Society is Mind Control
Mind control. It is something that society has been talking about for decades. Personally, I do believe we have control over our minds, but to a certain extent. We control what we want to believe or what we want to understand. What goes beyond our mind is what’s going on around us. Society creates ideas that we are told we should follow. What we do, is take these ideas and we control what we do with them. Susan Blackmore mentions “memes,” manny times in her essay “Strange Creatures.” I do believe that these “memes,” exist in society today. They shape how we act and what we believe in. In the medical world, they are trying to make mind control more literal. In Lauren Slater’s essay, “Who Holds the Clicker?” Slater mentions …show more content…
In Salter’s essay she tells the story of patient B-19. Doctor Robert Heath helped treat this man out of his, what the called it at the time, “illness.” “Heath ‘treated’ a homosexual man by firing electrodes in his pleasure center while having him watch movies of heterosexual encounters, and within 17 days B-19 was a newly made man” (Slater 235). Though it does not mention the time period as to which B-19 lived, it is safe to say that homosexuality was not accepted in society at the time. This is a perfect example of how society creates mind control. Homosexuality was something that was never really talked about. It went against some religions so therefore it was not widely accepted. At the time, “the public, practically African Americans, were more than a little perturbed at the thought that mind control was seen as a viable solution to social injustice” (Slater 236). Minorities, at the time, were outraged to hear about these surgeries. People did all they could at the time to alter the minds of those who were different. In today’s society we were taught to accept others no matter their race or sexuality. Our views on these people changed with time. It makes no sense to create a surgery so permanent, mainly based on the fact that someone acted different than what was deemed to be normal. Like Blackmore mentions, “Memes spread themselves around indiscriminately without regard to whether they are useful, neutral or positively harmful …show more content…
But, society can’t force us to agree with what we are told is normal. We control what we want to believe. We should disagree with Blackmore when she says, “Most of us continue to think of ourselves as a little conscious ‘me’ inside our brain; a ‘me’ who sees the world, makes the decisions, directs the actions and has responsibility for them. As we shall see later on, this view has to be wrong (Blackmore 33). Memes may float around in society but there is a “me,” inside of you that chooses what to and not to believe. Ideas are thrown at us everyday of our lives. It is up to that little “me,” inside your to choose what you want to believe in. Bringing these ideas together, we can conclude that, surgeries and treatments may help a patient feel more normal but our ideas of normal will always change with
Mind control. It is something that society has been talking about for decades. Personally, I do believe we have control over our minds, but to a certain extent. We control what we want to believe or what we want to understand. What goes beyond our mind is what’s going on around us. Society creates ideas that we are told we should follow. What we do, is take these ideas and we control what we do with them. Susan Blackmore mentions “memes,” manny times in her essay “Strange Creatures.” I do believe that these “memes,” exist in society today. They shape how we act and what we believe in. In the medical world, they are trying to make mind control more literal. In Lauren Slater’s essay, “Who Holds the Clicker?” Slater mentions …show more content…
In Salter’s essay she tells the story of patient B-19. Doctor Robert Heath helped treat this man out of his, what the called it at the time, “illness.” “Heath ‘treated’ a homosexual man by firing electrodes in his pleasure center while having him watch movies of heterosexual encounters, and within 17 days B-19 was a newly made man” (Slater 235). Though it does not mention the time period as to which B-19 lived, it is safe to say that homosexuality was not accepted in society at the time. This is a perfect example of how society creates mind control. Homosexuality was something that was never really talked about. It went against some religions so therefore it was not widely accepted. At the time, “the public, practically African Americans, were more than a little perturbed at the thought that mind control was seen as a viable solution to social injustice” (Slater 236). Minorities, at the time, were outraged to hear about these surgeries. People did all they could at the time to alter the minds of those who were different. In today’s society we were taught to accept others no matter their race or sexuality. Our views on these people changed with time. It makes no sense to create a surgery so permanent, mainly based on the fact that someone acted different than what was deemed to be normal. Like Blackmore mentions, “Memes spread themselves around indiscriminately without regard to whether they are useful, neutral or positively harmful …show more content…
But, society can’t force us to agree with what we are told is normal. We control what we want to believe. We should disagree with Blackmore when she says, “Most of us continue to think of ourselves as a little conscious ‘me’ inside our brain; a ‘me’ who sees the world, makes the decisions, directs the actions and has responsibility for them. As we shall see later on, this view has to be wrong (Blackmore 33). Memes may float around in society but there is a “me,” inside of you that chooses what to and not to believe. Ideas are thrown at us everyday of our lives. It is up to that little “me,” inside your to choose what you want to believe in. Bringing these ideas together, we can conclude that, surgeries and treatments may help a patient feel more normal but our ideas of normal will always change with