Dealing with constant manipulation in western society. How do you do it?
Woah93
Veteran
I'm getting a tad bit frustrated with it all lately... In a system where your gain means someone else's loss it's starting to look like everything is designed to influence you to make you buy something. Mainstream media is packed with bullshit instead of actual news, outside in the city there are banners everywhere, especially the word "happiness" get's used a lot to make you associate it with some new skin creme or a coca cola... Even education is horrible these days, it looks more like they are offering you a product instead of an actual education, doesn't matter if it's useful to you in the future or anything...
Anyway just needed a rant... but it is bothersome really. It seems like there is no break from it, why is honesty and integrity so rare in this world 
I don't want to constantly block out the mental noise caused by all these damn adds and whatnot. It's a shame that the real potential of the human character is covered up by this much nonsense! >:(
Comments
I work to carry my practice with me wherever I go, and as a result, rather than constantly seeing things that I determine are negative and getting upset about it, I don't even see them nearly as often anymore. I don't have to block them out because they just aren't there. I see other things instead. But, I also live in a very rural area where I am surrounded by nature and birds and fresh water and so on, so I am not bombarded nearly as much. We don't have any large chain stores, no buses with advertising, no billboards. When I feel overwhelmed, I just shut off the tv and/or my computer and go outside.
We do have a choice in what we choose to let into our minds and influence us. It's why I appreciate so much TNH's take on the 5 precepts, because he discusses these types of things as intoxications that we have to limit in our lives.
[Lobster screams] You noticed eh . . .now wot?
When those pearly white smiles beckon from an ad
Just take it that one of us will surely be had
and the person who is smiling
and the person who is not
is neither affected, and neither is not
That horrible western society and its western-ness... That horrible eastern society and it's eastern-ness...
Tell me what type of society has minimal manipulation? Other then a libertarian one anyways, but that is a pipe dream lol.
You living means beings die/suffer, it has nothing to do with form of government and everything to do with living in samsara... And you have the power to transcend samsara.... So....
@lobster
I've been stuck on that question for quite some time now. It's all great that my awareness is expanding... but now what?
KIa Ora,
Sadhguru
The mind is like a garbage bin
Metta Shoshin
Always read behind the dialectic...
You can begin by realizing this is Dukkha at work. Here we are constantly bombarded with attempts to sell us products and services. In other cultures, you're bombarded with messages to be a good citizen, or be obedient to Allah, or remember that you're better than those people over there, etc.
One of the problems of becoming conscious of how your mind works in Buddhist meditation and contemplation is much of what is designed to work on your mind in society becomes obvious and hard to ignore.
And I work in the advertising industry. Granted, in the technical end of it, but while advertising can be abused, it also serves a purpose. The problem is separating the fluff from the actual information.
I avoid unnecessary exposure. Little TV, no "news". Mute the commercials when I do watch. No radio in the car or work. Bob
For sure, advertising serves a purpose, and really so does everything else. Even if it doesn't serve your purpose, it serves someone else's, and you have the option whether to participate or not, and to what level. There are a lot of things that have an important place in my life that I never would have known about if not for advertising. You just have to be a discerning consumer.
Exactly. Just because it's out there, doesn't mean you have to respond....
Look, people iz people wherever you go.... You want 'commercialism'...? Take a stroll in Noo Yawk" or Tokyo, or Bahrain..... There's no getting away from people.
Remember the tale of the three Monks going to the beach....
;0)
Kia Ora,
Set the mind to autopilot "GIGO" ie through mindfulness meditation ....
Metta Shoshin
How much 'power' is a person willing to cede to the culture's noise? It's really a choice, a decision, but you can't even see that it's a choice when you see yourSELF as a 'victim', with little power.
The truth is, as people mentioned above, no matter how noisy the ads and propaganda, it can be turned down to a barely noticeable roar. If you can't see how you can turn down the noise, then you are seeing yourself as much less powerless than you are. You (the generic you) might even want to argue that you CAN'T turn down the noise, but don't waste your typing trying to convince those who have turned down the volume that you really can't
I think a much worse cultural issue is all the people who see themselves as victims of the culture. If you shout and make fists because you are being victimized by the culture, then you are part of the problem you wish you didn't have.
