The issue is control

There are two ways in which it is possible to control human beings.

The first way is the most obvious way: brute force. If you hold a gun to someone’s head, or threaten and extort them, or otherwise put them in a state of duress, you can probably make them do what you want.

But this is a form of control that is messy. After all, it takes a great deal of energy to make someone do something against their will. It requires that someone else be the extorter, the slavemaster, or the executioner.

And the person who is controlled will typically put up resistance. They will probably come to hate and despise you, and plot ways to get back at you, or at least find a way to escape your control. Every slave revolt, every revolution, every prison escape can be traced to this instinct.

The other way is not as obvious, and requires some thought, but it is much more effective: manipulation. Humans are so smart and talented that they are able to package lies and make them look like truth. And if you do this, you can use lies and manipulation instead of force to make others do the things you want.

We are all liars. We tell ourselves lies everyday because we are oftentimes too comfortable, or too afraid, or too tired, or too ashamed to look at truth. We conjecture, or conclude, or assume, or presume — we analyze the world to fit our needs and arrive at the conclusions that we want.

It is liberating to admit this. I am a liar. I am lying right now, perhaps, but my intention is not to lie. I lie about why someone wants to talk to me, or why so-and-so sent me an email or acts a certain way. I want to think a certain thing, so I tell myself a lie and then I feel momentarily happy that I have an explanation.

Others lie to us also. 99% of the time we are surrounded with lies. The media lies, the government lies, your neighbor lies, your friends lie. Some of these are little while lies, some of them are dark and scary lies. Some of these lies are accidental or unintentional, while some of them are very much intentional. But they are all lies nonetheless.

We are so used to lies that when we are manipulated we no longer care. And so we have all reached a point where the people who seek to profit from manipulations and lies — the people who want control — have never had it easier to control so many people at any one time.

If they want a war, they lie and manipulate and manufacture an enemy, and the country goes to war. It is so easy. And when people start paying attention or ask too many questions, the people who want control will lie and manipulate and create a distraction so that people will stop asking questions.

The greatest invention in the history of control is television. Never before in human history have the people in power — the people with control, who want control — been able to so readily enter into the homes of millions of people and tell them exactly what is important. What you see on the news, what you watch for entertainment, what you listen to with every commercial is a message about what you should be doing with your life. “Buy this,” and “live your life this way” or “this is what’s important”. All these messages are encoded in every episode, news report, and television ad. And millions of people, every minute of every hour of every day watch and listen to these messages and unquestionably alter their lives to reflect the values, attitudes and behaviors they see on the TV.

The first people who used the media in this way were the Nazis. This is not a coincidence. They were masters of propaganda. They told people lies about the Russians and the Jews and a decade later the people were unquestionably killing on the Eastern Front and in Dachau, too tired by the lies to ask any questions, to mount a resistance. The media is powerful.

In a different era, people would talk to their neighbors, maintain familial relationships and keep a close watch over their government. Now, there’s something good on TV.

Of course, you cannot blame the technology. The TV needs someone to watch it. Reality is harsh; in societies without hope, without connection, with the calls of war heralded with every terror threat, it is not a surprise that so many people are unhappy, medicated, and otherwise in need of someone to tell them what to do.

Everywhere there is such a battle for control, a battle of lies. The boss doesn’t like you, so he gives you a bad review. Deserved? Who’s to say. It is a battle of control, so there will be lies on both sides. Your husband cheats on you. Deserved? Who’s to say. Again, like so many modern relationships, a battle of control, so there will be lies on both sides. He said, she said, I’m right, you’re wrong. They are all liars.

In the meantime, there is a real battle for control taking place amongst powerful countries that have discarded all pretense of lies. They are happy to use the other, messier form of control instead: force. In fact, they flaunt their force. Bombs, tanks, guns, missiles, nuclear warheads: every country in the world has parades where they display their weapons, their power, their ability to force other to do things — their ability to control. These weapons exist only for that purpose. A spear is used to kill. There are no shields in any modern arsenals, only spears. No one is interested in defense anymore.

Today, we are only at the beginning of a giant battle for control that will accelerate over the coming years. Power is fleeting; those who have it fear to lose it. So they will use more lies and force to keep their control, to keep their power. Those who want power will use more lies and force to acquire it. The lies will all get worse, the use of force more monumental. This is not a difficult thing to see, for those who are honest.

But there is the challenge. The hardest thing for people to do on this Earth is to stop the lies. This is difficult, because we are trained to lie and trained to accept that others will lie to us. No, this is wrong. There is truth in this world. It is what exists when you see something without telling yourself a story about it, when you can look at the world or a relationship or a circumstance and not let a thought enter your head describing it in some manner — because any thought will only be self-serving. You can see the unhealthy relationship, the beautiful sunset, the sick beggar, the lying friend, the giving child, all for what they are. You don’t judge, or categorize, you just see what exists.

Too often we let fear dictate our direction. And when we do that, we let ourselves be controlled by something else — be it the emotion, or someone else’s lie, or even the lies we tell ourselves so often. We let the lies lead us to more lies, to more falsehoods. This is why so many people are unhappy, because they live a life of lies, and lies produce suffering.

Freedom can only exist when there is truth, when a person can see things the way they are. They don’t judge, they just look. They don’t think about the thing they are observing, they just observe, and experience, and let themselves fade into the moment as if they were just as part of the canvas as what they are looking at. In such a moment there is only peace, only knowledge, only existence itself. The thoughts that clutter our heads are the chains we seek to escape from, that we drown in alcohol or Paxil or meaningless relationships.

We must learn to stop thinking so much. Then we will learn to separate the big lies from the small ones, the nasty ones from the not-so-nasty ones. Then we can take the next step and stop lying altogether.

We forget how much power is in our heads, how this universe has endowed humanity with the ability to think and direct our wills to live life. Truly we have the power of gods within us because we can shape our destinies and live a life of purpose and creativity. This is the Promethean fire that is bestowed only to humans. Yet we direct our thoughts to TV and pornography and violence and lies — so many lies. Then we wonder why we are so unhappy. This is like the man on a fast asking why he is hungry — in his hunger he has overlooked the obvious cause of his distress. So he forgets to eat.

Every prophet, every thinker, every person who has looked deep within and seen this fire and been awed by its significance knows that a world of beauty is possible, but it cannot happen unless people want it. It must happen one person at a time. The lies must end thought by thought until there is at least one person on this Earth who no longer lies and is no longer affected by lies, and who only sees truth. This person can no longer be controlled, but is above control. There is no power that can control this person.

Then a second person does the same, and a third, and a fourth and so on until an entire community lives in truth. This is the root of freedom for humanity. These people are neither controlled, nor do they seek control. And as a result, they have no need for the tools of control: force and lies. So they live in peace and they have their freedom.

Can this link be made any clearer? The link between control and force, and control and lies?

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 10:25 pm and is filed under Freedom and Spiritualism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.