Seeing Through "Hype"
All through history, masses of people have been lead, slave like, by charismatic and or eloquent people to do or change things that the charismatic or eloquent people want changed. In most cases this action goes contrary to what is both logical and in the interests of the people being lead or prompted to action.
The three areas of our social engagement that top the list of this type of behaviour are sport, politics and belief systems.
Why are these three social structures so powerful when it comes to moulding and leading masses of people?
What are we comfortabel with?
As human beings, we like to associate with or perpetuate what we know and are comfortable with. Because of this we will naturally gravitate towards supporting our local team, then our country team. If we have had a profoundly good religious experience, we will go back to that place where we had that experience. We attend a political rally and our frustrations are addressed by believable rhetoric that makes us feel empowered in that moment.
This type of action creates a comfort zone of familiarity for us where we no longer need to engage our defence mechanisms, we feel good in a group that is familiar, and we feel safe. We there for tend to suspend the degree of critical thinking that would cause us to question our experiences. Taken to an extreme, the collective that we are now part of sees any critical thinking as a threat, and we ostracise the individuals who are questioning. We label them unpatriotic, sell-outs, heretics or similar.
Question your comfort zones!
To deepen an understanding of yourselves and you experience of life, I urge you to question your comfort zones – don’t destroy them, but rather identify them and understand the value that they are adding to your life. This will allow you to gracefully mould and adapt them, instead of the comfort zones moulding and adapting you!
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