Pay attention to your practice. Stop paying so much attention to the culture. I too watch no news or TV. Well, I'm on an HGTV binge but I'm so used to ignoring the culture I barely notice it. Go on a culture diet. When you are walking, pay attention to the endless perturbations in the concrete sidewalk or what kind of weeds grow in the cracks. Pay attention to your body as you take steps. Watch the thoughts going through your head about how indignant you are about the culture victimizing you. There is SO much more to pay attention to than the manipulations and propaganda that you already know is pathetic and untrue anyway.
One of the things I noticed when our small group decided to form a satellite sangha here, was that even within our small town (population just over 3000) there are subcultures. Sure, if all you do is look at the surface, all you see is the surface crap. But there is far more depth to the subcultures, and you can be part of them if you want to.
Not long ago someone posted something on twitter to the effect of "It's always funny to me how people complain about traffic as if they are not a part of it." The same thing goes for our society and culture. We contribute to it. If you are unhappy, stop contributing to the parts that don't work for you, and contribute more to the parts that do. I assure you if our tiny town can have a subculture of mindful people so does pretty much every other town, you just have to be open to finding them. When you find a culture you fit in, the culture-at-large isn't so daunting and overpowering. Not only that, but you can see the positives in the larger society without feeling like you are drowning in its cesspools.
The Monks going to the Beach:
Three Monks were on a pilgrimage to a Holy Stupa, set at the edge of the Ocean. They had never been there before, but needed to get there before sunset, in order to meditate….
Finally, after many miles, they reached their destination. They began to traverse the soft white sand, towards the water’s edge, where the Stupa was.
Suddenly, they came to a long swathe of pebbles, stones and jagged fragments of rock, which lay in their way. It was rough, stony and very broad, and halted their progress.
The first Monk declared:
“We must hasten back to the Monastery, and bring back as many of the meditation mats as we can, to lay over the stones, to make them less sharp and painless to negotiate!”
“No!” Exclaimed the second Monk….”What will our brothers still in the Monastery, sit on?! No, we must bring back all the spare fragments of cloth we have, with which we made robes, and wrap the stones, individually, to make each one pleasant to walk on, and soften its sensation on our feet!”
The third Monk looked at both of them, and laughing, said:
“Truly! You really are a pair of dimwits!
….Why don’t we just put our sandals back on….?”
I share your rant. There really isn't anything we're supposed to do with that awareness. Just sit and watch everything play itself out I guess.
@anataman and your Simpson's Video:
Thanks for that.....
I thought I was brain-dead.
Now?
I'm brain-dead......
As far as I can figure out, the ONLY useful thing about noticing mistakes in others is this: Don't YOU do that.
Ultimately, choice is yours.
It's pointless to rail at the injustice of the system unless you see what part you can play in changing it, even if your effort is a modest one.
Begin in your own garden.
The important thing here is: how much of that static do you allow to percolate down to you? How do you filter out the dregs from the relevant information relentlessly bombarding your senses from tweeter, facebook, google?
I have my routine: yoga, meditation, learning, family, meeting friends, sangha/practice.
No matter how much my tweeter beeps, my routine comes uppermost. I don't spend more time than necessary logged into media, even if I have to remove myself from the computer through superhuman will.
By voluntarily limiting my exposure to media, I have found that consumer society has less power to decide for me what my real needs are.
And what I really need, what is really essential in my life, can't be bought on internet, anyway.
By doing meditation and realizing that the mental noise really comes from within oneself, not from exterior sources. And then making the within quiet by just breathing in and out. And when inside becomes quiet, outside becomes quiet. Or something like that.
As I said, gotta sit and watch it first
. That's what I meant anyways :buck: .
Same Bob - I stopped watching the news or reading newspapers (apart from the sports section) about 5 years ago.
