Conditioning The Sheeple . . . The American Way!

Conditioning the Sheeple is the American Way and starts almost from the time of conception and continues until the day we die. We are conditioned to think a certain way and because we accept this conditioning without question, it becomes our reality.

A baby is conditioned to eat everyday and its body becomes accustomed to this practice. Although it is important for babies to receive proper nutrition, is it really necessary for it to eat everyday?

Let's assume that it is and that it receives its nourishment on a daily basis, at some point after reaching a certain age, is it really required to receive nourishment everyday, or is this just a habit that we have been conditioned to believe?

Now I could show you studies that humans do not require nourishment on a daily basis to remain healthy and I could show you studies that they do, but that is not the point I'm trying to make.

The point I'm trying to make is that we are conditioned to believe that eating everyday is a requirement for healthy living. So to fully understand the point I'm trying to make, I decided to practice what I preach and conducted a little experiment on myself. I decided that I would only eat every other day for a month to see what kind of effects it would have on my system.

Let me tell you the first week I was HUNGRY, however by the second week it wasn't that bad. The third and fourth weeks it became easier and easier, until now in my sixth week it is becoming routine and I barely even think about it. I thought for sure it would be a lot harder to pull off, but it was actually easier than I thought.

Now don't get me wrong . . . I still drink liquids on the days I don't eat, but not eating for a whole day is actually a lot easier to do than I envisioned.

Now your probable wondering what kind of deranged nutard would put himself through something that was completely unnecessary just to prove a point. Well, that would be me, a certified nutard and proud of it.

Now I believe that, God for lack of a better explanation, talks to everyone of us everyday of our lives, however most of us choose not to listen to the answers. I believe mostly this is due to being unwilling to accept the answers. One must learn to listen honestly without prejudging, not only to God, but to our fellow human beings as well. Too often we are formulating what we would like the answers to be rather than just waiting for the truth to be revealed.

Learning to recognize the answers as the truth takes practice and trust, however we can start the process with others around us by asking a question we do not know the answer to and then listening honestly to the answer. This method also works with asking the BIG questions to God or our Higher Power and then waiting for the answer to be revealed to us, usually sleeping on it is the best bet.

My big question was is getting sober really enough, or should I being doing more to awaken spiritually?

After a month or so of searching for the answer, I came to the epiphany that the answer was right under my nose and that I wasn't listening. I had been talking to many people and the common denominator from all these people was that all of them had been, in one form or another reeducating themselves. Some in new jobs they had no experience in and others by going back to school.

College, what a novel idea . . . when I was young I was way to smart for College as I had all the answers. Now at age 46 I was beginning to realize just what kind of true idiot I was. Of course, I thought for sure based on my High School education, I would have no chance of being accepted into a institution of higher learning. See I was already trying to convince myself that I had no chance of even getting in let alone getting a degree.

Old habits die hard, I was setting myself up to fail, but everywhere I went I kept running into people that were in College or taking classes. Then I began to compare myself with them and came to the conclusion, that if these morons could do it ,so could I. So I started the application process knowing full well I didn't have the money to pay for it.

Lo and behold, not only did I get in, but they were going to loan me the money to pay for it, what a concept! Now I won't bore you with the details, but suffice to say it was an enlightening experience.

I learned a great many things in College, but the greatest thing I learned was to use critical thinking. This enabled me to practice good study habits, which lead to a 3.7 g.p.a., which lead to Pell Grants, which lead to basically getting my College paid for by the Government.

By using critical thinking I basically came to the conclusion that college is all about conditioning students to believe a certain dogma or paradigm.

It is way too easy, I can honestly say that my High School education thirty years ago was ten times harder than getting a college degree. Perhaps thirty years of life's experiences helped me, but it also awakened in me the realization that conditioning was everywhere.

Which leads me back to my point, we as a society are conditioned to believe how to think, how to react, how to spend our money, how to worship, how to do just about everything you can think of, including how we perceive addiction!

We do not use critical thinking at all, it is almost non existent. We are even conditioned to think we use critical thinking, but we don't. I know so many reasonable informed people with multiple degrees and very intelligent, that accept everything that is shoved in front of them without question and this includes my own family.

Now I question everything and believe nothing, however one of the keys to this enlightenment, that I have been blessed with, is that practicing patience and tolerance of others is the next lesson I must learn.

I admit I'm not very good at it, so my next little experiment is going to be to try to stay positive and say and do only positive things (maybe I should start by being nice only on days ending in the letter Y). Yes, this includes leaving positive comments on other Hubbers articles, no matter what is said to me or left on my Hubs.

I suspect this will be much more difficult than saving money on groceries by eating every other day and learning to live a sober life, however I'm living proof you can teach an old dog new tricks.

So in conclusion, if I leave a sarcastic remark on your hub, know that I'm just trying to be nice and that I could have told you what I really think!

Conditioning the Sheeple the American Way is actually done most effectively at the college level where adults begin to shape the way they think the remainder of their lives.