Amethyst Posted December 2, 2005 Share Posted December 2, 2005 Numb minds blankly stare into open air. TV signals flow -- on their way, they go. Buy this, buy that litter for your cat, fast food, lite beer, is your signal clear? Repetitiously chanting way off key, swaying to and fro, happily they glow. Dumbing down our schools to teach only rules and conformity like a factory. Mindlessly, kids learn which books they should burn, and which books to read and which rules to heed. Some manage to think and use more than ink, but they are too few. How brainwashed are you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerise Posted December 2, 2005 Share Posted December 2, 2005 I like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amethyst Posted December 2, 2005 Author Share Posted December 2, 2005 Thank you! It could probably stand to be edited a wee bit more, but it's not like it's going to get published anywhere besides my live journal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greasemonkey Posted December 2, 2005 Share Posted December 2, 2005 Some manage to thinkand use more than ink, but they are too few. How brainwashed are you? Nice poem! I like to think that most of this crap is probably going to backfire on the fundies merely because there is too much information available to the contrary out here in cyberspace. They are pissed because they aren't exclusive anymore. Hell, when I was a kid I remember when businesses cringed at the thought of a church boycott. Now they just roll thier eye's at them. So now they try to get to kids when they are young, and feeding kids lies in the information age can be a little difficult since most kids have the tendency to ask questions (not to mention rebelliousness). I was reading a blog on a fundy site recently with a guy "giving testimony" about how they "brainwashed" him in college, and it took nearly 8 years of church to finally bring him back to the "true path." Although I found the guy slightly pathetic, I also think he is truly a minority. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amethyst Posted December 2, 2005 Author Share Posted December 2, 2005 Thanks, Greasemonkey. It's not entirely about religion, and more about American culture in general. Although religion is certainly a large part of our culture and has a lot to do with why people think what they think. I will say that I was "brainwashed" by the Lutheran church as a kid and didn't really start to question until I was in high school. And even if most kids ask questions, their parents still drag them to church and sometimes even church schools, where they aren't allowed Internet access. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willybilly30 Posted December 2, 2005 Share Posted December 2, 2005 Society does try to brainwash with what ever idea is making the most money at the moment. Its all about getting money what ever can get someone money or whatever makes you popular. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greasemonkey Posted December 2, 2005 Share Posted December 2, 2005 I will say that I was "brainwashed" by the Lutheran church as a kid and didn't really start to question until I was in high school. I feel your pain. I'm a Southern Baptist ministers son, and the brainwashing started in the cradle for me. It was late high school before the questions started to arise in me as well, and they hit full force when I got to college. Both of my brothers are agnostic/ atheist as well, but my sister is still pretty right-wing fundy. The problem with extreme fundies is thier capacity to try to create thier own hysteria, and had it not been for all the BS-conspiracy crap they fed me, I might have never started questioning in the first place. When a person figures out one thing is a lie, I think it is in a lot of people's nature to start wondering what OTHER lies they were told. To deviate a bit, I was watching one of the old "underground satanic conspiracy" videos a while back by an ex-FBI agent. He was all up in arms about the fact they conducted a raid and he found "clear evidence" that there was something going on because he found a book with descriptions of demons and how to invoke them. The book was Gotia: The lesser key of Solomon. I have a copy of it in my bookcase & you can find it in quite a few new-age bookstores in the Quaballah section. Yet someone possessing this book was "proof!!!" That kind of thing can really come back & bite them in the ass later! The main two guys starting the SRA nonsense were exposed as frauds within thier own ranks (well, by Cornerstone Magazine), and then guys like Fallwell criticized the "uncoverer's" as "shooting thier own wounded." Funny you should mention Lutheran ...that is what my wife was, and she dropped X-ianity easily. Some people find it easier, and I guess it depends a lot on the family as well. Wifey's folks were more of the "go to church on Sunday" because it was a social thing. She didn't get it on the home front too. My older brother dropped it fairly easy after being EXTREME fundy; his attending a bible college for two years was what did it for him. There was never a drop of anger on his part, yet for me it took nearly 5 years to work through the anger stage. People are odd, but I still have faith that old pendulum will swing back to the left before long. The far-right is their own worst enemy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fortunehooks Posted December 7, 2005 Share Posted December 7, 2005 amethyst, fine piece of art you have there. i commend you, you have taken it one step further than i. well, unless you count the times i was at the open mic nights, but i digress. this is put down beautifully by you. who knows, i should post a few of my works, and see how you all rate them. i can trust your honest opinions, but be warned, i always get positive responses whenever people get wind of my work! i don't really know if you all will get some of my stuff, but i will post something anyway. because i remeber being brainwashed, and i am still brainwashed by many things in my life. i love that poem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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