We are lucky(?) in Australia in that we have a government owned independent news source called the ABC. There is no advertising allowed on their website, radio or TV station. It's not perfect (it certainly leans to the left!) but I know I can let my kids watch it and they're not going to be exposed to an advertisement for the latest "Barbie".
I must confess I do check their news website once or twice a day. The thing I like about it is that it reports things after they happen. Unlike commercial news sites, it isn't constant speculation and opinion pieces and drivel about celebrities!
Do you want sprinkles with that?
Oh wait you are expecting to be told what to do, how to think, how to practice . . .
. . . send cheque to the usual address . . .
Apologies to the author (can't remember their name?) but I downloaded this short essay about "Modern Samsara" a little while ago. It actually makes me a little sad......
"Sometimes I think that the greatest achievement of modern culture is its brilliant selling of samsara (sensual pleasure) and its barren distractions. Modern society seems to me a celebration of all the things that lead us away from the truth, make truth hard to live for, and discourage people from even believing that it exists. And to think that all this springs from a civilization that claims to adore life, but actually starves it of any real meaning; that endlessly speaks of making people "happy," but in fact blocks their way to the source of real joy.
This modern samsara feeds off an anxiety and depression that it fosters and trains us all in, and carefully nurtures with a consumer machine that needs to keep us greedy to keep going. Samsara is highly organized, versatile, and sophisticated; it assaults us from every angle with its propaganda, and creates an almost impregnable environment of addiction around us. The more we try to escape, the more we seem to fall into the traps that it is so ingenious at setting for us. As the eighteenth-century Tibetan master Jikme Lingpa said: "Mesmerized by the sheer variety of perceptions, beings wander endlessly astray in samsara's vicious circle."
Obsessed, then, with false hopes, dreams, and ambitions, which promise happiness but lead only to misery, we are like people crawling through an endless desert, dying of thirst. And all that this samsara holds out to us to drink is a cup of salt water, designed to make us even thirstier."
Yeah there was an oil spill in the river in my area of the country. I thought a lot of the blame is on the company who did the spill and there safety practices. But we are all consuming oil products (textiles, pharmaceuticals, school research, pesticides). So I realize that nothing can change without looking for other energy sources (election issue) or consuming less which starts in my house.
This is what I mean by mandalas. You have a practice mandala and an ego mandala. You have a mandala that might revolve around collecting dolls, fast food, alcohol, marijuana, nintendo, vacationing, or current events. The samsara mandala is always inundating us with messages to draw us in. As we practice we build a mandala of the dharma by exchanging energy with the core values of the dharma. This is one reason for shrines and incense or whatever connects us to the dharma. I used to meditate while the coffee brewed so that brought me to mindfulness more than otherwise.
Given the goings-on that anyone might run into, an occasional case of the AIN'T-IT-AWFULS strikes me as understandable. Just look at the average conversation and notice how much of it is given over to one sort of complaint/criticism or another. Ain't it awful?! And it certainly may be all of that and more besides.
No point in criticizing it is my guess. But I also vote for keeping an eye on it.
Here is how one enlightened man deals with it:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=add_1399947533
There's a big advertising industry dedicated to creating dissatisfaction so that people will buy more. Purveyors of dukkha!
I don't agree, Jeffrey. There's nothing inherently evil about oil. It's just a substance...a natural substance at that. It's how man uses it that causes a problem, and some men are careless with it, and some men will use any process to get it.
That's putting the responsibility on others. What happened to the concept we often talk about here -- that it's up to you how you decide to react to something that is done to you?
Funny I was just reflecting on wishing we were better 'stewards" of our planet while recognizing I'm part of the "problem". Try not to get caught up in big picture stuff but at the same time if I am "aware" I aught to do something more than I am.
