To what extent does obedience have a negative impact on one's individuality and imagination? Part 1

To

Abstract:

This dissertation is about the effect that following orders has on our brain, and its consequence on our individuality and imagination. The obedience I refer to is from compliance to authority figures and the media in society. It is essentially a reference to the people in power who hugely impact us and influence our thoughts and lifestyle. Moreover, a large part of this essay will include information about the media and to what extent it makes an accurate representation of our reality. Firstly, I’ll be introducing all the topics with references and then biopsychology will be mentioned after. In this dissertation, I will be writing about:

Obedience and Compliance to authority figures

What are good/bad authority figures like teachers and parents

What good/bad media is

How to stop consuming all the negativity?

What individuality is

What imagination is

Where to find good media and resources for reprogramming beliefs

The neuroscience/ biopsychology involved in obedience and imagination.

what extent does obedience have a negative impact on one’s individuality and imagination?

Introduction:

Any type of content our mind consumes is just as important as the exercise our body does to remain physically healthy/fit. This is because having a healthy/clear and positive mindset is crucial for general happiness and being creative, original, imaginative, leading one to authentic thinking, individuality, and success. After all, this dissertation’s aim is to inform others about what I have learnt during my project so that they can eventually apply this knowledge to becoming smarter and more successful in any area of their life. This could either be in creating innovative business ideas, writing song lyrics, or creating digital art/media for a videogame. It truly depends on you and how you apply this new information to better yourself. The subconscious mind controls 95% of our life and hence when we obey, we do it without consciously understanding the reasons why or questioning if it’ll benefit us. If our subconscious mind is being impacted negatively by all these limits and rules (which I believe it is), we must alter what it is we are consuming our mind with and choosing to believe by starting with the conscious mind. By reading this, you’ll be learning a lot, adapting to new mindsets, and being exposed to different knowledge. Towards the end, my aim is to not only motivate you but show you how discipline can be implemented into your life. This dissertation also includes how to enable critical thinking so you can reach your full potential, as well as how to fear life less to redirect your focus to what truly matters in life and not what the media and school insinuate. This dissertation will enable readers to learn how to cope with this new knowledge and act upon it in a productive and beneficial way. For my EPQ project, the research question is.

‘To what extent does obedience have a negative impact on our individuality and imagination?’

How does the topic connect to the wider world and why is it important?

This topic connects to the wider world because it is a fact that creating fully obedient and submissive employees encourages weakminded, helpless, and sheep-like citizens. This is dangerous because this makes it easier for governments and other wealthy people in power to demolish our freedom and manipulate us. We must be passionate about what we are ultimately living for and simply enjoying the present/being satisfied with our current circumstances.

I must state that there is a lot of information being shared here, as this will also hopefully give the reader an insight into my mind, as an individual who is imaginative and individualistic due to questioning as much as I can. This will open the reader’s mind and assist them with linking all sorts of different facts together and see how they associate with each other in the world.

Literature Review & Discussion ahead:

Obedience and compliance to authority figures 1984

Firstly, what is all this talk about ‘obedience’ and its dangers? Surely following rules is a good thing and we do it for a reason? According to Stanley Milgram in 1974, obedience is necessary for the smooth running of society. This means that subordinate individuals must suppress their desires and follow orders for hierarchies to function, fulfilling their superiors' needs. Yet, what happens when we rebel and don’t conform in scenarios where authority abuses their power, and we are faced with injustice? In George Orwell’s book, 1984, we learn about revolutions and the cause and effect of them. Years later, his book is still extremely relevant to society and is applicable to real-life circumstances happening now, globally. Orwell stated that:

“OBEDIENCE IS NOT ENOUGH. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing. Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? We have cut the links between child and parent, and between man and man, and between man and woman. No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend any longer. But in the future, there will be no wives and no friends. Children will be taken from their mothers at birth, as one takes eggs from a hen. The sex instinct will be eradicated. Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal of a ration card. We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are at work upon it now. There will be no loyalty, except loyalty toward the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big

Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. There will be no art, no literature, no science. When we are omnipotent, we shall have no more need for science. There will be no distinction between beauty and ugliness. There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed1’’.

It may sound radical to the reader, however so much Orwell wrote and predicted would occur in the future, did. Female genital mutilation has taken place in so many countries including Somalia, Egypt, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Eritrea, Gambia, Malaysia, Egypt, Cameroon, Ethiopia and more. This female circumcision removes the orgasm and, in the UK, FGM is mostly found in communities of migrants from the places mentioned above. This extract from 1984 which Orwell wrote is a fictional dystopian novel exploring right wing authoritarianism. Orwell based his story on historical events in Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany. I believe his approach of teaching global audiences about the dangers of obedience and the elites’ increasing power is applicable and generalizable to politics everywhere. This text is also highly respected and eagerly/keenly read among schools. Additionally, by reading this novel I discovered and witnessed (from a dramatic irony perspective in English literature) about the oppression people face when they lack critical thinking, creativity, and the ability to dissent. What is crucial to understand is that most people would never know if a dictatorship was occurring, unless they were watching it happen from the outside. This is because the change to the demolishment of freedom is usually very gradual and the people in power use smart tactics, distracting millions. In this novel, the Oceania state is authoritarian, freedom of speech is illegal and all anyone does is serve the party (the so-called elites) and that is their mere life purpose. Nobody has hobbies, passions, or real emotions. Every character is presented to be a robotic agent on a mission. In Social Psychology, we use the term ‘agentic state’ to signify the mental state a person is in when they are following orders from someone they perceive to be of legitimate authority and higher than them in the hierarchy. Hence, the conformist is also

1 George Orwell, 1984 Book

made to believe that what they’re doing is for the ‘greater good’, avoiding questions of morality2 .

The party’s plan is to control the citizens’ minds, so they choose how their ‘slaves’ think and perceive. It is like The Truman Show where Winston (the main character in 1984) is living in a ‘matrix’ because his whole world is a lie, which he is in fact aware of but only to a certain degree (which frustrates the audience when he is not able to follow his dream of freedom towards the end of the book because there is no escape).

The three slogans in 1984 are ‘‘ignorance is strength, freedom is slavery, war is peace3’’. It exemplifies Newspeak and the more the people of Oceania hear it, the more they believe it and subconsciously obey. It is truly terrifying. What the reader learns from the book is that the citizens’ purpose is a multitude of these: procreate, go to war, work in the factory, do the duties, sing the Newspeak songs, wash laundry, clean, sleep, eat terrible rationed food, fear the authorities, and in result obey Big Brother and repeat. The Party attempts to indoctrinate people to the point that they blindly obey all orders, even if absurd, all to serve the Inner Party. After reading the book and finding this significant extract which highlights the main points Orwell emphasizes, there was a commentary under it which reviews the extract above.

‘How does mind control work?

While the Party controlled Oceania’s culture, economy, and political system in 1984, it could never execute totalitarian control until it gained control of the citizens’ minds. The bulk of the Party’s energy, therefore, is spent on capturing and maintaining control over people’s thoughts and feelings. The Party’s widespread use of surveillance prevents citizens from organizing to overthrow it. Throughout the novel, Winston walks past posters reminding him that “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.” The telescreen in his home, which cannot be turned off, has the power to monitor his movements and issue orders to him to correct his behaviour.

2 https://www.tutor2u.net/psychology/topics/agentic-state#:~:text=The%20agentic%20state%20is%20an,as %20the%20'agentic%20shift'.

3 George Orwell, 1984 Book

Cameras and recording devices are frequently planted in public areas.

Orwell takes this method of social control from the writings of eighteenth-century English philosopher Jeremy Bentham, who designed new structures for prisons that would allow the guards to watch prisoners while preventing the prisoners from seeing the guards. Bentham believed that over time, prisoners would internalize the surveillance of the guards and stop engaging in criminal behaviour when released from prison4.’

The person who wrote the analysis above, on SparkNotes with the title ‘How does mind control work?’ is very interesting, as it emphasizes the barrier between citizens and authorities concerning the prisoners and guards. Essentially Bentham, who created utilitarianism (an ethical theory that determines right from wrong by focusing on outcomes - a form of consequentialism), made the prisoners believe they had privacy. Meaning, prisoners acted like their most natural self, while, verification of surveillance was hidden, and the commoner was utterly unaware of this, just like in 1984. What Orwell created surrounding Big Brother is very interesting and psychological as Big Brother could’ve merely been a concept to instill obedience from fear. In 1984, citizens were fearful of acting against the Party in case Big Brother was watching.

‘In 1984, Orwell depicts warfare as a necessary tool and symptom of a totalitarian state. Oceania, one of the three superstates of the world, is in constant warfare with one of the other two. This is necessary, as warfare keeps citizens in constant flux and fear - they then willingly submit to the control of the Party. Only after this submission can the Party regulate supply and demand to ensure classism, and ultimately, power5.’

