On January 29th, 2008, 05:15 AM Scott-free wrote:
Quoting
Scott Free I am in control of my life - I just need to lose weight, quit smoking, drink responsibly, remember speed kills, watch my intake of trans fats, be multicultural, think green, wear a bicycle helmet, get regular exercise, rat on my neighbors, eat the recommended daily number of fresh fruits and vegetables, etc... yeah I'm in control... I would rather be free though...
Hey, Scott..., you sound like the average Canadian, including myself with a few alterations! :lol:
O.k., all those are minor things and could be turned around, IF you (and I) really wanted to! So, mind over matter - change the things you
can change. Stop whining!;-)
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I think you missed my point. I was sarcastically commenting on the Canadian government's propaganda machines efforts to control our thinking.
Mass brainwashing is done all over the globe. It cannot be avoided, especially not now during the information age. But there will always be some bright people who know what's going on. Actually, Scott-Free, the government is helping you to stay alert, to take nothing at face-value, always double check what THEY tell you. Instead of complaining and fearing the government is trying to control you, simply laugh at them and say, 'ha... I know exactly what YOU are up to, YOU won't fool
me! Haha."
I was lamenting our slide into totalitarianism where people are routinely being charged with thought crimes in this country
Never heard of it! Or do you mean you can't dispute the Holocaust? That's forbidden all over Europe as well! So, who cares? It's history - finito! What else could you be thinking about? We still do live in a democracy, just in case you didn't know!:lol: If you don't like something - tell your MP!
... and every fifth TV ad is telling us what to think, what to care about, what is killing us, etc.
Turn the TV off! Don't listen! Make up your own mind... you are still free to do at least that!
My meaning was that, though people have the idea that they are free, they, in reality, are far from being free. This is classic double-think where someone can hold two conflicting ideals. Namely, they think they are free but they also hold to beliefs that were put there by government and NGOs.
ONLY if you let them!
They hold firmly to the beliefs as though they had real personal experiences behind their thinking but, in reality, they are derived from unauthentic experience. So, while they can list off hundreds of things they "can't" do or shouldn't do, because they saw an ad somewhere with a crying mother or child, they can likewise think they are free.
If you are the one who sees through all this, tell the people around you... not in a way of preaching like the Jehovah's Witnesses. Quietly tell them what you think and why.
To generalize the situation, and I think that is what you mean, where the government tells us we need to lose weight and we accept that as necessary, then we are actually following an order, it is not our own idea to lose weight, but the governments. Therefore, you think, we can't be free, even if we say out loud, "I am freee...!" That would be a contradiction, wouldn't it? So, "I'm living an illusion" would be the logical consequence. Alright, IF it doesn't bother me I can still say "I'm in control of my life!!"
So, while a person can list all the reasons they shouldn't do this or that thing they have no real experience that explains why.
True!
They have testimony and questionable statistics and accept the message without examining the evidence. By not examining the evidence they are able to hold conflicting beliefs.
That is true, too! All we can do is trust... trust our parents, our teachers, our best friend, our partner and our government. It is impossible to inspect and verify EVERYTHING.... not possible! So, in order not to feel suspicious, victimized and worrisome all the time, we have to let go and simply trust. That's why we have a democratic government in Canada, and that is why we have a right to know what is going on in Afghanistan, just as an example.
The Una-bomber comes to mind! Apparently he was fed-up somehow with the government, with society and moved into a shack in a forested area, away from everything. But still, he wasn't free, because he carried revenge in his heart.
Then there was this guy with the grizzly bears. Another guy from California who went on a hike and lived in an abandoned bus in the woods. They wanted to be free and in a sense they were, but in the end they parished miserably.
Then there is Nelson Mandela, who spent years in prison, worked hard in a stone quarry. He was physically restrained, but his spirit was free to soar! They couldn't crush him. That is what I would call "to be free".
If enough people do this (don't examine evidence), then a concept say like "speed kills" (speed is a factor in fewer than 10% of accidents - alcohol and speed is the real killer) then the concept will become an accepted social norm without evidence. Then insurance companies and government can implement all kinds of controls that make no sense whatsoever in the face of actual evidence. That is not freedom - it is totalitarianism; the control of what and how people think.
A good example ... I see some light at the end of this conversation!;-)
"Evidence has been tempered with," it's called. A huge and classic example is the war in Iraq!
I don't want to live like the Una-Bomber or the grizzly-man, so I will have to say. for now I accept the things I have no control over, and I live in the same boat with millions of other souls, except I have peace in my heart.
But, really, what do people care if they are going along with it all because it "makes sense" to them and so they are choosing to behave as they do, so in reality they are free?
Yes, I would say they are. Scott, often people put hard to handle problems into God's hands, they surrender their power to God, so to speak, because they cannot live in a conflict forever, there has to come the insight and the surrender.
I bet a lot of the tortured detainees have only survived because they surrendered to their God! They put their fate into his hands, because that is all they could do, and that gave them mental peace. That's what I imagine they would do, because that's what I perhaps would do, too in a similar situation.
Except for one small problem: they aren't actually free.
What is actual? :roll::roll::?:
HELP, SOMEONE!!!!
Loon is going to duck under now
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