Be Yourself – Don’t Worship False Idols

What’s the difference between TV, movies, advertisements, PR and brainwashing?

Nothing.

At their core, they are all just stories to grab your attention and alter your thinking to that of the being(s) making the story. Granted, some is just for fun but some is to sell you something and some is to control your life. Oh, I forgot a big one; this list also includes politicians. With some the BS factor is for fun, with others, believing them could cost you money, your freedoms and maybe your life. With all of them, before they can alter your thinking they have to get you past your recognition of yourself. The big way they break that barrier is they distract you using a person or situation you know. You immediately identify with their story, it pulls you in past your self recognition and in a split second you are idolizing their person, product or a way of life.

Don’t worship false idols. This is one of the 10 commandments. No, I’m not religious, but I remember being told this commandment from my Sunday School teacher who made it sound like it was all about only worshipping god and nothing else. Until Trump got elected I thought it was a minor silly commandment or it was just the ego of god talking, but now I get it. It’s to keep us in check with our own identity. It means don’t lose yourself in anyone else or anything else. Boy did Trump play so many for a fool. He went fishing and he caught them hook line and sinker.

This is what Trump did. He set himself up as one to be idolized. Part of this was to help him through life with his damaged self worth. But for whatever reason it started, people bought it. He advertised himself from a young age. It grew through his tv show and snowballed into his runs for the presidency. He said he wasn’t a politician but as soon as he put his name on the ballot he was. Thanks to the republicans not having one decent human being that people could vote for comfortably, Trump lucked out into a primary win and then pushed his PR image into overdrive for people to workshop.

This is the same thing advertisers do with the products in their ads. Sports organizations do it with their athletes. The music industry does it with their bands and singers. Hollywood does this with their products, stories and “stars.” It’s all about worshipping someone else, losing your ego into their image and then losing your own identity. This is the worst kind of identity theft.

The military does this in a way. In basic training, it’s not just about how to fight and use weapons, it’s about learning to follow orders no matter what. Stop thinking and do what you are told.

This is also what cult leaders do. We know the consequences of following cult leaders. We hear it in the news but most of us never saw it in action until Trump got elected. People sold out their country and their friends for him. People were willing to give up their freedom of speech and even ability to make their own decisions in their own lives.

One of the things I’ve noticed about evangelicals, including from listening to a few evangelical friends of mine, is they seem to want to live a simpler life. One where the complications of our society don’t exist and so they can do without thinking. They go to church worshipping their version of god (I don’t mean that in a way that any version is better or worse) and get their life lessons and life paths from directives given to them in a book and through preachers. This is how they lose their identity. They live a life being told what to do and they follow. The preachers give them their marching orders and they follow them. How many times have you heard a preacher refer to the congregants as his flock.

I’ve noticed this is very pronounced in the Republican Party. Most Republican policies only benefit the wealthy yet even in a collapsing economy and with massive disease being spread, people still followed and even voted for the guy causing the problems. Trump and a majority of Republican politicians who were afraid of him, created policies which spread the disease, killed people, stole money and pushed huge percentages of people into homelessness…and many of those people still voted for Trump. Why? Because they were conditioned to idolize him. His lifelong PR campaign and his daily messages through tweeting, shortened the tether on those people and it was easier for them to accept his maniacal ways rather than fight it. They were weak, scared and/or desperate. Plus they also found much needed friendship with others who also sacrificed their minds and identities to Trumpism.

So now we see how important this commandment was. In fact it’s generally seen by religions in the top 2. Don’t worship false idols or you will lose yourself. By the way, murder is generally number 6.

Life is tough. So many people use a benchmark of “happiness” to measure how any one’s life is going but that benchmark isn’t achieved through the collection of things and aligning yourself with any others. The biggest step to happiness I think, is don’t worship anyone else. Find out who you really are and live that life.