Citizens are even made to watch the hanging of rebels who attempted to go against the Party’s rules. However, this could be interpreted as false media because they could’ve been actors within the party putting on the show to intimidate and threaten the people. When discussing this event of the novel with my peers in IGCSE, we all questioned whether it was genuine or a facade. We knew that the Party would undoubtedly do this to dissenters, yet were those

4 https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/1984/central-idea-essay/how-does-mind-control-work/

5 https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/1984/themes/warfare

presented in the punishment (who then magically disappeared by getting flown out in helicopters) entertainers or rebels?

To sum this up, the dangers of this are that there’s no more humanity, love or connection and intimacy between people anymore. Why do they do this, you may be wondering? By enforcing obedience, people are not allowed to use their minds and hence imagination to cause change. In fact, in the 1984 novel, there are communities to watch people get hung and they all cheer for the rebels’ deaths. Men and women aren’t even allowed to converse or engage romantically, as this would mean happiness in the working class.

By reading all these sources, I learnt the importance of questioning everything because one small rule can lead to a radical change to right wing authoritarianism. In this case here, the extent to which obedience impacts one’s individuality and imagination is extremely negative.

Additionally, with the war going on against Russia and Ukraine today in 2023, by ‘calling the war a war, or using the word "invasion" in Russia, you could get arrested. The word ‘war’ is banned under the law. It was implemented as anti-war protests across the country resulted in at least 15,000 people being arrested6’. The extent to which authority figures in these examples affect one’s individuality and imagination is massive, and demeaning. As soon as one person starts to act differently/ stand up for themselves or does something out of choice, a new regulation is forced upon them, prohibiting said liberation.

Political campaigns and genocides

Another example of when authority figures have impacted people negatively was in Classic Nazi Germany. In Germany, before the Weimar Republic was taken over by Hitler, culture, art, literature, jazz music, diversity, LGBT+ and women’s rights were on the rise. In these two articles which I read, they stated that even though the Weimar Republic was dealing with the economic crises poorly and living standards were already downhill due to the economic difficulties which the country faced such as hyperinflation after

6 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ukraine-employee-bursts-onto-russian-state-tv-news-to-protest-the-war/

World War 1, there were still positive aspects in this decade. There was diverse and liberal culture, jazz, cabaret and classical music and freedom to be creative in German cinemas, etc. These were all flourishing and so were new visual arts movements, philosophy ideologies and advanced science. ‘Towering figures like Max Plank and Albert Einstein worked in Germany in the 1920s, and Einstein received his Nobel Prize for Physics in 19217.’ This is significant because this was clearly an individualistic and imaginative time for the mass of citizens living freely and uniting after the terror of the First World War.

Einstein will be mentioned again in this dissertation.

Nonetheless, what happened next? Due to the blind obedience and power of Hitler’s speeches and the use of intimidating authority figures, citizens’ imagination and individuality were whipped away from them. Right-wing authoritarians banned this joy and love of the people, forcing the ideas of labor, work, and wealth recovery to the masses through dangerous propaganda and indoctrinating people into believing that resources were limited. Consequently, Hitler gained control over most of the people and forced them into being slave workers with less than minimum wages and made them believe life was improving but he’d gradually worsen the quality and conditions of their living standard. He’d promote the ‘Vacation Package Plan’ to those who worked the hardest too, sort of like a rat race8 .

In 1984, Orwell’s writing is inspired by the Nazi Dictatorship and Stalinist Russia. As we all know, millions of people and minorities died from this horrific and inhumane event. Without imagination, the ability to think and question circumstances, as well as being allowed to have the freedom of choice and individuality, humankind is over. Authority figures do have a negative impact on citizens. Einstein famously said: "Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand9."

7 https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zcfxcwx/revision/4

on 9 https://www.virgin.com/about-virgin/latest/great-ideas-imagination-more-important-knowledge

8 The term comes from the race between two rats to get the piece of cheese at the other of the room first by trying to outrun each other. In the process, they spend more energy than the reward is worth. It signifies an endless, futile pursuit, a mad competition one embarks

Although these sources do a great job of teaching many people, including myself about propaganda and the necessity of freedom, the sources are biased and leaning towards a more socialist and liberal world which in practice may be too idealistic. They could also be promoting extreme left-wing ideologies, and as they are clearly not coming from a neutral standpoint of view, who knows what other information is being missed out and whether the ‘right ways’ to escape authoritarianism suggested, would genuinely work.

What are good/bad authority figures?

Authority figures at home

Good and bad parenting is distinguished here and the impact of obeying one or the other on one’s individuality and imagination will be explored.

‘While strict and responsive parenting style (authoritative) produces the best outcomes in children, strict and unresponsive parenting style (authoritarian) produces adverse outcomes including behaviour problems, low self-esteem, self-control issues, and mental health problems10.’’

