If you wish to be happy the first thing you need is not effort
or even goodwill or good desires
but a clear understanding of how exactly you have been programmed.
(Anthony De Mello)
Conditioning
From birth you are conditioned to
compete, to conform, to be
obedient.
Every aspect of our culture has arisen from
thought.
Only food, shelter and procreation are actually real.
We only accept the world as it is because everyone else does.
We are all too busy eating the menu rather than the food itself.
Debt, ill health, depression, mental illness - these things are all on the
rise around the world.
Only a profound change of consciousness can change what is happening.
Growing unrest
More people are becoming dissatisfied with the modern world.
Alternative communities, green lifestyle, vegetarianism and conservation
groups are on the rise.
Fewer people vote.
Nobody sane trusts politicians or thinks that society can be successfully
managed.
Cut the strings
We may all feel to be puppets, manipulated by education, government,
business and the media...
But we can change things.
Being
aware of the manipulation is the first
step.
If sufficient people want change, change will happen.
It will be slow, but it can happen.
Consider - 15 years ago smoking in offices was considered normal and
acceptable.
Now it is a social stigma; another drug habit.
Imagine if the people of the world woke up?
If cigarettes are now seen as destructive, what about cars?
What about greed?
What about poverty?
What about corruption and the abuse of authority?
Imagine the world reclaimed from commerce...