The Lies Society Tells Us About Ourselves

We need to stop fooling ourselves. This current age in which we live whisks us forward through our lives on a tidal wave of lies. From our earliest days we sit under training that whispers to our subconscious, "Follow the herd".

We attend schools that teach us to subjugate ourselves to corporate mentalities. Unwittingly we grasp at the green carrot of trading money for time, groomed by a system that does not like to reward ingenuity and forward thinking.

Our children get boxed in to a way of thinking by the repetition of "this is how it's always been done." We get teased by the glitz of the corporate mentalities that love to trap us in our own lusts, forcing us to play their money games and then we work for the very people keeping us under their thumb.

Ok. I'm not some crackpot 'conspirator monger' that rants around about 'big brother' and any of those well worn concepts, but I feel each and every working stiff in the United States of America should step back and look at the lies that get him or her through the day. Here's a number of mine through the years:

You have to work your way up to get anywhere in this world.

You're never going to die.

You're not good enough.

You can't ask her out, she's too pretty/smart/athletic/out there...

You can't make an impact in the world because it's too big and too fast.

You can't quit your job in the midst of the largest recession in history with four children at home just to get your business off the ground.

This subject has been approached by many people in many ways and from many angles. What I want you, the reader, to do is examine yourself and listen to the lies you tell yourself every single day. For years I was convinced by teachers, parents, peers and professors that your best bet in life is to work your way up the corporate ladder.

Then I found that the 'system' is weighted to keep people in a certain, controllable spot. Yes, I moved up the management treadmill, working hard with scant positive feedback and wages beneath my effort. I watched as some people broke out of the mold and made a living on their own terms, lying to myself that I could never do that.

I also got caught up in the 'immortality' complex that dominates our country. The glamor and the shiny prize of entertainment delivered in constantly new instant gratification modes sapped years of my life with the lie that I will never die and I have all the time in the world. Then one day I backed off of the crazy, hectic, everything-for-entertainment-sake life we lead and I realized there was no substance, no real, tangible benefit to the things I was doing.

I was distracting myself from the fact that from the instant we are born, our expiration date, whenever that may be, has been validated and looms as a reality. We live our lives as a nation with a warped sense of unreality. These insipid, ridiculous "reality shows" on that vile, life-sucking device called television is the ultimate slap in otherwise intelligent people's faces. The true reality these viewers need lies mere steps away from the remote.

We tell ourselves others are better equipped, better positioned, better trained, better prepared, better this and better that. Corporate entities often measure our progress by employing backstabbing people who keep the go-getters in check for fear of losing their own tenuous position. We allow others to critique our lives too often without checking the source or without using the critique as a tool to improve. We allow ourselves to be convinced we simply do not measure up.

We miss out on incredible relationships because of outdated or ridiculous social mores that tell us inter-racial marriages don't work or she's too pretty or he's all looks and no brains, etc. We fall into poor relationships out of desperation - desperation to make something work that should not ever have been assembled.

We see some people stepping up and doing great things and we again think privately that we could never do what they're doing. We're too shy, too insignificant, not sharp enough, not in the right tax bracket or social clique.

I have known and even espoused the fact that a person's chances of being successful are almost nil if they solely work for someone else. This is proven over and over and over again throughout history. The people who break out and reject the mindset of the controllers - money, power, greed, etc., and trek through life in pursuit of their passion become the 'true' wealthy people.

Our society is sick. Terminally sick. Absurdly sick. Yet we continue to chase the dreams of immortality sold to the masses through sexy advertisements, tugs on our lusts for power and manufactured goals because someone else says they hold the answer to happiness.

Our society searches for its soul external to itself with obviously no means at all to succeed in self-actualization. Our society compels its legions to dance to the drumbeat of fad and fortune. Our society dies each day that another person buys into the garbage crammed down the throats of its citizens about how everything worthwhile in life can be purchased.

The lies we tell ourselves are complex, deep rooted, supported by most everything that surrounds us and we feed on them daily. We reinforce their power each time we tell ourselves we MUST have this and we won't be complete without that. Self awareness needs to be our focus. We must no longer allow advertisers and peers and families to define our existence by some criteria outside ourselves.

Only you posses the key to your happiness. Only you can place this key in the lock that binds you to something that does not define you. Only you possess the power to stop your own lies. I know as sure as there are keys underneath my fingertips that you lie to yourself every day about a myriad of things. So do I.

Hope, will, and passion can turn that key. They can open the sky and rain awareness down on your soul. Hope, will, and passion are tools you can use to combat the lies you've lived with your entire life.

One last thing. Positivity is a word (rightfully so) in the Oxford English Dictionary yet its antonym - negativity - is used in word thought and deed like a black avalanche that consumes us. Realize the power of positivity. Realize the freedom of choice you give yourself when you abandon your lies and embrace a positive outlook on life.

We bandy about lies and negativity on scales that boggle the soul, and we abandon truth and positivity on a scale that is shameful. Reverse your life. Wake up to who you are deep inside. Tell yourself the truth and claim positivity as your beacon to a brighter future. Open your eyes to the lies you listen to non-stop each and every day.

The struggle to persevere will change your life and free your soul to finally enjoy that which cannot be bought because it cannot be sold - truth. Embrace it. breathe it. Find your life and live it.