You become what you see
Do you ever get the feeling that everyone around you is brainwashed?
Sometimes I feel like an observer of what the media portrays, and it seems that one by one, people turn into what they see. They believe what they’re told, without any reflection or scrutiny. And their inner guidance has left the building.
I’m not saying that I have been untouched. This thought appeared because I was triggered by my own brainwashing.
I was recently driving behind a big pickup truck, and I immediately became tense. It wasn’t the size of the truck. I’m happy to cruise along 18-wheelers. It was the type.
Growing up, I was bombarded with images of men in pickup trucks, on which a confederate flag was firmly planted, harassing, beating, and killing black people.
That wasn’t a personal experience for me (at least, not in this timeline), but it was ingrained in my consciousness. Thankfully, though, I was aware enough of this reaction, and I thought about why.
Every trigger has a story behind it. If we had no stories, then we would live life seeing every event as neutral. If you had no story, that seemingly innocuous comment your mom made would not get under your skin.
My story was men in pickup trucks harm people like me. It’s not an open place to be. Unconsciously, that would be an interaction that starts with animosity from the jump.
Along these lines, growing up in Virginia, I was also fed tons of reading material about slavery. I lived right by former plantations. What affect does that have in the mind of a black child? That you are a victim, you are a slave.
And the sad part is, focusing on those atrocities still makes victimhood and slavery the focus, so when that black child becomes an adult, they are still seen as someone to take care of like a child – even to themselves.
We become what we see. We see what we believe. This is just one example that thankfully I’m aware of, and I can scrutinize these beliefs.
What have you been taught, that you just take for granted as true?
I pose the question again – do you ever get the feeling that everyone around you is brainwashed? But then again, maybe it’s me.
