Opinion: Independent Thinkers can break the Control Illusion

This is the third part of our article series "If you don't like politics, You are doing it wrong". If you are new to our opinion articles we suggest you read our previous ones (Click here) before proceeding.

Parliament complex of Sri Lanka

In our last opinion article, we expressed our ideas about political slavery and the control illusion. Today we express more ideas on that. Going through your feedback on that, We saw that there was a common misunderstanding about our labelling of political slavery.

If someone independently considers and choose the best ideas matching his/her own ideology out of all ideas of the political parties, that is NOT considered as slavery. Most of the time, people follow a specific political party because they are being brainwashed by those parties. They offer things and makes promises to keep common people satisfied for short periods and keeps control of them. That is slavery. In real life, those promises are just an illusion that cannot become a reality: more specifically the Control Illusion.

There are mainly four types of people we can identify in a society,

• The independent thinkers: These people don't have a fixed view of the political world, more specifically "neutral". They don't permanently choose a political party. They stand for their own ideology or the closest ones of their own. Most of them choose to stay silent and let their votes to speak.

• The Non-Thinkers: These people don't care about politics or the government. They don't know anything about true politics and don't even want to know. Their only concern is just to live day to day life without bothering about political matters because they don't understand that the political situation of the country directly affects their lives.

• The Followers: These people choose a political party by considering the promises they give or they just follow the party their parents followed. They don't regularly talk about politics and don't have political ideas but have some knowledge about politics. They just follow a political party.

• The Slaves: People who are extremely following a single political party, no matter what their intentions or ideas are. They like to call other people slaves and have no idea about their own state. These kind of people are plentiful in third world countries and we can easily identify them. They always try to prove their ideas (which are actually the ideas of a political party and not their own) and defend the political party which they are trapped in. As a result of this, people think that politics is about arguing on ideas of some political parties so they try to avoid conversations about politics.

Another thing, those political slaves don't have their own ideas. Their political awareness is very little so they don't have the capacity to understand the ideas of an independent thinker. Most of the time they don't even try to make their own ideology because they are so obsessed with his political party and their minds are trapped in the control illusion.

My mathematics teacher (Yes, he will keep appearing for some time) said, "many who says they 'hate to talk about' politics don't suggest that they 'hate politics'. They mean they hate to get involved in unnecessary arguments with politically biased people to some political party".

"Lord Buddha once preached if the person in front of you doesn't have that capacity to understand what you say, just be silent. Politically independent humans are so less in third world countries. So they just stay silent."

Yes, totally agreed. but if everyone chooses to stay silent, who will change this down-falling corrupted system? who can break the Control illusion and stop political slavery? what should we do?

Fortunately, he had the answer and what we are trying to do with this effort was the same. "What I strongly believe is we can change this pathetic situation by making young minds independent." Not the fastest way but will definitely work as we think.

Why young minds? because they are new to this society. They are just beginning to understand our control system and most of them are not permanently trapped in the control illusion. The only blockade is the political view of their families which can we easily overcome. Most elderly people (Yeah, Boomers) are permanently trapped in the control illusion so their minds are very hard to make independent.

As our studies show, over 70% of young people are in the non-thinkers and the followers' categories. They don't care about politics. All they can see is their families provide them with the basic needs and politics is not their matter to think about. Without proper guidance, they might become slaves in the future. The control illusion is so powerful in third world countries and because of that some of the young people are already in the slave category.

How we can make those so-called young minds independent? you may ask.

Our idea is to spread political awareness among them. With proper knowledge and political education, they will understand what true political power means, what we can do with the power we hold.

What is your idea?

Please let us know so we can discuss more in the next article. You can express your ideas via social media platforms. Join our community and support us on this effort

-By Harshith Aluvihare