Bob Marley & the Matrix.

In the 1999 movie, The Matrix, Morpheus explains to Neo that the world he knows is really just the construct of a computer program:

Morpheus: "The Matrix is everywhere, it is all around us. Even in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to church, when you pay your taxes; it is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth"

Neo: "what truth is that?"

Morpheus: "That you are a slave, Neo.  Like everyone else, you were born into bondage; born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch; a prison for your mind."

Whilst the real world may not be a computer simulation, we are still imprisoned by our minds and the influences of propaganda spread by government, corporations and other people, often using fear to control our behaviours, our voting patterns, our shopping habits.

Our fear is driven by our thoughts and perceptions, but very often, NOT from reality.  We have been the pawns of government and corporate fear campaigns, whether it was the fear of migrants, the fear of indigenous populations, the fear of communism, the fear of drugs, the fear of Islam, the fear of terrorism, the fear of not having the latest gadget.

Fear is a construct.

Fear may not be a computer simulation, but it is the next best thing.  It is a simulation of the real world which plays out in our minds, in our thoughts and then manifests in our behaviours, actions and reactions.

Our thoughts are powerful weapons that we turn first on ourselves and then on others.

Our thoughts are so powerful, that others want to manipulate them.  For when you control a person's  thoughts, you control the person.

Joseph Goebbels stated "if you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will believe it.  The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State'. 

We need to question everything that we see and hear.  How many people were killed in the name of democracy to prevent the evil scourge of Communism? How many people were killed in the name of Communism to prevent the evil scourge of Capitalism?  Whether a person lived in Socialist Moscow or democratic Washington, they were subject to similar propaganda campaigns from their leaders.

Another Nazi, Hermann Goering, stated "Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany.  That is understood. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.  That is easy.  All you have to do is tell them that they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."

Thought control, propaganda, is all around us.  We see it in current affairs shows designed to make us terrified of our neighbours, of migrants, refugees, killer diseases, rebel teenagers, crime! We see it in news articles and even in advertising.  We hear it preached from the pulpit that Christianity is being attacked and by politicians declaring our freedoms are under attack.

Yet, it is all nonsense.  It is influential leaders manipulating you.

To continue the Matrix analogy you have two choices, you can take the blue pill and stay in your current life without changing your beliefs, or take the red pill and see the truth for yourself. As Morpheus said "you take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill ... and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes."

You can choose to continue living in the world that you know, which is the carefully constructed manipulation of modern propaganda, or you can choose the reality that exists when you control your own mind and see through the falsehoods.

Bob Marley understood this with words that we should all heed: "emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds".