Are We Brainwashed to the Point that we don't live our own lives?

cherryghost

A thought occurred tonight as I was watching the fairly unfunny Big Bang Theory bloopers. I ended up zoning out of the scenes and started listening to the laughter track, listening to it loop over and over with minor differences in each track. The laugh tracks are there to tell us when to laugh. They manipulate us, and in some ways they make us laugh at situations that aren't even funny.

For the past 150 years we have been living our lives, walking down streets, reading newspapers, browsing the internet, looking at ads. Whether some of you choose to believe it or not, they force us down a road with little or no choice. Even back in the dark ages, religious oppression and prophets gave us 2 options; follow your orders or die in a ditch.

I guess at the end of the day, we're just brainwashed zombies in a corrupt system and it will always be the case.

Thoughts?

Richard Dower

yes, I am a slave.

Where To

Whatever you say Cherry.

Hank Scorpio

Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a ****ing big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suit on hire purchase in a range of ****ing fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the **** you are on Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing ****ing junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, ****ed up brats you spawned to replace yourselves. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?

AngryHippie

Lots of people are utterly brain-dead rather than brain washed.
I like to think that I am more or less independently minded:eek:

NIMAN

Watching The Big Bang Theory was your problem.

If there was no canned laughter in it, no-one would ever laugh at anything in it.

Richard Dower

NIMAN wrote: »

Watching The Big Bang Theory was your problem.

If there was no canned laughter in it, no-one would ever laugh at anything in it.

:rolleyes: - you've clearly never watched it....its the best sitcom in the last 20 years!

cherryghost

AngryHippie wrote: »

I like to think that I am more or less independently minded:eek:

Are you sure?

1ZRed

I don't know about you but I have not been browsing the internet for 150 years, as bad as I am with it.

Czarcasm

You're not forced to do anything really, you just have to be prepared to live with the consequences of your actions.

Every human being is born with free will. Brainwashing by third parties though is easier achieved with feeble minded people who choose not to exercise that free will, instead taking whatever is given to them as the easier option.

Czarcasm

Richard Dower wrote: »

:rolleyes: - you've clearly never watched it....its the best sitcom in the last 20 years!

A bit subjective there Richard. Everyone can name their favorite sitcom and say it was the best sitcom in the last 20 years.

Sitcoms and canned laughter aren't my thing personally though.

HTML5!

Richard Dower wrote: »

:rolleyes: - you've clearly never watched it....its the best sitcom in the last 20 years!

Oh my God! Someone has a different opinion than yours!

Saying it's the best sitcom in the last 20 years doesn't make it so.

I've given it a chance and it's utter sh!te.

Back on topic.

I think most people are coniditioned to live a certain way

Most of us including myself probably will fall into the 'regular' way of living (married, kids etc), but there's lots you can do to make this life your own so you're not just living the rat race.

Besides, how else can you live? It would be great to take off to an island somewhere and live somewhat independantly, but what are you going to achieve there?

Despite its fault, many of us are living in a world where we've many opportunities and avenues in which we can grow academically and spiritually.

So we can build the life we want for ourselves, but are we building the life we think we want? That's the question! Wait was that Cherryghost's question?! F*ck it, I haven't slept a wink all night, that's my excuse!

Chuck Stone

cherryghost wrote: »

Whether some of you choose to believe it or not, they force us down a road with little or no choice.

Who be they?

NIMAN

Richard Dower wrote: »

:rolleyes: - you've clearly never watched it....its the best sitcom in the last 20 years!

I have, and its sh1t.

minidazzler

If you feel you are being forced down a path then stop and say No. If nothing happens then it's all in your head and stop complaining.

If someone tries to force you further stab his ass.... *note: This is not legal advice*

kneemos

I don't think we're that manipulated,if we don't like something we steer clear of it as with the big bang,the choice is boggling these days.Advertising does I believe guide us by the hand though and people should be made more aware of advertising techniques and the psychology involved.

yermanoffthetv

Richard Dower wrote: »

:rolleyes: - you've clearly never watched it....its the best sitcom in the last 20 years!

You clearly dont watch much comedy then. Arrested development, its always sunny in Philly' Black books, Spaced...thats just for starters

Sinfonia

yermanoffthetv wrote: »

You clearly dont watch much comedy then. Arrested development, its always sunny in Philly' Black books, Spaced...thats just for starters

Honestly, don't waste your time.

Time to go mobile

AngryHippie wrote: »

Lots of people are utterly brain-dead rather than brain washed.
I like to think that I am more or less independently minded:eek:

Have you ever met someone who says they are dependently minded?

IceFjoem

Richard Dower wrote: »

:rolleyes: - you've clearly never watched it....its the best sitcom in the last 20 years!

Hardly, try watching it without the laugh-track:

Still funny?

BrensBenz

Where do you draw the line between conforming to peer pressure / societal expectations and being brain-washed?

