A Prison For Your Mind

Source: devolutionx.com/?p=589

I remember watching the Matrix 10 years ago, and how much captivating and philosophical it was. It left a great impression on me to this day. I often find myself quoting memorable phrases, like when Morpheus tries to open Neo’s mind “… you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind”. I saw within the movie many metaphors representing the real world we were living in. Coincidentally, the concept of freedom has been branded enormously for the last 10 years in North-America either by the Bush administration or Stephen Harper’s in Canada. Outrageous and immoral wars are fought in the name of liberty, by those same criminals who call themselves politicians. I realize now how deeply imprisoned we are in a cell that is right under our nose but that can only be visible to those who have truly understood the sick and twisted nature of the North-American culture.

Conformity it seems, is vital for many of us because it gives the sense of belonging to a group and feelings of acceptance. This is deeply rooted in the human mind since the dawn of Man for survival purposes. When you think, talk and act in the same way as a group of people, you are unconsciously sending a message to others that say “Hi I am like you, I am of no threat”. Group leaders know how to exploit this psychology feature to manipulate people and submit them for their own rules. In a private company for example, the marketing team will go to a great extent, integrating and brainwashing their employees with what they call in corporate lingo the “core company values”. Political parties hang on every street corner their slogans and distribute bumper stickers and lapel pins. Advertisers flood televisions, radios and magazines with images to get people into buying their products. I remember back in my high school days during the 90’s, students who were considered cool had to ware clothing with popular brand names on them. Failure to do so would only isolate you and become a target for bullies. The tactics used are different for each group, but the goal is the same : create an illusion of conformity for the mass, so that they can dictate a behavior to follow. Just look around you how people easily conform without questioning their choices. They all obediently follow each other in line for work at rush hour, at the department stores for satisfactory spending, at their office desks staring at computer screens or gloriously marching with weapons to free the non-believers of their lives.

Control is the exact opposite of change. Controllers will most definitely try to define your reality for the purpose of isolating you from others and your own truth. You will often find yourself feeling upset, angry and deflated and then they will try to persuade you to do things they know you don’t like. Think about your own actions in the daily routine. Do you often find yourself altering your own personality, plans or views to fit someone else’s? This behavior can be present at work, like when your boss demands complete obedience of his employees. In my opinion, the best form of control is when you come and surrender your own freedom willingly. How many of you purchase unnecessary things just for the sake of consumption? Like buying a brand new car because it looks nice, a trip south to some beach resort, expensive dinners with wine, or fashion clothing. Some are even more “daring” than others and go for the killer combo of  “new house + new car + vacations to the south” in the same month. Remember that while you are having fun surfing on huge sales of don’t-pay-for-a-year thrills, you are tying both your hands and feet, willfully surrendering to your addiction for money, thus giving away the control of your life and mind to someone else. How many of you are able to take a few days off from work without negative effects?

Oppression in recent years has been very noticeable among law enforcers in Quebec where I live. Police officers have been handing out fines and arrest proceeds for ridiculous reasons. There’s the story of a woman who was handcuffed and ticketed for not holding the handrail on an escalator in a Montreal subway station (full story). It seems that Quebec is the world champion for ridiculous laws. Hard earned money made by regular citizens, is forcefully and legally taken away (aka taxes), to enforce these bastard laws. The most famous one is for the protection of the french language or “Loi 101″. Language police officials (OQLF) similar to the religious police of Saudi-Arabia, have the sole mission to impose the french-quebecois language upon everyone living in Quebec. Even during last year’s recession, while many stores were going out of business, the language Gestapo was harassing a shop owner to remove all the english from his store sign (full text). Another law made to humiliate honest citizens is to enforce recycling. Officials from the city of Montreal patrol the sidewalks on garbage days and open bags at random to see if people are throwing away recyclable items. At the same time, supermarkets throw away huge quantities of very good foods everyday but you don’t see any laws for this kind of waste. Furthermore if you are caught by police digging in their garbage you get arrested. Oppression is a tool used by a small group of people to place a heavy burden on the minds of everyone else and make their exploitation generally accepted.

How many of you have dreamed of leading an entire independent life where you could entirely live off of your own efforts? Let’s take farming for example. Where you can grow your own healthy foods and raise cattle in a natural way. You could buy a land and build a house on it. You would need to learn all about the basics of farming because you are dependent on the supermarket industry, and have forgotten all the basics our grand-parents used to know. You would also need to quit your present job. But this means no more steady revenue. Off course you cannot forget about paying your loans and all other amounts of money needed for expenses such as health treatments, school, taxes, utilities, etc. Do you have any savings? Off course you don’t because you spend every hard-earned penny on luxury. So you realize that you would still have to work for another 20 or 30 years to save up for such a project, and maybe, this can be possible with a small slight chance. That is if you are still healthy enough and got the money for it after retiring. So you quietly shake off that silly dream in your head, and bring yourself back to reality. Feel a little sad or desperate? Don’t worry, just grab your remote control for a mind numbing session of TV zapping comfort, and fool yourself into believing that you live in a free country.