In reading an article about the world's biggest money hoarder, I came across a bit that highlighted the forces mounted against the human race.
It reveals a lot about how our natural tendency toward frugality, and care for Mother Nature, is under relentless attack by cold, calculating, self-interested individuals.
"While other companies have tended to keep economists in centralized units, often working on forecasting or policy issues, Amazon takes a different approach.
It distributes economists across a range of teams, where they can, among other things, run controlled experiments that permit scientific, and therefore effective, manipulation of consumer behavior."
- source
It is the manipulation that is the problem. And it isn't just the mentally ill money hoarders that are doing it. State governments have always been big purveyors of manipulation themselves. Both are getting more sophisticated in their efforts all the time.
When the forces of politics come together with the forces of commerce, it makes it difficult to see exactly where our freedom is that is so talked about.
9 days after the World Trade Centre attack, George W. Bush told us it happened because the "terrorists hated the West's freedom".
What freedom? All I see is manipulation and deception. Powerful forces are acting to manipulate the way we think, vote, act and buy. Their lies deceive us at every turn.
Unless we want to live as neo-serfs settling for a shrinking virtual freedom, or freedom-ish, or freedom light, we will have to resist the manipulation of one percenters and selfish political hacks.
A good start would be to
1) start thinking for ourselves (it's a mental prophylactic). The truth is the best disinfectant, and each of us can do our part to seek and share facts that counter the corporate/government narrative formed through weaponized propaganda.
2) quit supporting the status quo through our buying of things we don't need, and
3) form a decentralized network together to tear the whole shaky shit house down by weakening trust in the lier's programming.
Will that be hard? Indeed, it will.
However, being manipulated and deceived from birth to death for the profit of the few is not exactly easy, either.
What a timely and much needed post. It's difficult even for those of us committed to non-consumerism to stay focused and not be swayed this time of year. It really does feel like an attack on our senses and emotions. It helps to realize that they have paid saboteurs on their side. Sneaky mind games are hard to fight, but being aware is half the battle.
ReplyDelete