I feel I'm being manipulated by devious marketeers every time I go to Tesco but then I see (carefully selected and edited) footage from North Korea and think "isn't it great to be free". Later, I brush my teeth with the latest breath-freshening tooth paste, put on a "suitable" tie, drive my Eurobox to the office and engage in conformance-related activities for the expected duration. Weekends are occupied by a selection of those activities deemed acceptable by my tribe.

Our neighbours to the East seem to be brain-washed to slightly different rails, similar to above but include an acceptance of "their place" on the ladder, with Betty and Philo Windsor at the top and whoever the media tell them is bottom this week. Their “eccentric” wears odd socks while, in Ireland, he’s just a slack b@$t@rd.

We're not individuals!
We're workers!
We're consumers!
Our purpose in life is the move money from one pocket to another so that the 0.1% can take a bit of it and stay incredibly wealthy.

kiffer

They live, We sleep.

hawkwind23

I voted yes. I've given this so much thought over here years.
An alogy I have is that if you walk into Tesco to buy dinner for an occasion, at what point are you exercising free will?
What thought processes will have been manipulated? What thought processes are being massaged as you walk around?
You may feel you are acting with choice and independent thought but you are not.
Start to pan out now......
Why did you opt for tescos over aldi etc?
Why are you shopping for this occasion?
How did you get to this point?
And on and on
START TO DECONSRUCT

Czarcasm

dolanbaker wrote: »

We're not individuals!
We're workers!
We're consumers!
Our purpose in life is the move money from one pocket to another so that the 0.1% can take a bit of it and stay incredibly wealthy.

Speak for yourself thanks. You make the choice to work and you make the choice to consume. Our purpose in life is to make the most of it while we can, not to covet what everyone else has.

You can choose to live your life as an individual, or you can choose to regurgitate snappy soundbites.

Sinfonia

Czarcasm wrote: »

You can choose to live your life as an individual, or you can choose to regurgitate snappy soundbites.

By announcing the former, you've chosen the latter :P

checkyabadself

bazinga.

Mr Simpson

*Gets popcorn and waits for Run_to_da_hills*

Czarcasm

Sinfonia wrote: »

By announcing the former, you've chosen the latter :P

Gaaaah! :mad:

Too early now in the morning for that craic Sinfornia! :pac:

Crooked Jack

I'm a bit hesitant about buying wholesale into the "we're all mindless drones" (usually followed by, "except me") thing but at times I do genuinely feel like I'm being bombarded with advertising and am being cattled and corralled about. This happens mostly in supermarkets/shopping centres or when waiting in line for something touristy.
The thing i find hardest is knowing the difference between when you're genuinely being herded around as a faceless consumer and when I'm just being narcissistic and self-indulgent, looking around with derision at all these other people greedily grabbing at the things they are told they want when I'm just as bad, if not worse.

9959

Jim Corr has made some very challenging observations on this topic, curiously I can't recall any of them.
I must be 'brainwashed'.

Furious_George

cherryghost wrote: »

A thought occurred tonight as I was watching the fairly unfunny Big Bang Theory bloopers. I ended up zoning out of the scenes and started listening to the laughter track, listening to it loop over and over with minor differences in each track. The laugh tracks are there to tell us when to laugh. They manipulate us, and in some ways they make us laugh at situations that aren't even funny.

For the past 150 years we have been living our lives, walking down streets, reading newspapers, browsing the internet, looking at ads. Whether some of you choose to believe it or not, they force us down a road with little or no choice. Even back in the dark ages, religious oppression and prophets gave us 2 options; follow your orders or die in a ditch.

I guess at the end of the day, we're just brainwashed zombies in a corrupt system and it will always be the case.

Thoughts?

Its not canned laughter. Saw a making of documentary on it and its filmed in front of a live studio audience. Not to say the audience arent being encouraged to laugh at certain points.

Live your life however you see fit op, there is a lot of brainwashing going on alright though through news marketing etc etc and it is hard not to be affected by it.

Sergeant

We're all being controlled by the Jewish Freemason Lizard People and their control of the media and banking.

You think The Big Bang Theory is as bad as it gets. Not even close, man. Soon we will all be lobotomised and forced to watch endless repeats of Who's the Boss.

9959

Sergeant wrote: »

We're all being controlled by the Jewish Freemason Lizard People and their control of the media and banking.........

Not forgetting people from Leitrim.

The greatest trick Leitrim ever played was convincing the world that it did not exist.

StormWarrior

You should read David Icke.

SEPT 23 1989

You can't bate the Matrix

Apolloyon

Fnord.

That is all.

9959

9959 wrote: »

Jim Corr has made some very challenging observations on this topic, curiously I can't recall any of them.
I must be 'brainwashed'.

George Carlin did an even better one!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q

donegal_road

When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other (Hoffer's Law)

Duggys Housemate

The whole living in capitalism hating capitalism is as old as capitalism.

