BEWARE: we are all deceived to some extent; and we are all unaware of the extent and depth of our own conditioning
“This business of not drifting into extreme ideology is very, very important in life. If you want to end up wise, heavy ideology is very likely to prevent that outcome.” {Charlie Munger]
“You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.” (Jesus, Matthew 7:5)
There is a balance that we must strike between self-examination and self-esteem. Just because we feel good about ourselves, does not mean that our minds are not playing tricks on us.
Don't believe everything you think.
Don't believe everything you say.
Don't believe everything you hear.
Don't believe everything you read.
Like it or not, believe it or not, we have all been brainwashed since childhood by cultural conditioning through constant automatic downloading of external messages. Everywhere we turn, there are messages from media and marketing, politics and preaching, education, consumer society, and the powerful conformity of culture telling us
what to think,
how to think,
why to think,
what to value,
what to believe,
who’s right,
who’s wrong.
This conditioning is sustained by its own invisibility and familiarity.
"As long as I don't see my own thinking errors, then 'I'm right.'" (invisibility)
"As long as those around me think like me, then 'I'm right.'" (familiarity)
This is part of the lies we have been fed since childhood.
And now there are even more powerful lies being spread like a virus of the mind through social media and propaganda.
Social Conditioning: the process of training or accustoming a person or animal to behave in a certain way or to accept certain circumstances.
This became more and more clear to me as I began to notice that one of the best predictors of human values and beliefs, including politics, religion, prejudices, beauty, ugliness, righteousness, evil, and even “the other’s” worthiness of life or death is something as concrete, tangible, predictable as a person’s zip code. This is true all around the world. And yet we thoughtlessly proclaim our absolute truth and rightness while damning you and your absolute wrongness.
We are not born human. We are born as a label. We then spend the rest of our lives doing one of two things: confirming that label or becoming human.
“Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their own customs, privileges, or beliefs. This state of mind is not common, but it is essential for right thinking;”
~ Leo Tolstoy (September 9, 1828 – November 20, 1910[2]), was a Russian writer many consider to have been one of the world's greatest novelists.
I see that, as a human being, I am the result of innumerable influences, social compulsions, religious impressions, and that if I try to find reality, truth, or God, that very search will be based on the things I have been taught, shaped by what I have known, conditioned by my education and by the influences of the environment in which I live. So, can I be free of all that? To be free, I must first know for myself that my mind is conditioned, that is, I must be fully aware that I am not really a human being, but a Hindu, a Catholic, a German, a Protestant, a communist, a socialist, or whatever it may be. I am born with a label, and this, or some other label of my own choosing, sticks to me for the rest of my life. I am born and die in one religion, or I change from one religion to another, and I think I have understood reality, God, but I have only perpetuated the conditioned mind, the label. Now, can I, as a human being, put all that away from me without any compulsion? – Krishnamurti, Hamburg 1956,Talk 6
BEWARE OF CONSTANT, SUBTLE DECEPTION
“The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart." (Alexander Solzhenitsyn)
"Two facts stand out as about contemporary electoral politics. The first is that almost nobody thinks they can be tricked or manipulated. The second is that almost everyone thinks lying politicians are manipulating the other side. These two facts ought to cause some pause for thought and introspection.
Yet it is quite uncommon to think that this capability [of being tricked and/or misled] extends to our own side, let alone ourselves. This is our shared exceptionalism: the commonly held belief that everyone can be manipulated but ourselves.
[An honest, needed response is] to admit that we are all capable of holding false beliefs, giving credence to bad arguments and having motivations other than we are aware of and tell ourselves we have."
The point is that they both presuppose that people are capable of being psychologically manipulated and being drawn to bad arguments.
http://armchairideology.blogspot.com/2019/
""I have what I call an 'iron prescription' that helps me keep sane when I drift toward preferring one intense ideology over another. I feel that I'm not entitled to have an opinion unless I can state the arguments against my position better than the people who are in opposition. I think that I'm qualified to speak only when I've reached that state…
"That is probably too tough for most people, although I hope it won't ever become too tough for me… This business of not drifting into extreme ideology is very, very important in life. If you want to end up wise, heavy ideology is very likely to prevent that outcome.” {Charlie Munger]
CALL OUT CULTURE
There seems to be a desire among young people to prove how “woke” they are by judging others online. “This idea of purity and that you’re never compromised and you’re always politically woke — you should get over that quickly,” Obama said, to laughs. “The world is messy. There are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws. People who you are fighting may love their kids, and share certain things with you.”
The speaker continued to tie the issue to activism:
“I do get a sense sometimes now among certain young people, and this is accelerated by social media — there is this sense sometimes of the way of me making change is to be as judgmental as possible about other people, and that’s enough. If I tweet or hashtag about how you didn’t do something right or used the wrong verb, then I can sit back and feel pretty good about myself. Did you see how woke I was, I called you out. Then I’m going to get on my TV and watch my show … That’s not activism. That’s not bringing about change. If all you’re doing is casting stones, you’re probably not going to get that far.”
(Obama speaking at an Obama Foundation event in Chicago)
Democracy demands freedom of speech and opinion, which, by definition, results in a wide diversity of ideas, beliefs. The success of any democracy depends on our ability to hold the tension between opposing ideas and ideals.
Cancel Culture and Call Out Culture can easily become the enemy of true democracy.
These popular trends tend to short circuit the very essence or life blood of democracy; the freeplay of ideas in order to understand both sides and the debate between the two. This short circuit is most damaging by not allowing us to understand “the other.” Instead those that differ are labeled, cancelled, and ostracized. This is nothing more and nothing less than the tactics of totalitarian takeover throughout history, one step at a time: Labeling, Categorizing, Dehumanizing, and Eliminating
CANCEL CULTURE
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cancel culture (or call-out culture) is a modern form of ostracism in which someone is thrust out of social or professional circles – whether it be online, on social media, or in person. Those who are subject to this ostracism are said to be "cancelled".[1] Merriam-Webster notes that to "cancel", as used in this context, means "to stop giving support to that person"[2] while Dictionary.com, in its pop-culture dictionary, defines cancel culture as "withdrawing support for (canceling) public figures and companies after they have done or said something considered objectionable or offensive."[3] The expression "cancel culture" has mostly negative connotations and is commonly used in debates on free speech and censorship.
The notion of cancel culture is a variant on the term call-out culture and constitutes a form of boycotting involving an individual (usually a celebrity) who is deemed to have acted or spoken in a questionable or controversial manner.[2][4][5][6][7]
For those at the receiving end of cancel culture, the consequences can lead to loss of reputation and income, from which it can be hard to recover.
For further thoughts:
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