Sugar Makes You Dumb

[abstrktion]

I was watching a really interesting documentary called Ethos last night. Ethos is a word taken from the Greek which means character, and it is from which we get our word ethics.

Anyhow, they talked quite a bit about a man named Eddie Bernays. He was a nephew of Sigmund Freud, who believed that manipulation was necessary in society, which he regarded as irrational and dangerous as a result of the 'herd instinct'. Eddie was the father of "public relations" and advised quite a number of folks in both government and big business, as to how to best engage the public in order to get them to take certain actions.

Now here is what I found fascinating! Turns out that before his time, many people in government and big business assumed that the best way to reach a person was through an appeal to logic and reason. For the government, this meant putting out public service messages which attempted to people's sense of civic duty, and social responsibility. For big businesses, this meant trying to sell a product to the public based on its superior functionality, or improved value, over a competitor's product.

What Eddie Bernays said is- forget all of that. Appeal to rationality only works for rational people, whereas the "masses" haven't developed any rational functions. Thus, one can bombard the public with information and education on a topic, but it will really do nothing to change people's behavior, because when it comes down to it, it just does not compute for them. In order to reach the masses, one must make an appeal to their passions, and play upon their repressed desires and emotions.

Now I must say- ironically- I can see the logic in this. And based on results, this strategy most certainly works. Problem is, this has created the world we live in today with passions run amok, and all manner of groups operating behind the scenes to control and manipulate people, with the people, by and large, believing that they are "free".

Often times in our discussions here, we focus on the "STS controllers" or the "Illuminati" or "Big Business" or "The Elite" and other such terms which refer to these groups of people acting behind the scenes to manipulate the public. But isn't it interesting? Originally, these people actually wanted to use logic and reason, information and education, in order to reach the masses! Problem was, it simply did not work.

These days, there is a huge countermovement to "expose" these various groups. But yet again- logic and reason fall flat upon their faces. An endless march of documentaries and scientific studies are churned out attempting to educate people on all these things, but to little avail. People just don't care about doing what is reasonable. In fact, as Pickle pointed out, it would seem that people want to be dumb. Which means, there must be some benefit to being dumb which outweighs the rewards of personal growth, and taking responsibility for oneself.

And even if we were successful in ousting these groups, whether through political elections, mass arrests, or even ET intervention... then what? Who is going to take their place? Just another group of people that will find themselves powerless to effect change because the masses aren't willing to do their part to make it happen.

Now it would seem to me that the ideal way to address this situation is to develop people, rather than to control and manipulate them. But how to do this when people, by and large, don't want to be developed? How can people be made to see that the ability to appreciate reason is a good thing, without resorting to the same manipulative tactics which are at the root of so many of the ills that are concerning to us?

Thoughts?

Absolutely fascinating post. Thanks!

And as a high school teacher--well, yeah, developing people who don't want to be developed is my job...LOL. But reaching out in kindness, modeling solid critical thinking and dialectic (instead of debate), helping them develop an awareness of their planet and themselves--and then "seeing/projecting" the idea that they are extraordinarily beautiful and intelligent souls--regardless of whatever learning behavior (i.e., making seemingly poor choices--all choices lead to experience, so they can't be "bad") they are engaged in, is all I think we can do. I know I can't really control them or get them to do anything they don't want to do--wouldn't want to either. I'd never steal their agency. I would imagine that an employer, or co-worker, or any other person in any other job could do essentially the same thing: Model thinking behavior and live in joy.

The world is, well, exactly as it should be--the result of many people exercising their agency leads to quite a mess. But it is a necessary mess, a mess through which souls are perfected and cycle off.


One other thing....

So interesting that you posted on sugar today...I was considering eliminating it from my diet!

And since this sort of picks up the drug thread...

Yes, I think there's a knee jerk response to try to ban whatever is "bad", but ultimately it won't work because people will do whatever they want here until they experience the badness to such as extent that something in their psyche clicks and they develop a revulsion to it, then they have to work back to finding balance (i.e., not reacting emotionally). By control I mean that one can take it or leave it without judgment; I don't mean rigid personality-splitting repression.

Every excess seems to speak to emotional imbalance--drugs, alcohol, over-eating, over-sexing, etc. IMO, we're here now to develop our ability to use the conscious mind to bring the emotional body into balance and clarity. Unfortunately, we try a lot of different methods to attempt to mitigate the effect of the emotional disturbance--food can numb it as much as drugs and alcohol, but over-eating is the thing that is still sort of socially acceptable (Look at those horrific Man vs. Food shows--ewww!). I don't think it will stay that way. You can see the entire world caught up in examining what we consume, looking for better food products, cleaner water, etc., rediscovering healing through food. My guess is that there will be some attempts at regulation...but it will likely be done in ridiculous ways (you know, like banning sugar and making people use artificial sweeteners!)