There is nothing better after a long, hard week of work to relax and cut loose, right? The indulgence of having fun and being carefree! This is the way human nature has progressed for centuries. Think back to the time of the Roman Gladiators who fought in the coliseums. The spectators in attendance would booze it up, cheer on the brutal fighting occurring before them, and forget about the challenges of life they faced every day.
What does that have to do with modern day entertainment? A lot more than it may seem like on the surface. Those in power have always used entertainment and vices to capture people’s focus, distract them, and keep them docile. Those in power are fewer in number (the minority) than those being controlled (the majority). The minority have to keep the majority subdued to prevent the majority from banding together which would result in the majority having more power than those minorities in power.
The strategies being used to achieve this have evolved over the years, but the outcome is still the same. While gladiator fights, storytelling, and music have transformed into the entertainment of movies, social media, and news, the people are still in the same state of powerlessness and division. We still see sex, wine/alcohol, and violence (football and fighting such as boxing, UFC, PFL, etc…) deeply engrained in the entertainment we have today just as it’s always been. Keeping the people submissive starts with influencing your thoughts about the world you live in, embedding the belief these systems are supporting your best interest, and keep you so focused on surface level distraction you never look below the surface to see what’s truly happening.
Pay attention to what’s readily available and what’s deemed quackery. The things supporting expanding your consciousness as such ayahuasca or psilocybins are illegal while things which suppress your consciousness.. cigarettes and alcohol.. are legal. It’s important to question, test, and challenge the information and beliefs that are pushed upon you.
Take a moment to check out the commercials on TV. What companies are running the ads, and who owns those companies? What messages are they sending you, and what do they want you to believe from the advertisement? Who is sponsoring big events such as the Superbowl? What is a movie really wanting you to believe? How much violence and sexual connotation are embedded within the story?
This is not by chance. The entertainment industry does not have a moral compass. It simply produces what is highly profitable, and what sells are these elements which trigger our survival instincts. Look at the true crime craze for example. This one got me for many, many years myself. I loved watching Dateline to see how often I could solve the crime in the first five minutes of the show.
It’s natural to want a break from thinking and from focusing. Since our brain’s default programming is to ruminate and reflect on things of the past when we are not actively working on something, it’s uncomfortable for most to be in this relaxed state for an extended period of time without something to guide your brain away from the ruminations. Entertainment is a natural way to distract the brain from its normal default processes. But if you are not intentional with what you’re consuming, you may actually be limiting your ability to critically think simply through the entertainment you consume.
Social media has normalized this for our society. We take a break and do the unconscious scroll, and somewhere in your feed is something triggering. Perhaps comparing yourself to your friend’s marriage, a trip they’re on, or a new vehicle they just purchased which trigger your emotions of not being or having enough. Perhaps you dwell on it for a couple hours or days after seeing the post. Until the emotions subside it is hard for the brain to engage in deep, critical thinking. News has the exact same effect as 90% of stories reported are negative. Distraction accomplished.
Social media goes even deeper than simply self-comparison. The head of the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security (CISA) said in a deposition for the Missouri & Louisiana vs Biden Administration court case “the most critical infrastructure is cognitive infrastructure,” and CISA is in the business of protecting critical infrastructure. If you’re not certain what is being referred to as ‘cognitive infrastructure,’ it is your thoughts.
CISA, a government agency, is openly saying they are in the business of protecting your thoughts. We must not be able to do that for ourselves?
Media has become centralized, although it didn’t used to be this way. It is now owned by six holding companies:
- 21st Century Fox
- Viacom
- Disney
- Comcast
- Time Warner (WarnerMedia)
- Sony
Everything you watch in mainstream media comes back to these six holding companies. Watching ESPN? Owned by Disney. Watching ABC? Also owned by Disney. truTV? WarnerMedia. When only six companies are deciding what’s being produced on TV, competition is limited and the centralization of power is increased. (Read about the impact of centralized power and why this matters here.) Competition drives profits, and so they have to produce what sells. If companies don’t have a product that is highly profitable, the company will be bought out by a larger corporation, which is how these six holding companies have come to dominate the media industry today. The best way to vote for what or who you support? With your dollar!
Hollywood is another large piece of our current entertainment industry. Hollywood was founded in 1903 and became an industry in 1908. Pay attention to these dates as you will soon see a lot of highly impactful decisions occurred from approximately 1905-1915, and Hollywood was one of those. As you know, Hollywood pumps out great theatrical movies, TV series, and more.
What you might not know is Hollywood has worked closely with the Department of Defense (DOD) for the past 100 years, and it’s also worked closely with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) since its inception in 1947. Why would Hollywood need to partner to with government agencies to manufacture entertainment? Or is it the other way around; is the government partnering with Hollywood?
Many believe Hollywood discloses future events through the movies it makes. I have not watched movies for many, many years so I’d love to hear what fictional movies you’ve watched in the theatre to later see played out in real life. Can you think of any? If so, please leave them in the comments below. A few I’ve heard talked about are The Matrix, The Manchurian Candidate, and Outbreak.
It’s important to understand what your brain does as you zone out becoming memorized or hypnotized with what you’re watching to understand the full impact TV and movies have over you. The brain has five different wave patterns:
- Gamma: insight & peak experiences
- Beta: concentration, thinking
- Alpha: meditation, creativity, relaxation
- Theta: visualization, trance, dreaming
- Delta: deep sleep, restoration
As you can see from the brief descriptions your brain switches to alpha waves when it’s relaxed, and this makes it easier to influence the unconscious mind. Whatever you are consuming while in this brain state will have a highly likelihood of seeding into your belief system, fears, and unconscious. Since our unconscious mind controls 95% of what we do, it’s really effective to be able to program a person’s unconscious mind merely through the entertainment of movies, TV shows, and that dazed social media scroll. Most don’t realize how vulnerable their thoughts are in this state of zoning out and relaxing.
We’re just getting warmed up. Stay tuned to learn about what the food, housing, energy, education, healthcare, and monetary system do to exercise control over the people. By the end you’ll see the US isn’t even a country, it’s a corporation.
Lessons learned: Be mindful of what you zone out to as it is influencing your beliefs, thoughts, and decisions of the future.
The truest and most influential vote you have is with your dollar!
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Peace & Love,
Janessa