Big words on the title, huge really. Hard words to perhaps even understand, or grasp. Let me explain what I mean.
Cognitive Dissonance is more or less when you feel uncomfortable tension which comes from holding two conflicting thoughts in the mind at the same time. So you believe that you are good but do something bad, causing you to feel discomfort, which is the essence of cognitive dissonance. You then justify your behavior. For example, you are environmental friendly so you use the public transport to go to work or school. However, you have a car. When you drive your car, you justify it “oh, I don’t drive it that much” or “why should I be the victim of doing the effort of being environmental friendly when no one else is”.
This is a very touchy subject I’m going to take now but it just brings out emotions out of me, and I no longer want to be quiet about it, which I think our society has done over the decades.
There was this experiment in the 60′s done on children. Depending on the eye color (blue or brown), you were either discriminated or enforced positively. The experiment was a simple experiment of what is happening even today – racism. The blue eyed children were the ‘privileged ones’ where they got extra recess time, positive enforcement and sorts. While the brown eye children didn’t get any privileges at all and the teacher had a negative tone in her voice. The blue eyed couldn’t play with the brown eyed. This was conditioning the children themselves to think that they’re dumber or better than the rest.
In the beginning the children were asked if there are any people underprivileged, they immediately thought of Black people and Indian (Native Americans). My first question is why do these under 10 year-old children think this? My thoughts: because the society has conditioned it in their brains from early on through the authority, mainly parents and teachers. Furthermore, more often than not even today Black people think they’re ‘dumber’ than the rest. Why? Because they have been taught to believe this. However, most cannot even say why they feel the way they do, it goes back that far.
I can say that I have grown up in a rather privileged conditions – my parents have always reinforced of what I have done, believed in me, told me I can do anything, and told me the world is open for me. This is very positive conditioning. I have followed this path. The only thing that has had a negative enforcement has been when I was bullied at school, and I have learned that his is where most of my insecurities come from, if not all.
You may be wondering what ignorance has to do with all of this. How many times do you justify what you know you’re doing wrong, that you’re not? Or tell yourself “but because the others..” or “I was asked to do this”. What many people don’t seem to realize is that media has a lot to do with this. They describe the person who has done a crime “black male, about 6 feet tall..” and eventually it will be in our heads. The next time you see a tall black male, you feel intimidated, and you don’t even realize why you feel that way. In other words by justifying our way of thinking or doing things is reinforcing ignorance.
What do you know about your country’s government? Surely you have an idea, and the information you get is through mainstream media. How often do you hear the other side of the coin? So, do you know what exactly is going on, when you’re given only one side? I just want you to think about what impact the media has in your life but also what you truly know about your government and if they’re truly thinking of YOUR benefits or their own.
Think about TV and what comes out of the channels, mainly these days it’s rubbish. A reality show, one after another. Sexuality has been part of it the past couple of decades. Think about music videos – children look up to the artists they listen to, and yet they are very sexual videos you see. Often objectifying women. Rihanna who happens to be one of the top names in music industry, has a video out where she’s in chains, men almost violating her, which she doesn’t even seem to mind. While this video was banned in some countries, in most countries it was shown even during day time. What kind of a message does that send to children? Don’t even get me started on fashion..
It seems that because we are so busy all the time, we don’t even have the time to have a proper meal with the family anymore. In fact, now we either go to a fast food joint or get a pre-made meal from the store. All of the pre-made meals are made in a factory, containing unnatural things that we shouldn’t even have. Food is to be enjoyed from nature, how did the cavemen survive? They hunt their own food, went fishing, used nature’s own resources. As to fast-food joints, someone once told me when they lived in a country where there is a fast-food joint in every corner that they felt a bit dumber, it was as if something happened in their brain. We need good nutrition from nature.
What about education? Why do the best schools cost so much, that only the ‘elite’ can afford to go there? Why aren’t the other schools acknowledged as well?
Somehow, I get the feeling that we are being held down by our society, the government, the elite – what ever you want to call it. It feels as if they don’t want us to be well-educated or think anymore. We don’t even have jobs for uneducated people, and there are studies even to become a cleaner. Don’t you just hear the bells ringing, don’t you see the red flag flickering? Yet, we continue to obey the rules, work in places where you don’t even need to use your brain.
With all of that said, we are starting rebel against all of this. People are breaking out of negative situations. We are finally starting to wake up. However, you don’t answer to negative with negative. Nothing pisses off more than if you stay calm, enforce positivism to the people in control. Negative only reinforces negativity, and then it becomes an endless spiral. If you break out of that, stay calm and show love to everyone, even strangers, this world would be a much happier place.
I would like to end this post with the following. As small or corny as this may sound, I find it to be very accurate; everything starts with yourself. Please, start with yourself, and stand-up. Make a change within. If we all think this way, we will be together, we will be united. Nothing can stop us anymore. My final question to you is, with all that you have learned – Are you being brainwashed?
