Enemies at the Gate

The mental faculties we do not use become weaker and overshadowed by those we do use. This behavior is particularly relevant in context of the media saturated culture of today. Of the many forms of media at play in the modern world, television is probably the worst offender, especially considering how our children grow up watching. We sit and we watch like a one-way receiver tuned to the channel of our chosen broadcast, and putting aside for a moment the content of what we watch, the critical issue is that the thinking part has already been done for us. The time we spend absorbing pre-designed information robs us of the time we could spend designing our own. Media in effect trains us not to THINK at all, or at least not about anything worth thinking about. What kind of a brain does Neuroplasticity build in response to engaging in this mindless activity?

Neuroplasticity always responds by optimizing the brain's ability to support whatever activity the mind engages in. Activities like watching television optimizes the brain's capability to enter a passive vegetative state to assimilate information as it's presented. The information is presented complete and pre-formatted deliberately to unburden the mind from any need of active participation. Approximately one third of broadcast content consists of advertisements, which are reinforced by the barrage of passive advertising that literally fills our world. Experts in content creation, working from decades of extensive research into human psychology, are paid billions of dollars to influence, manipulate, and outright control our thinking behaviors, and all to serve a corporate agenda that satisfies their best interests, not ours. We are led to believe that advertisements are a necessary evil to finance delivery of entertaining content. But let's never forget that corporate dollars drive the whole system. Never think for a moment that the remaining two thirds are not leveraged to compliment their corporate agenda. Like a cruel joke told at our expense, all media broadcast industries openly refer to their output signal as "Programming".

Remember that Neuroplasticity does not know the difference between fantasy and reality. The quality of our critical thinking and decision making depends on the information stored in the brain's memory. If this information was absorbed while the mind was asleep or otherwise engaged, then what forms the basis of our thoughts, opinions, and decisions? Shouldn't we be actually living and learning for ourselves instead of blindly adopting a corporate skewed vision of life?

Imagine a world populated by billions of people, never realizing their minds are not totally their own, and all under control of a dominating few with a diabolical agenda born of corporate self interest. No doubt the stuff of some great science fiction. But wait a minute - We don't have to imagine this fantastic scenario - We are in fact already living it.

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