ISSUE #94: Our minds are caged.
“Neither the great political or financial powers of the world nor the population in general realize that the engineering-chemical-electronic revolution now makes it possible to produce many more technical devices with ever less material,” the brilliant inventor and systems theorist Buckminster Fuller once said. “We can now take care of everybody at a higher standard of living than anybody has ever known. It does not have to be ‘you or me,’ so selfishness is unnecessary and war is obsolete. This has never been done before. Only twelve years ago technology reached the point where this could be done. Since then it has made it ever so much easier to do.”
Buckminster Fuller said this in 1981. More than 40 years have passed since then, and we are nowhere near the world where we “take care of everybody at a higher standard of living,” and where “war is obsolete.” If we had the technology to thrive as species four decades ago, why didn’t we utilize that technology to create a more peaceful, safe, and thriving world for everybody?
Why haven’t we created a world where nobody sleeps on the streets?
Why haven’t we created a world where nobody sleeps hungry?
Why haven’t we created a world where there is no such thing as “war”?
Why haven’t we created a world where the health of our planet is prioritized over the urge to make a profit by destroying the planet?
Many so-called intelligentsia would like you to believe that Fuller was talking about a utopian world that can never be possible due to human nature. If you call such a world to be unfeasible, I call you a fool.
I think the prime reason behind our inability to use our creativity for the progress of our species as a whole and our planet is that the human mind is enslaved inside the cages built by people who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. We have been programmed to believe that the only way things can be is how they always have been for centuries. How have things been for centuries? War. Ecocide. Exploitation. Slavery. Torture. Poverty. Sickness, etc. and anybody talking about change is a crazy conspiracy theorist.
How do they enslave our minds? By using TV media, social media, newspapers, and advertisements; in one word - mass media.
Nobody wants humanity to suffer except the people who benefit from human suffering. Nobody wants to destroy the planet we depend upon except the people who make money from it. Nobody wants a nuclear war except the people who benefit from it. Nobody wants homelessness to be a thing except the people who benefit from it. Nobody wants poverty to be a thing except the people who benefit from it. People who want all these things are a drop in the ocean compared to the total number of humans living on the blue-colored rock spinning in space.
Still, we don’t use the power of our numbers to overthrow the current system of exploitation. We keep consenting to the system that requires war to maintain peace. We keep consenting to the system that requires mental slavery to ensure physical freedom. We are shown time and time again that voting makes no difference for the working class, but still we line like the sheeps every 4-5 years. Deep down their hearts, everyone knows that a better world is possible, but we shy away from doing anything to make that world a reality because the media programming has convinced us that “a better world” only exists in imagination.
It was very difficult to bring a revolution even when the people knew that they are being enslaved. For example, it took India around 200 years to break the British yolks. Can you imagine how difficult it can be to wake people up when they don’t even know that they are being enslaved? It’s infinitely more easier to bring a change when people know they need a change vs. when people don’t even know they need a change. That’s why so much energy is poured into keep our minds enslaved.
Mass media is the enemy of the people just like a cage is the enemy of the bird. The bird will never even wish to fly as long as it’s convinced that the best way to enjoy life is to stay inside the cage. For the bird to break free from the cage, it must first become aware of the fact that life exists outside the cage as well and that life is far better than the one inside the cage. Humanity will never thrive as long as people are convinced that the best we can have is what we have been offered by capitalism thus far. For the humanity to break free from the mental cage, it must first become aware of the many ways it’s being enslaved with, until then, “a better world” truly exists in imagination only.
“Birds born in a cage think fying is illness.”
“People born in an unhealthy world think a healthy world is a conspiracy theory.”
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