The conspiracy of growing up.

I just came up with an idea which I am spooked about. What if this long process we went through from when we were a child to all the way until we were 18 was just a process of brainwashing us to work for society and to rid us of our creativity so we would give ourselves to companies? Like you know think about it!

Yes, you do learn how to behave in society, but schools, like, from elementary school, middle school, and high school all brainwash you to tell you how to act. They dictate your behavior. They tell you how you should think and how you should engage in discussions.

Could it be that all this time when I thought I was being disciplined I was just being brainwashed by the higher ups with their picture of how they want a society which would be submissive to them that would do whatever they wanted? Okay, I did learn some things in school, but, like, all of this other stuff, in public schools, like, were they trying to brainwash me and like all of the rest of the students that attended public schools?

I've come to the conclusion that when you've reached the point of maturity it means that you've been conditioned in a certain way by society to think about things in life from a certain point of view. That's what I believe anyways.

The government should never tell you how to think. The government may give good advice on how to behave in a public scenario around people other than your family but you should never let the government control your behavior or the behavior of any of your kids. This kind of conditioning should be unconstitutional.

There are both similarities and differences with this idea. First, to be "Brainwashed", you need to have an ultimate goal. In this case, you suggest giving ourselves to companies. I'll examine this first.

To give ourselves to companies, what exactly to do you mean by that? Is it to ignore everything we think on our own and buy useless material objects to satisfy these "higher ups"? I seriously doubt that. There is a certain amount of brainwashing, but it is not instilled unto us by our parents, or the government, but by advertising. You see it everywhere, in movies now "conveniently placed", to TV shows so riddled with ads that the majority of the populus has retreated to TIVO to avoid it altogether.

Brainwashing as you know it is not as severe as you would think. How many shows have you watched or movies that you have attended where the previews are no longer previews for upcoming movies, but tv commercials for shows or products? The next new audi maybe? I can't tell you how many times I have cringed at the idea of seeing what I deperately try to avoid.

On to your second point, the government changing your lifestyle until you reach maturity. This IMO has nothing to do with government unless you are in a Socialist or Dictative state. Social changes are inevitable, and expected. You do not listen to the same music that your grandparents do, you do not act the same way. We are at all costs products of our environment. The people, places and things around us as we grow dictate who we will become. This in conjunction with our parent's hopful guidance will leave us with a firm grasp of self, and an even more hopeful grasp of what we want our world to be in the future, and a reason or motivation to make it happen.

On a similar note however, and quite contradictary, there are some elements of "brainwashing" mixed in with all of us, despite those of us who wish to have nothing to do with them.

Example: I am an admitted atheist, yet I still use the terms "Jesus Christ" when I am frustrated, or "God Damn" when I am pissed. This is not because I choose to believe in the meanings of these words, to me, they are just hollow citations given to a reaction of a particular situation. However, they have been put into my forefront of vocabulary by environment, not willing purpose.

Times change us all, we shift our ideas, our social structures, and our morals to suit the situations given to us. Is there a global conspiracy that threatens out very exsistance from the powers that be? I doubt it. Is there a growing pain in the butt that is societies unwillingness to help out it's fellow man in favor of helping him/herself first? Undoubtably. It is this selfish nature and drive that is putting newer generations out of touch.

I am 28, I grew up in a technological explosion. I have seen the birth of the internet, cell phones, and nintendo. Kids nowdays have less to worry about than how many more text messages they can squeeze in this month. Socializing is down, way down. I spend as much of my time as possible just inserting myself into random conversations, saying hello to people I have never met, nor will ever talk to again after that given moment. I leave people laughing, or with a very deep stimulating conversation under their belt. I try to embrace the world around me, rather than shut it out. I for all intensive purposes, am an unusual person.

Should we really think that the government is really going to shut us down completely, not really. I hate what this country has become, we are the laughing stock of the planet, and we are letting it happen. The top dog is an idiot, how can that make you think that they are really controlling us and every decision we make.

There have been numerous contributions to your theory though, but not so much as them controlling us for public behavior, but them trying to fool us for their own greedy purpose.

The Patriot Act is a great example. It is our subserviance that allows the dogs of war to be unleashed, not thier "ultimate control" as you may see it. We broke off from our oppressers along time ago, and kicked their butt all the way across the pond to defend our right to creativity, free speech, and free thought. Whether that has been lost in this country completely is unlikely, but only time will tell exactly.

No one can tell you what you think, only you have the power to make your life what you truly want it to be, and what better country to let that happen?

Regards,

King

reply to post by Frankidealist35


Can you come up with a better way to run the public education system? I understand what you are saying but I am curious what alternative you would recommend. Teaching large groups of children or teens, without proper discipline would be a very daunting task.

I am not saying it can't be done, I just prefer to read peoples suggestions for a better alternative.

Originally posted by Karlhungis
Can you come up with a better way to run the public education system?

Teaching large groups of children or teens, without proper discipline would be a very daunting task.

For starters, it is the lack of power that school teachers have that is rotting out school system from the inside out. When I was in elementary school, our principle was allowed to spank us. Our class was very well behaved. Students now days are so out of control not due to government issue, but because christian right-wing soccer moms have seen fit to sit on their bon-bon eating butts and dictate how the schools should be run. Students no longer listen to teachers because they know that they are immune to discipline in the traditional sense.

How many times have you heard of a student springing the "lawsuit" card on a teacher when the student is obviously wrong in his/her actions?

I did not mis-behave very often in school, not because I was afraid of getting beat, but because I genuinly respected my teacher as an authority figure. Children now days and teenagers do not have this same fear/respect that was commonplace in decades past. The interevening hand of the parent in everyday school practice is what is driving our society down the crapper.

School is, was, and always supposed to be a source for trained individuals to mold young minds to accept and balance the world around them. Parents work on the rest of their child's social skills at home.

reply to post by Karlhungis

I went to a private school for my last two years of high-school and I would improve upon public schools exactly the same way my private school did. I would start by implementing programs that would improve social skills among young teenagers, starting from their freshman year in high school, where they would learn how to be around other people. I know this sounds like a joke but more and more people need the social skills to exist in the real world. A lot of people don't have them. My private school realized that it was important that people need social skills so it taught them to us.

Also, I would make the class size smaller, and, I would make the school size smaller as well. It's nice to be around people from other middle-schools whom you've never seen before and it's nice to be around your friends from your middle-schools that you went to when you are in high-school but like it's impossible to learn well in an environment with so many people. My school which was a elementary school, a middle school, and a high-school only had like 100 people in it altogether. It was a lot nicer than some public school with 3000 people.

I would also hire more qualified teachers. Not every teacher at a public school is qualified to do their job. A lot of them aren't and that's why people don't learn very well at public schools.

I would also try to get people more motivated to get good grades. Once people lose their motivation to succeed they become depressed and they don't want to do much of anything.

Originally posted by Kingalbrect79
For starters, it is the lack of power that school teachers have that is rotting out school system from the inside out. When I was in elementary school, our principle was allowed to spank us. Our class was very well behaved.

I agree with you on this point.

Students now days are so out of control not due to government issue, but because christian right-wing soccer moms have seen fit to sit on their bon-bon eating butts and dictate how the schools should be run. Students no longer listen to teachers because they know that they are immune to discipline in the traditional sense.

How many times have you heard of a student springing the "lawsuit" card on a teacher when the student is obviously wrong in his/her actions?

Your premise is correct but you are blaming the wrong people. It's not 'right-wing soccer moms', it's the liberal local & federal government running the schools into the ground. The education system has been run by liberal democrats for years now and it has done nothing but decline.

Originally posted by WhatTheory
Your premise is correct but you are blaming the wrong people. It's not 'right-wing soccer moms', it's the liberal local & federal government running the schools into the ground. The education system has been run by liberal democrats for years now and it has done nothing but decline.

I am far from political in any sense, so forgive me if my reference to politicl alignment is off, but isn't it the "over-pissed" parents that push legislation to force out good teachers?

PTA organizations don't really help anymore either, as they always seem to be overriden by the school board when they do try to improve student-teacher relations.

]Originally posted by Karlhungis
I know this sounds like a joke but more and more people need the social skills to exist in the real world. A lot of people don't have them.

This was exactly my point. Social skills among kids have gone straight into the toilet, and they are a bunch of selfish brats who think the world owes them something. I am not speaking about every single kid, just a growing majority.

Well I mean it makes some sense why you would think so. I wouldnt rule it out. I often wondered the same thing. In school everything you do is so repetitive. It does seem like theyre trying to train a bunch of sheep.