“His thoughts are whacked, he’s mad so he’s talkin’ back
Talkin’ black, brainwashed from rock and rap
He sags his pants, do-rags and a stocking cap”
-Eminem on Sing for the Moment
Brainwashing? What is it is exactly? I believe it is when you get others and yourself to think that something is right and there is nothing else that can disrupt that process.
I was having a conversation with a friend of mine the other day and he distinguished between two types of brainwashing. One of them being moral brainwashing and the other is unmoral brainwashing. I understood what he said but if I try to explaining it to others I just might end up confusing myself and my main point is that brainwashing is everywhere around us.
Believe it or not when you put on your headphones to listen to music you are choosing to brainwash yourself with thoughts about love, politics, situations, broken homes, violent men and women, and other things as well. I see this as a conscious decision by most of us to see what we want and how we want it. When I go to work and I hear about certain numbers dictate the number of hours you work, I don’t believe a word of it but this in fact is brainwashing as well. I don’t actually know the circumstances of how the number of hours works and if I tell myself that these numbers matter I’m telling myself that this in fact true. But how do I know it’s true? There are a great number of factors that go into this and I come to the conclusion that “it’s a business”. I also see it on TV as well when I was younger and now. I started watching the TV show “Weeds” a few days ago and it is both funny and ironic as well. The media tells me that women shouldn’t be working and they should just stay at home. However, watching this show I see that the opposite is true and it happens in illegal situations. The actress, Mary-Louise Parker, plays a mother who sells drugs and she does it somehow without getting caught at first. Once I started watching this show, I see how much drugs are a business for America yet no one takes it as bad or good at all. I also see it school as well as I grew up believing that Thanksgiving was a great holiday for us all. I remember watching a video in second grade about the Native Americans and the Pilgrims and how much they cherished each other’s food and drink. Yet, I found years later that the Native Americans were slaughtered with disease and death. I was brainwashed to believe certain things yet I didn’t know till my cognitive sense was still developing. One last sense is I see at home as well. When I go to my Aunt’s house and I see my cousin who is a few months pregnant, it shames me to see how much people may talk about her being the latest ‘cousin’ to be having a baby. I hear my mom and her sisters talk about how they need to take better care of there babies yet they don’t know what they may go through. Women these days have to be beautiful and men are either seen as kings or seen as nothing more than ordinary. I see this today and I’m brainwashed to believe this yet I try my best to not believe it fully.
Happy new year everybody and remember take care of each other
Just Another Day... 