If you want to be anti-capitalist then live like Charles Ingalls (Laura's father). In the 1st book - little house in the forest - we join the family when Charles had

1) cleared part of the forest for the house
2) cleared part of the forest for the farm.
3) built the house from the cut wood.
4) built the furniture.
5) brought in the food (farmed or hunted) every day

The wife made most of the the clothing and bed clothes from the skin of the animals they hunted. The fuel was chopped firewood. Toys were whittled from wood. What surplus they had from deer hide sales went on seed and some minor luxuries - the odd dress, a violin. That's not that long ago in human generations.

There is nothing stopping you living like that - the Amish are close enough. Otherwise can the whining.

Wibbs

You really don't have to buy into it, or even buy into all or most of it. So long as someone else does you're golden Most of all you have the choice to buy into it or not. Take cars. Why would anyone in their right mind buy a new one? Huge depreciation(unless you're rich enough to be buying Italian exotica. In which case, marry or adopt me), generally speaking nothing extra over even a year old car. For the price of a basic econobox, an office cubicle with wheels, you could buy a ten year old fancy yoke if that's your bag. Goes for lots of stuff.

Even computers. 10 years ago when you upgraded after a couple of years, by god you'd notice the speed difference. These days not so much and really not so much for the majority of users who are doing stuff like this, watching movies, writing emails etc. Hell people forget that we used to do amazing photoshop/sound/movie production stuff on kit from say 5 years ago that most would laugh at today. And that's computers folks. A massive part of our lives that are actually getting better and better over time. Most of the crap we surround ourselves with usually doesn't.

Basically if you choose and you do have that choice, you can live a nice life and have nice "stuff" while not buying into the crasser and pricier end of consumer culture. And that goes for information too. While lots of stuff is vying for our attention we have never had so much choice in choosing which stuff to buy into. Or not.

staker

Take smoking- if ever there's an example of brainwashing for monetary gain despite all the negatives associated smoking's one.

Aquarius34

Czarcasm wrote: »

Speak for yourself thanks. You make the choice to work and you make the choice to consume. Our purpose in life is to make the most of it while we can, not to covet what everyone else has.

You can choose to live your life as an individual, or you can choose to regurgitate snappy soundbites.

You're a slave too, so get over it and stop trying to think you're not. You're a consumer. If you don't work, you will be left to live on scraps and live on a state income that barely supports the life of rat. Yet the reality is, the majority of the human race live as a race of worker ants to keep the 0.1percent rich, wealthy and living luxurious lives.

To make the most out of life, is to wake up out of this run around mad matrix of living like ants....

Aquarius34

Deleted User wrote: »

George Carlin did an even better one!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q

I think that was his last public speech. Which is kind of Ironic to say the least. But he was right on it with that clip. I miss that man like crazy. We don't have enough people like him on that planet and It really depresses me.

Duggys Housemate

staker wrote: »

Take smoking- if ever there's an example of brainwashing for monetary gain despite all the negatives associated smoking's one.

Not at all. It's an addiction. The advertising is banned. The packs carry grotesque images mandated by government and people carry on despite the advertising. Which is negative.

Advertising has some effect, but not as much as advertisers or anti- capitalists think.

Johro

Your poll needs more than 'Yes', 'No', or WTF' options.
I would tick the 'To a certain degree' box.

celticcrash

How dare you ask am I brainwashed.

I Vote Fianna Fail.
I vote Fianna Fail.
I vote Fianna Fail.

Duggys Housemate

Aquarius34 wrote: »

You're a slave too, so get over it and stop trying to think you're not. You're a consumer. If you don't work, you will be left to live on scraps and live on a state income that barely supports the life of rat. Yet the reality is, the majority of the human race live as a race of worker ants to keep the 0.1percent rich, wealthy and living luxurious lives.

To make the most out of life, is to wake up out of this run around mad matrix of living like ants....

Join the Amish.

Aquarius34

Duggys Housemate wrote: »

Not at all. It's an addiction. The advertising is banned. The packs carry grotesque images mandated by government and people carry on despite the advertising. Which is negative.

Advertising has some effect, but not as much as advertisers or anti- capitalists think.

It's made addictive, it's made to sell, and it has chemicals in it that not only poisons you but also dumbs you down. Smoking is dumb to begin with anyway. So it stands as a point in itself.

Aquarius34

Duggys Housemate wrote: »

Join the Amish.

Eh, No. I'll be myself.. Quite content with doing so.

staker

Duggys Housemate wrote: »

Not at all. It's an addiction. The advertising is banned. The packs carry grotesque images mandated by government and people carry on despite the advertising. Which is negative.

Advertising has some effect, but not as much as advertisers or anti- capitalists think.

Those images prick the logical part of our brain, not the sub-conscience. That's why they're ineffective imo.

They're far cuter at the actual marketing though. Remember this?silk cut purple

I know it's banned but I'm just talking in principle:)