Source: Wikipedia

In my recent post, I talked about how we become indoctrinated when we consume media. I think people will disagree: “I’m my own person! No one tells me what to think.” I stopped watching television about 10 years ago, which is how I can see its effect, both in me and in other people. (Of course, I still consume media, but not much audio/video.) When we consume a thing, we become that thing. Until we get outside of it, we can’t see how it is affecting us.

I was thinking of examples of indoctrination. Here are a few:

People are indoctrinated to:

• Buy things, think they need them to be happy. Ads are everywhere.
• Take pills (sleeping pills, antidepressants, vitamins), think they have a disease i.e. “disease mongering”.
• Do and say and eat and wear the things popular people do, for acceptance, to be cool.
• Believe that pollutants in our blood, in the environment, are inescapable, and aren’t that harmful.
• Believe that science can’t be bought, or the government can’t be bought, or _____ can’t be bought.
• Be angry about ____.
• Be afraid of ____.
• And, of course, believe, even a little bit, that the “news” and the media are honest, independent, without bias.

Any more?

Media Is certainly useful. It is sometimes honest. But when? Can we tell?