How does the media violate our right to mental independence?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

One of the most important human needs in the 21st century is the right to mental independence, since every day our brain is subjected to more and more intense and frequent manipulations in interests that are alien to our individuality.

Deafening advertisements and obsessive propaganda represent the most blatant and shameless aggression against the human mind, which was previously the sacred refuge of the human "I", and now has turned into a showroom, chaotically filled with political debates, carbonated and alcoholic products, cigarettes, cars, clothes of famous companies, cosmetics, gorgeous beaches, gorgeous women, tips for investing money, pornography - that is, entertainment and consumerism.

Television not only breaks into our brains, but also disrupts the peace of our home, aggressively bombarding us with pictures of sex, violence, sadism, perversion, vulgarity and vulgar tearfulness, and only rare films and cultural programs are free from this.

On the other hand, our mental capacity is negatively affected by high levels of acoustic and environmental pollution, which fragments and weakens our brain, opening it up to external influences.

Our minds are cleverly manipulated to buy certain goods or to opt for certain political leaders, popular singers, TV programs, gossip magazines or ways of investing money.

The creation of artificial needs is an encroachment on the right of free choice, carried out with the help of advertising, which invisibly penetrates into our brain on an unconscious level and forces us to do what we never really wanted. This is done only for the purpose of making a profit.

It is a serious violation of ethics to grossly manipulate people's behavior through the media into accepting something that they would probably refuse in their right minds.

In democratic countries, citizens are not obliged to submissively accept what is imposed on them by authoritarian and unethical methods, to humbly endure the lack of publicity in the adoption of judicial decisions, to passively bear the burden of excessive taxes that go nowhere.

Nevertheless, the whole world is subject to direct or indirect mental manipulation, the purpose of which is to subordinate citizens to someone's dark interests.

People are convinced by acting on their subconscious:

- Take out loans at extortionate interest rates and feel happy from having the "privilege" to increase the capital of creditors from month to month.

- Hate the rich and despise the poor.

- Imitate the absurd patterns of behavior that are promoted by television and films.

- Commit crimes like movie characters, reaching sadomasochism.

- Immerse yourself in rampant consumerism.

- Blindly imitate famous artists, musicians, soap opera characters, vulgar and vulgar.

- Worship false values.

- Follow instilled bad taste and crude farce.

- Follow herd behavior and become an obedient consumer.

- Thoughtlessly accept any norms under the pressure of authority, no matter how contradictory or unfair they may be.

- Passively accept everything that is approved in the media.

You can endlessly give examples of the manipulation of people's minds, since we meet with this all the time.

The principle of democracy - government for the people - turns out to be perverted and trampled, because the minds of the people do not belong to them, but to the media and their owners.

The freedom of mental choice is fundamentally violated. Here's a quote from Karl Popper about the dangers of television:

“The consequence of the principle of mass culture is that the public is offered programs of ever worse quality, which they like because they are seasoned with 'pepper, spices and flavor enhancers' such as violence, sex, sensuality … More and more spicy seasonings are added to food, to hide its deteriorating quality. The addition of salt and pepper allows the inedible to be swallowed … Many criminals openly admit that it was television that inspired them to crime. The power of television has grown so great that it threatens democracy. No democracy can survive without ending the abuse of power by television. This abuse is evident today."

What does the eminent philosopher mean when he talks about the abuse of power by television?

It is the legal (nevertheless, immoral) intrusion into the minds of people, directing them to violence, vulgarity, consumerism, acceptance of negative values and real grotesque.

Media abuse is a form of ideological terrorism against humanity. They should have been subject to tight scrutiny by the ethics council that Popper is proposing.

Television pounces on a person like a night robber on a victim, invading the minds of children and adults with incredible force and turning the freedom of choice of ideas into a romantic relic of the past.

Controlling people's minds has become a wonderful business today. Anyone with a sufficient amount of money can launch an advertising campaign and influence consumer behavior, which according to the prevailing economic system is considered highly desirable, as it allows you to increase sales and generate profits.

However, a dilemma remains: how moral such actions are, since we are inclined to consume not only goods, but also values and ideas. People are constantly being brainwashed to channel their behavior in ways that benefit certain groups.

Even in ancient times, ambitious individuals discovered that controlling someone else's will can become an inexhaustible source of power. Unfortunately, so far there is no other way to protect yourself from this kind of capture, except for strict control over your own mind.

The contradiction lies in the fact that people obey the false and changeable opinion of “her majesty of the crowd”, which is not formed by a bright mind, but comes, as a rule, from a group of ambitious individuals who use the crowd as an unconscious tool. Due to their authority, popularity or oratory ability, they exert undivided influence on the crowd, unaware of the true motives of such leaders.