According to Pamela Li’s article about parenting, she states that harsh parenting leads to behavioural issues in children. I learnt that there is a strong correlation between strict parents and self-esteem issues. Even though it is effective to take on the disciplined and authoritative approach to children, people confuse this as authoritarianism and instead are strict in a demeaning way.

Authoritarianism is when parents are convinced that they:

· Always know what is best

· Demand perfection from children

· Don’t listen to children’s opinions

10 https://www.parentingforbrain.com/strict-parents/

· Are more worried about how good of a parent they look, instead of considering their child’s feelings

In the article, it is also suggested that strict parents assess their ability to raise their children well by how well their children perform academically as they push for them to excel in school and demand high achieving results (which works, especially in Asian cultures). However, these suppressed children then turn out to be the unhappiest and most depressed as they develop mental health issues over the years of trying to please their parents (obeying authority).

Children shouldn’t have to rebel against their parents if parenting is healthy, therefore this escalation of delinquency, rebellion, anger, and antisocial behaviour in children is a consequence of bad authority figures.

It could be interpreted that this is a generational issue, and these parents are merely doing what they’ve been taught is acceptable, as well as following what society has told them (depending on what side of society they are in).

Yet, why stick to bad parenting skills and thus maintaining bad authority figures when this is what happens:

‘CHILDREN RAISED WITH STRICT RULES LACK SELF-ESTEEM AND CONFIDENCE TO MAKE DECISIONS11’

Having strict parents means that these children are used to being told what to do. They lack self-esteem and self-confidence to decide and worry about making the wrong choice. This is an issue because how can people be imaginative and individualistic after being told their whole life that they’re not good enough and their ideas were dismissed. Parents who instill strictness and demand obedience from children, as well as rigid punishment as an outcome for bad behaviour (even when they’re young and still learning) could be categorized as bad parenting.

However, some sort of discipline is essential to raise well-behaved and strong-minded children. Good parenting and teaching are subjective yet what has been labelled as good in the sources are liberal, accepting, easy-going, open-minded, freedom enhancing, and emotionally and physically available parenting. If someone was

11 https://www.parentingforbrain.com/strict-parents/

brought up in a more liberal/offering unconditional love environment, they’re more likely to be a more easy-going and less anxious person. For instance, if a child grows up with an authoritarian/absent parent, they’re more likely to be repressed with built up resentment, trauma, and anger issues. On Parent Cue12, it is even suggested that a child should grow up with 5 adults who they feel comfortable with and can receive love from and talk to about vast subjects.

However, no matter your circumstance, one should try and do better, and some individuals end up being highly empathetic because of a harsh upbringing. This ties in with obedience because if a child is forced to obey a parent with whom they’re in conflict with, this will leave them feeling depleted, drained, and depressed. Children may obey to receive conditional love. More importantly, obeying a parent who we can’t relate to or who doesn’t love us may cause us to be fearful to not follow rules in the future, preventing thinking for oneself and challenging authority/daily injustices.

‘In a nutshell, positive parents support a child’s healthy growth and inner spirit by being loving, supportive, firm, consistent, and involved. Such parents go beyond communicating their expectations, but practice what they preach by being positive role models for their children to emulate.

A recurring theme in the positive parenting literature is that a warm, yet firm parenting style is linked to numerous positive youth outcomes. This style is termed ‘authoritative’, and it is conceptualized as a parenting approach that includes a good balance of the following parenting qualities: assertive, but not intrusive; demanding, but responsive; supportive in terms of discipline, but not punitive (Baumrind, 199113).’

In Heather S. Lonczak’s ‘Positive Psychology’ page, it is evident that authority figures can have a great impact in our lives as good parents encourage us to be different, individualistic, creative and to be happy, free, and confident in our authenticity. Accordingly, good parents equal to good authority figures, implying obedience does impact individuals to a positive extent affecting their individuality and imagination to excel. Children deserve a healthy environment at home to be the most confident versions of themselves so when they

12 https://theparentcue.org/why-your-kids-need-five-other-adults-in-their-lives/#:~:text=five%20other %20adults%20in%20their%20life%20guiding%20them%20and%20giving,going%20on%20in%20their%20lives.

