But would you have originally done that action if he didn't influence you Arya? If you wouldn't have originally done that action then yes doing the action physically is your doing but mentally is it? I would say it is his.
But would you have originally done that action if he didn't influence you Arya? If you wouldn't have originally done that action then yes doing the action physically is your doing but mentally is it? I would say it is his.
If you look at the basics, it's the same thing.The influenced by your friends stuff is a little more off topic, I wanted to focus more on the media. I accept that the point is quite pedantic and pointless if you are talking about everyday advice and influence from friends etc but from the media it is different.
On one point we are free to think but on the other we aren't. As you said, a lot of people are being manipulated (not directly) by the media. In other words people create their opinion based on "what the television is saying". Though these are most likely the lower educated people, if someone with a lot of "power" would like his voice to be heard he would make sure the media would pronounce his "opinion" as "reality" and people would give up thinking by themselves and would say "oh that's probably true".
For example if we're watching the news here they're saying: "The U.S. troops have killed bla bla bla Taliban terrorists and are fighting for peace". If I'd ask for example me neighbor "what the hell are those U.S. troops doing in Afghanistan or Iraq he would tell me "they are helping the people and trying to make peace by elliminating the Taliban/Al Quida." Then if I'd ask him "how do you know what our troops are doing out there" then he would tell me I saw that on television.
Something else I noticed are the changes in facts with History lessons (I'm still 14 and go to highschool). F.E. Our teacher is telling us that the Sovjet Union was being ruled by the Communists and the whole system in the Sovjet Union was Communistic in Stalin's time. I asked my teacher then "hmm is that so? first of all why could nobody else make a decission then but Stalin alone? This sounds to me more like Dictatorism and based Karl Marx' manifesto a country who'd been Communistic would NOT be a state. and how about religion? Karl Marx' manifesto forbade religion, churches etc. Stalin had studied priestership in his past and Moskou was especially in Stalin's time known as a big centrum of the Eastern Orthodox Church."
My teacher gave me the following answer "hmm I don't know that's not what the books say." I told him "but who has written those books then? Someone who has experienced history himself or someone who is just binding the facts." End of discussion.
So to sum that monologue up, it would seem as though the powerful are heard, and the weak listen?
I can't disagree with that logic.
No matter what laws you live under you are always free to 'think' but are you free to publish your thoughts?
Our brains work in just a series of reactions in a specific and never ending pattern. Therefore we do not have the ability to think. Everything is pretty much set in stone believe it or not.
They are still our thoughts and decisions.
Whether you have been influenced by something it was your decision to allow that to help shape your opinion.
Your thoughts are truly yours because it is not often that you will believe every single small detail of something you have seen or heard.
What you decide to believe out of something is usually based on what you knew or believed previously and since that is different to everyone else, the final thought that you have can be deemed yours.
I was thinking about this yesterday so I thought I'd share it with you guys and see your thoughts too.
My question: Are we free to think?
It may seem obvious at first because you will say you have the freedom of thought because you can think about whatever you want - your mind is private.
But look at it from a different angle; for example the news. They represent stories however they want, you are constantly influenced by their representations of things thus making you have similar views to them. Yes you can physically think any thought you want but the thoughts that you think of are influenced from other people or institutions so are they really yours?
Our brains work in just a series of reactions in a specific and never ending pattern. Therefore we do not have the ability to think. Everything is pretty much set in stone believe it or not.

