We are poked and prodded the second we come into this planet. As children, we’re given little to no bodily autonomy. We need guidance, wisdom, empowerment and instruction. Instead, we receive commands, dominance, control and force. We grow up thinking that our bodies do not belong to us, but to society. We shouldn’t advocate for ourselves but instead blindly accept what is told to us by others who know better; the “professionals”. The “experts”. The “authorities”. The “specialists”. Surely, they would never lead us astray.
But the fact of the matter is that they have, and they will continue to. Many won’t do it purposefully and many will. They’ve grown up in the same confused world as we have and believe in the same confused system, we believe in. It’s unnatural for most of us to see ourselves as autonomous beings because we have been conditioned from a young age to believe the opposite. We believe in the theory of “the good citizen”. One who obeys and does what is told. To question or to defy is socially unacceptable, even when it’s in the best interest of the individual. As creatures who need and crave connection, the ostracization that oftentimes comes with defiance can be viewed as worse than death.
Our trust in our institutions and our “experts” are manufactured through propaganda and conditioning. Those who are deemed better than and “successful”, like doctors and scientists, are propped up on pedestals. The average person sees the doctor or the scientist as being all-knowing and trustworthy. How could they not be if they’re so highly regarded and respected throughout society? And how could the average person ever question someone so honorable?
How quickly we forget about the influence money has over people. No matter their occupation, money can change a person’s values because money can change a person’s life. No one is above its power and no profession is above its influence. If the world can recognize that a politician can be bought, why can’t they see the same for the doctor? Or the scientist? Why is it that the general public scoffs at the idea of corruption in the medical and scientific world?
As humans, we are far more susceptible to manipulation than we allow ourselves to realize. We strive to prove to ourselves and to others that we operate with free will. It is imperative to us that our thoughts, decisions and opinions come from ourselves and not from the influence of the outside world. But the truth is that we are heavily influenced by our environment and by the people around us. We’re far more apt to believe something if we see that many other people around us believe that same thing. We are reactionary creatures who typically act off emotions instead of rationale. Those who seek to have power over us know this and use it to their advantage. They manipulate us in any and every way they can.
When it comes to societal roles and hierarchies, we’ve been conditioned to view certain people as good, bad, successful, unsuccessful, respectable or not. The boxes that we’ve learned to put people in takes the place of truly understanding a person’s character. We can meet a total stranger on the street, ask what their profession is, and believe we know almost everything about them based on their response. This is neither logical nor realistic. It is impossible to know a person’s true character based off of what they do for a living. And while many of us can recognize this fact, we subconsciously place people into boxes regardless due to our conditioning.
It is because of this ongoing, insidious influence that seeps into our minds at every corner that 2.5 years into the covid pandemic, with much more knowledge and information than we had going into it, people still refuse to question what they’ve been told by the “experts”. They refuse to admit that scientists and medical professionals are just as human as they are. They can be misled, manipulated, misinformed, influenced by people of power, bought off and even sociopathic. They can be conditioned.
We’ve been told time and time again that these are the people who are going to save us; they are heroes. We better listen to them and give them the respect they deserve. We better not question them or defy their rules. If we dare to have opposed opinions, we are selfish. We are killers. We deserve to be punished. We’ve been labeled and ostracized from our friends and family members. We’ve been fired from our jobs. We’ve been forever changed. We see the world differently than we did before.
It’s crucial that we recognize that if we can change, then so can they. There are people who aren’t there yet but there was a time when we weren’t either. We are all human and we are all capable of overriding our own conditioning. The powerful can keep trying to manipulate us but they fail to realize something extraordinarily important: we are not lab rats. We are human beings who have the ability to grow and evolve. We might not see it at first and we might not always get there the same way, but we can get there.
And we will.
I am socially unacceptable. I refuse to accept what I am told, unless it resonates with me, and most of this World has never resonated with me.
Great article. More people need to hear this message. We need to learn to take back our power or better yet. Never give it away.