People are free to do whatever they want. Doesn't mean you won't get beaten up for it or put in jail or some other undesired consequence.

The media only controls those who want to be controlled. If you seek status through material goods, you're on the hook. If you seek status through intellectual capacity, you're not even watching tv because you're studying. But you can still be influenced by society. Many do/buy/like/dislike things because their parents did. They grow up, move out, go shopping on their own and suddenly discover that there are other brands/kinds/sizes/colors. Everything you see, read and hear influences you to an extent. The important thing is to figure out what you want and what makes you happy. I need the car to run, not to be a Mercedes. I need the steak to be unspoiled, untainted and a good bargain, not to be served up at Morton's for $50. I need the watch to keep accurate time, not to live up to a certain bling standard. Knowing these things makes me capable of deciding freely what to get. I like the peace of the mountains where I live and not the frenzy of the business district I used to work in. That dictates my choice of where to exist personally and professionally. People only let the t.v. do their thinking for them if they're incapable of doing it for themselves.

Wow are you oppressed and also ignorant. Think about it, you have not given any of this one bit of serious though but to say "Its against the United States and its called "socialization". hmmmm I beg the differ, guess you have always done and never questioned anything but what you were told or what you have seen on television, books media etc.. Wish I understood how to live as a puppet but then again my mind thinks freely as yours thinks socially.

And by the way.. I am from the United States and do love my country, so dont ever in one moment think that your opinion rises higher than mine because my thought is mine your thoughts are considered socialization.

Have fun.. Puppet!!!!

When everythign that we touch, see, feel,... blah blah blah ... I uderstand what Justmytype is saying. It is that we all have to obey the law or we get fined. Just like in anything else you have to protect yourself during Sex, if not you get what you not like. ***Babies ... Stds ..*** blah blah blah ... But you are not conditoned to do those things those things you do because you are using your given right at birth to use your mind. But what he is saying is that if you want to be rich you do so in a format that you choose. But there is no more just living and becoming this is not a free nation as of that anymore. There is no more Civilizing the Indians. We are all civilized now and that is scary b/c for the first age in HUman history ever continent is found and we are not content with it we want more we want to find more so finally people are forced to do what Great Philosophers have been doing for centuries learning to use their head to try and find something useful that may help us learn something. Just alot of information to peopel to pick apart ... and learn and discuss so I can learn from it. Thanks .. ..

What makes you happy is what makes you happy. If you are happy spending your money on fuctionless objects, needlessly expensive watches, flashy cars, flashy clothes thats your decision. Just because someone keeps up to date with the media doesn't mean they can't find happiness in a sunset, or a dramatically cloudy sky. I'd even say the person who keeps up to date with the rest of the world has the full choice of things that makes them happy. Nobody has put chains on me. Yes money runs the world, but thats the way it is i'm afraid, don't wanna conform, then give up everything and try to be self sufficient on some un owned patch of land in the middle of no where if it makes you happy.

Being Free ... and having "freedom" are two different things to me. I can close my eyes and go to sleep and I can control my dreams and be and do anything that I want. Everyone always ask me how I am not so sure. I used to have nightmares really really bad. They were always the same. Accept for a couple of them and they are all really strange. There were about 5 or 6 of them that scared me so bad that I will forever remember them. In my dreams sometimes I feel that bad feeling come over me and I usually wake up. Or don't remember the dream. But anyways ... Being free to me is being free in the head and mentally free and able to speak what you think and not really care what this is goign to do to your current believes. B/c Baptist and Catholics are not free they are not even allowed to read their own bible and learn for themselves and in EARLY Catholocism the Catholics were not allowed to talk to god only the pope was. LoL .. How funny is this a religion that was based on the peole knwoing nothing about it accept what the pope sais lol ... Sounds more like a dictatorship. I say you all go get saved an slain in the Spirit and then you would all have pentacost and then we could all be filled in the holy ghost. Then the world would be a better place with all of us running around babling stuff that noone can understand. But They say that they are speaking in toungues that noone but god can understand. If god is onipotent why does he need to have that. ??? If god is GOD ... why does he nee the Trinity father son and holy ghost. Why did he create us to worship him ? Is he conceited ? I mean he is god but is there something wrong with knowing your abilities. I think that the Human race has Lost sight of everything. We spend more money a year helping the Handicapped then we do feeding the needy. I hate that we help the handicapped every other race loses thier handicapp look at any other race. Kill the weak the strong will survive and if they don't then we are killing our own race.

Sorry I didn't get to finish .... I got busy ... anyways.... Notice the lion doesn't just kill any animal it sneaks up on the pack and then chases down teh pack and for some reason they run around in a circle untill it gets the slowest , weakest one. Our creators put us here and put stuff to help us out. Feeling sorry for someone is good and all but, if I lose a leg just shoot me ... I am no good here anymore.

Jutsmytype:

Are you even listening to yourself? Maybe I am just spoiled reading functional english, but you just don't make sense.

I am very pleased that you consider yourself a free thinker. The rest of us are just marching machines in the great political wheel, and you are the lone voice sent to free us all from an age of enslavement which we are unaware of.

Put down 1984 and farenheit 451 and realize that the age of thought control is not yet upon us.

I have lived my entire life without a television. I wear, drive, eat and drink what I want, when I want, if I want, and I don't waste a thought about anyone's opinion of me, least of all yours, o master of the castle.

We all choose what we do. Our choices are based upon symbols that we recieve from various sources (society, family, yes the MEDIA) which we interperate. Just because the word socialization has SOCIAL in it doesn't mean it is related to the thought police.

Maybe society has a problem with judgement and giving the media too much sway over their opinions. Thats OUR problem. Not the result of an OMEGA agency mind control scheme.