"Spirituality is not to be learned by flight from the world, or by running away from things, or by turning solitary and going apart from the world. Rather, we must learn an inner solitude wherever or with whomsoever we may be. We must learn to penetrate things and find God there." Meister Eckhart
@vinlyn but it is our individual dependence on using so much oil and fuel that causes those men to be greedy and thus irresponsible. Sometimes, oil spills just happen even if the people aren't overly irresponsible.
The thing I try to keep in mind is, yes, it's horrible when we have oil spills and other such things here. But at least we have some means to start to clean up and do something about it. How many of our over-used resources come from countries where there are no environmental regulations, no means to clean up?
When we use resources, we all have a responsibility to the manner in which they are retrieved from the planet, and to know as best we can which companies are at least somewhat more responsible than some of the others.
We all just have to choose our battles, as always. When I got engaged, I didn't want an expensive ring and I didn't want a diamond because I don't believe the ways the diamond industry behaves is ethical. So I got a small Claddagh ring instead. My friend wanted a big diamond, and got one. But she drives a Prius and I drive an SUV, so, who is "right"? Really, neither of us, but we each try to honestly do the best we can. And our best has to be good enough for our lives, despite our comparisons to other people who seem to do it better.
Remember that when Mother Nature wreaks havoc, we call it 'a natural disaster' but when we destroy swathes and swathes of natural forest, it's called 'progress'...
Well there was 3 billion humans on the earth in the year of my birth -1960. Now in 2014 there's over 7 billion of us... Bob
So it's all your fault then.
Good, we now have someone definitive to blame.
Only 1/7,000,000,000th my fault...lol
I agree, especially since most oil comes from piss-poor countries who derive zero benefits for that oil themselves. Just look at iraq, weapons of mass destruction? Suuure... Anyway it's good to look at yourself and try to withdraw support from thungs you don't agree with. I must add that it would be interesting to see what happens if we actually run out of oil which is likely to happen quite soon. I know that most of the reserves hit peak production several years ago and it has been declining ever since. You can throw as much money as you want at an oil drill but it won't poof recourses into existence that just aren't there
Yawn.
Nah not yawn, it's pretty awesome to be able to experience such a shift in society if it were to happen in this lifetime. But I guess there are more important things like.. videogames and stuff
No need to be so rude, @vinlyin. I don't really care what your opinion is, but expressing it that way is really not acceptable.
Dealing with constant manipulation by my own unattended to mind. eek! lol!
Wow. I mean how do you have the energy to care? What do you mean block out? Its taking in this crap that takes energy. Not taking in is default aint it?
The only education you need to care about is the one you yourself give your children. Everything else is frosting.
Yawn because:
That whole line is getting to be a cliche.
The #1 producer of oil in the world is Russia. #2 is Saudi Arabia (approximately 96% of SA's exports consist of petroleum products, which have earned the country over 15 trillion dollars). The #3 producer of oil in the world is the United States. The #4 producer is Iran (in the last 30 years Iran's middle class has more than doubled, now reaching 33% of the population...thanks mostly to oil revenue; 73% of Iranians are covered under a social security program...primarily paid for by oil revenues). The number 5 producer of oil in the world is China, followed by (#6) Canada. That's roughly 60% of the world's production of petroleum. So the statement that "...especially since most oil comes from piss-poor countries who derive zero benefits for that oil themselves" is an incorrect cliche.
IMHO, I don't believe that it is anymore rude to say "yawn" than it is to post an emoticon of the forum which is generally considered to mean "boredom" (but of course, our emoticons don't work) -- :coffee:
:coffee: oh yeah
I think this kind of thread actually is a good example of why I can never consistently visit buddhist forums... it literally is the same stuff, the same mindsets, the same arguments, the same questions, over and over.. sometimes just as I want to escape samsara.. I have to escape the buddhist forums lol.
That's why you have the choice :
Less stress, more tranquility, more money in the pocket.
Indeed. We are all covered by boring cleverness, insane personas, unhelpful addictions to TV, Social media, gibbering on the phone or cushion, putting the world and the Internet to rights etc. etc.
What is a gal, guy, musician or game player to do?
You are not ready for cushion action?