Brainwashed or Awakened? How Our World Shapes Our Thinking

The more I learn, the more I see that I don’t want to see and can’t unsee.

The more I learn, the more I become certain of human stupidity.

This article can resonate with you, or you can think I am full of crap.

Before I started on the path I am taking now, I had the same vision for several years.

It was after high school to go to a theater school, because I liked theater.

After I would finish the theater school to be an actor, I would do my bachelor in theater education, become a teacher, get a house, kids, and maybe a dog, and live towards my pension with a little bit of investing on the side.

With that vision, I also was kind of strange because no one in my direct surroundings got why I wanted to invest.

To be honest, I wanted that life because I didn’t know better.

I wanted that life because I did not understand that the way I was raised and the way I looked at the world almost programmed me for that life.

And that it is not strange and for some people, that would be a fine life, but I want more than that.

I always was a creator, and now I still am.

Only now, as I begin to learn more about marketing and sales due to my work, do I realize that almost everything is a form of manipulation.

Everything is there to hook your attention, everything is set up to make you think in a certain way.

And we fall for it because marketing and sales are set up to play on our emotions and emotions drive our behavior.

To make it concrete, I am going to talk about the forms of constant brainwashing that we are going through these days.

I will talk about:

• Group-like thinking

• Influences of experience

• Thinking like yourself

After this article, I hope to create a bit more consciousness for you of what is happening.

Group-Like Thinking

In the world we live in, there is always a game of power being played.

You can dislike the game and the players, but you need to accept that you are a part of it, whether you want to be or not.

The highest form of power is having followers.

The more followers you have, the more power you can create for yourself.

Interestingly, many people feel the need to follow as well.

Deep inside us, we have a psychological need to idolize, to devote a god's throne inside us to a higher power.

Many people think that a higher power means God.

That's what it is for many people, but it doesn't have to be.

At its core, a higher power is something that you believe is controlling the universe.

It could be nature, the sun or moon, or even the universe itself.

The key is that whatever you choose should be special and mean something personal to you. In the simplest terms, it’s a power greater than yourself.

Why is this important?

It gives us frames and within those frames, we can reinvent the playing field.

Within the given structures, we have leaders and people who are playing the game of power.

They make use of this need by promising something transformative and use total vagueness on how to do it, speaking as if it is from a higher power without you realizing it, as if it is for big and great causes.

I call this group-like thinking.

Why?

You connect with people who believe in the same thing, and by following the same cause.

In such a group, you are more vulnerable to be manipulated because you are already in the same following.

So, be critical of what someone is really saying.

Identify the leader type in your social structures, and you will recognize how their words influence the group you're in.

Influences of Experience

As I stated in previous articles, you have your own perspective, created by the way you live and have lived your life, as does someone else.

Everything you consume has influenced your perspective, everything you:

• See

• Hear

• Read

• Experience

You can never judge a book by its cover because you don't know what it contains.

How often you search for other perspectives or new ones defines how you see the world.

The more perspectives you have gained, the wider yours will be.

Beyond widening your own perspective, the opinions of others can also have influence.

If the majority of people do not understand you or if what you're doing does not make sense to them, it can trigger a negative reaction.

If things do not fit into people's point of view, you may encounter resistance.

If you put a lot of crabs in a bowl and they crawl over each other, if one tries to climb out, the others will try to pull them back down instead of helping them get out.

When you live in the same world alongside each other, things make sense.

When you go your own way and create your own world, people may become critical and try to bring you down so that you stay the same.

When I heard about the crab mentality for the first time, it was eye-opening.

Every big name is challenged or put down by the crowd, whether it's the media, or other people, that doesn't matter much.

A lot of the influences from outside are set up in a particular frame, the way things are framed makes it so that you can start thinking in particular ways.

Watch two different news shows with the same news and you will think differently about the same news based on which one you consumed first.

In the end, there are media companies who want to collect viewers.

Think Like Yourself

What you consume is always influenced by the intentions of others.

Who you follow or the social structures you're in can have a lot of influence on you.

Things you must consider important include who you hang around with.

If you hang around with nobodies, then the odds become very low that you will become somebody.

Consider the actions of others, because actions speak louder than words.

Do they reflect a person you don’t want to be or do they lift you up?

One thing I always keep in mind is that people don’t want the best version of you, they want the version of you that serves them best.

Since I heard that sentence, I've become more critical of my own friendships and the advice people give me.

Things that work well for me include waiting.

If someone asks you to make a decision, wait a couple of hours, maybe a day.

If people force or pressure you, ask them why they do it, and think back to which version of you people want.

I know I can be really impulsive, and in that way, I can make more sense of my choices.

Also, look at the facts, look at the numbers, what is the data, the statistics.

Having data and statistics is a great way of tracking your decisions.

Write stuff down and read it back again.

If you know what is working, you can do more of it.

Make your own choices based on your own perspectives with the support of the higher power above that is rooting for you and your mission.

Live Forward

To sum up all of this, be aware of the people around you.

Be aware of what people say to you, what you believe, and what you consume.

• Think for yourself, does this make me better or not?

• Who am I consuming this for?

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That's it for now.

I wish you a good day - Job Baltes.