"So don't ever in one moment" think that because my opinion is contrary to yours that I am under the absolute control of THE MEDIA.

Can I stop being a puppet now? Please?

[edit on 10/2/2004 by Rain King]

I only offer this if you dont think you are free having everything you got like those clothes for example those are opinion based choices you dont have to wear what people say is cool. I mean if what you have is not free enough then go off the grid go to the forest and live like a hermit thats the only way someone like you will be free......but let me ask you what is freedom what do you need to be free... you have a free speach in a world wide vinue you just used and told us your where so oppressed.....but how are you oppressed I wish I could understand why a gluttoness community such as ours in the USA is not free yes there are rules but you can walk out of your house 24 hours a day and go wherever you want in most countries you would be stopped and told to go home and how about your education yes a formulation of basic principals is set out to give all people a unified education thats the same but after that you can learn all you want...............for example I went to christain seminary and am now studying jewish beleifs if i walked into a school in Afganastan for example and asked for the same education I got here I would be arrested tried and convicted of heresy which carries up to the death penalty not thats oppression.............the states way or the dead way thats oppression. dont get rules confused with lack of freedom.

Amen drbryankkruta.

(careful though, you might be accused of being a social robot)

We must have some form of society with regulated rules. Absolute freedom brings with it the possibility of absolute chaos.

Originally posted by Rain King
Amen drbryankkruta.

(careful though, you might be accused of being a social robot)

Your warning is gracefully and humbely received , I just think sometimes we all need a hand

Ok now that you have all had your fun bashing a thought! Ask yourself what is it that you are actually defending? Could it be the fact that if someone thinks outside the box of what most call the "norm" they must be "nuts". In reality or should I say looking in from outside the box. People accept "what is what" meaning if I believe this is fact and you believe this is fact and they believe this is fact then it must be fact. Well I have already proved my point, No where did I ever state that I did not believe that I needed money to survive, a house to live in, food to eat and a car to drive. I was simply pointing out the fact that most people choose what to wear, what to drive etc.. by what others have. "The Jones's" point being we all need these things to live our lives in society but please try to understand this point.

If the people from the show "Seinfeld and Friends" get new haircuts or decide to wear diffrent styles of clothes, why does the rest of the world act like puppets and follow in suit. I feel that creativity, indivisualism and thought has been dictated to us through media in these ways.

If I am wrong then so be it but then again i bet if I were a movie star and muttered "You will all be toast" you all would follow as most did when Arnold said "I'll be back" where your own individuality in that.

Its all about attracting the other sex my friend. Thats what we want the most.

You have the the mind of a hold on wait .... you ahve a mind of a 90 year old Alzheimers patient. ... Believe in yourself and what you see and hear. Or are you so wrapped up in the world and the television and your BMW and your Rolex that you have time for nothing but the ameneties of life just like the government wants you to.

i will prove you wrong in a very simple way. your original post stated we have choice, but are controlled by media advertising. You have challenged us to prove we cannot think for ourselves, we can only do what we have been programmed to do. I just had lunch from Uno chicago grill. There was a mcdonalds right next door. I have never in my life seen an ad for uno chicago grill. I have seen a few mcdonalds ads in my day.



free at last ! free at last !!!!!

I give up!!! Hopeless and defeated, society wins, no self thought, follow the masses and do what ever everybody else does. Ignore the fact that ignorance comes in all forms and embrace what ever I am told and shown on television, In magazines etc.

I am a sheep, a puppet, and have no freedoms as you have all shown me. By presenting to you all, an alternative idea of a single thought proccess you have all proved one thing in common. Discredit, embarass, poke fun etc.. that if it does not fall into what you all have been taught in life that it must be wrong???

What a shame......

Just because someone is or has the ability to be inquisitive concerning the media (internet/papers/tv...) does not necessilary mean that they are controlled by it. Influenced - yes, controlled -no. An advertising agency would look at a commercial/ad in a totally different manner than would 'someone not in the industry.' The ad company owner may like the way the 'influencial message' got across- that's his/her job. They can see beyond the 'keeping up with Jones" factor. Questionable is the number of people who aren't there?
Influenced- yes... when my daughter says 'dad, I want one of those....' I say, "why because you saw it on tv?" So, yes, it does influence but she won't throw a tantrum in front of me to get it!
I have a vacationing place that I do like to go to very much, there is no electricity. It's one of my favorite places to go, to avoid the overbearing input of mass society. But even there, there are rules (spelling is not one of them) because we are humans. Simplicity, kindness, work.. and I would hope most of us have a place like this to retreat to.
I like your post and can appreciate the position you took but the pendulum is not locked into one position.

Some had misunderstood the topic of "being free" as being able to do whatever they want ( unrinateing onto something ), instead of not haveing to do what the society want them to do.

For example, it is a common know fact that kids should go to school and receive that and that knowlege. Yet no one asks them if they need it. Ok, maybe they are too small to answer, but no one asks their parents either if they think that their son needs that and that info or do they think it would be only distracting him.

Moreover, their parents never think of this - what is really needed and what is not. They think that there are wise committees that know everything better.

This is what makes one a slave.

Justmytype, and of cource everybody would be against you if you try to bring up something new.

[edit on 1-10-2004 by bratok]

bratok, when my daughter is old enough for kindergarden next year, I should ask her if she needs it ???????????????????????????


if i'm totally free, i can take your car and your house, and you'd be ok with it because otherwise you would be opressing my right to do so ????????

The human creature being what he or she is will always need something these needs in and of themselves usually limit and control our behaviors need for acceptance , love, validation ,ect. then you go on to basic needs food water shelter clothes . as long as we live most of our time will be spent pursuing the ends. And only a very small amount spent examining the nature of the beast.