well, that's clear to me, but what's wrong with it?
There is nothing wrong with it, however, it has two very small drawbacks:
One, that if you are not capable of realizing that you are not those social conditionings, then you are nothing more than an automaton, a robot, a cog in an immense machinery, a chess piece moved by those in power.
The other drawback is that if the values are wrong and we blindly respond to them, as is the case, we destroy nature, our relationships, we mistreat our fellow human beings and animals. We end up bitter chasing impossible dreams, frustrated looking for what we don't need, sick using alcohol and drugs because it is "socially accepted".
Son, I'm beginning to realize why I live the way I do. I need more examples. I find it so hard to believe that we are doing this damage to ourselves!
Look, society needs meekness, sheep, sheep; people who don't question what they've been taught, what they've been told to do. Automatons that follow what is established to the letter.
Each gear has been given a role, it has been told where to turn, each one knows well what is expected of him.
Hey, but you don't think we would have to be asleep or dumb to follow a role that has been imposed on us.
That's how most people are.
But how do they keep us like this?
Well, I'll tell you what the machinery of society is lubricated with: alcohol, tobacco, drugs, pornography, television and religion.
This society is based on the economy and those who govern it are a handful of people.
What do you think the world economy is based on? Surely you know it but I'm going to repeat it to you: in the arms industry and drug trafficking.
Who do you think owns the mass media, television and radio? The tobacco and alcohol industry. And now, what do you think are the most powerful manipulation tools?
You already told us that TV and radio.
Exact! And when the world economy falls, do you know what revives it?
The hard work of citizens?
No. The war.
I feel a little out of the loop and I have a hard time believing you. I can't think of us allowing ourselves to be manipulated in that way.
It is natural for you to be surprised and out of the loop because your mind is reluctant to think that reality is very different from what it believed. Let me give you other even clearer examples:
Imagine a group of businessmen in a meeting a few years ago. One of them has an idea to make money and presents investors with a new product called tobacco.
Here we have something that is easy and cheap to produce and could be sold on a large scale: cigarettes. After showing the bosses the product and how it is used, there are several negative comments: The product stinks, it stains fingers and teeth, it is unhealthy and…a bit stupid right? Draw smoke into the lungs and then blow it out?
Yes, I know very well that it is a bit strange (the first confesses) but this has an advantage: It is highly addictive. That is to say, that after a few times the consumer will be tied to it, they will need it to be well, they will do anything to get it, they will have become our little gold. Okay, that's a big plus for us, but how can we get people to keep trying it? That they do something against their own health? How about exposing yourself to all those disadvantages?
Leave that to me (said the publicist) that's easy. I associate the product with beautiful landscapes, with being elegant, with being older, with being successful, with the most basic needs of human beings.
Even if it has nothing to do with them?
Sure that's my job. No problem.
Well, let's make lots of money!
And the health and well-being of our customers? (A small voice is heard in the background) The cancer? Pulmonary emphysema?
Fuck them! Said the powerful.
And our young people? (another little voice finally insisted)
– Fuck them! Fuck them!
How barbaric! Can not be.
Can not be? Do you think that smokers are aware that they give a daily income to a group of people who don't give a damn about their health or their lives? They care about money and nothing else.
I do not think so.
Do you think they are aware that smoking is a self-destructive act and that the more they are warned about the disadvantages of smoking, the more they will do it because of the hatred they feel for themselves? (tomorrow I will give you another example)