13 https://positivepsychology.com/positive-parenting/

witness injustice, they don’t follow/allow it but stand up for it instead. This is very significant because how we form relationships with others is affected by our childhood experiences. In fact, if a baby doesn’t receive enough love and attention, this damages normal and healthy brain development along with neuron pruning in the first two years of life. Moreover, when a baby isn’t spoken to or taken care of with physical touch and affection, they are less likely to live a normal life. ‘If positive experiences do not happen, the pathways needed for normal human experiences may be lost. therefore, often referred to as the ‘use it or lose it’ principle.[5]

Tragic case studies of ‘feral’ children who have survived with minimal human contact illustrate the severe lack of language and emotional development in the absence of love, language and attention14’ Additionally, ‘parental inconsistency and a lack of love can lead to long-term mental health problems as well as to reduced overall potential and happiness15’ therefore when we grow up and enter the real world, if bad authority figures have ruined our lives, how can we be the most imaginative, individualistic and happiest versions of ourselves?

Authority figures in school

Now, introducing authority figures in schools and teachers’ impact on students’ creativity and individuality. In School, ‘most students’ biggest takeaways from school are subconscious lessons like obedience, an achievement-oriented mindset, and a fear of failure16.’

‘Environmental cues subconsciously shape how we behave. If someone is part of a supportive and positive community and has the freedom to act as they want, they tend to behave in a more sociable, helpful way. Conversely, if someone is kept in a restrictive environment where they feel distrust toward the people around them, they’ll behave in a more selfish and destructive way. You would think that schools would be designed around principles that promote a positive and helpful learning atmosphere. Instead,

14 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5330336/

15 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5330336/

16 https://nexus-education.com/blog/the-subconscious-lessons-school-actually-teaches-you/

schools have more in common with army barracks and prisons. Students are told where to go, when they may speak, how they must spend their time, and sometimes what to wear or how to present themselves. They should sit quietly and do as they are told and only question authority in certain situations. These lessons are rarely spoken out loud, but students learn them all the same. If they speak out too much or if they don’t do as they’re told, they get in trouble. If they follow the rules, though, they get good grades and good reports. Those lessons stick even after their school career is over — which makes them even more important to talk about. People are frustrated that school isn’t teaching them what they need. Instead, they walk away carrying damaging subconscious lessons like obedience. One thing is abundantly clear: sitting passively in a chair and copying information a teacher writes on the board is not the best way to teach everyone. It’s good for instilling obedience, but not necessarily for morale or passing along knowledge.

Failure is a key part of a well-led life. If students are afraid to fail, they won’t push themselves to try new things. They’ll only stick with the familiar things they know they can do well. This achievement mindset is a recipe for an unhappy, unfulfilled life17.’

What I interpreted from the extract above is that students benefit much more from liberal methods of teaching, a lack of ‘one-way’ teaching styles and pressure. Additionally, necessary skills such as managing finances; farming; cooking; emotional intelligence; social skills etc, are not importantly placed or viewed as necessary life skills.

What is so interesting is that the most unsuccessful and unfulfilled individuals are those who quit after failing. To follow a dream means failing at it until you one day don’t. The weak-minded masses aren’t aware of this and believe highly successful people achieved their goals overnight and school perpetuates ‘failure’ or ‘pass’. We have been programmed to ‘follow, follow, follow’ everyday all day. It begins when you’re a child and you’re talked about all these rules. I think that the ‘rules’ we should be taught are basic respect, compassion, and empathy for others, which ironically is lacking immensely in society. Demanding obedience from others is not 17 https://nexus-education.com/blog/the-subconscious-lessons-school-actually-teaches-you/

necessarily the solution either. In 1974 Milgram stated that ‘when individuals are in the agentic state (following orders as an agent), it can lead to destructive obedience18’ such as going against one’s personal morals of what is right and wrong. Additionally, when students are neglected by their ideas being ‘wrong’, this rejection reduces their confidence and self-worth. Instead, we get detentions and limited questions are allowed. The issue is solely in the authority because children do make mistakes and can be difficult. How can solutions be found that are harmless and effective for these scenarios?

Firstly, the school settings could be less dull as: ‘‘Classroom engagement was significantly better after lessons in nature. It appears that, far from leaving students too keyed up to concentrate afterward, lessons in nature may leave students more able to engage in the next lesson, even as students are also learning the material at hand. Such “refueling in flight” argues for including more lessons in nature in formal education19.’’

It is so pivotal that we are in contact with nature. When we are surrounded by a natural environment and not artificial settings, our mind and body’s stress levels are reduced. By forcing children to follow strict timetables, they are so preoccupied with punctuality and assignments that they forget about the bigger picture of life, and the beauty of nature around them. Thus, from an early age, students should have exposure to have fun for free in wildlife near their school so they’re more excited and eager to learn.

Antonio Gramsci, a Marxist, argues that ‘school is a replication of the workforce20’ to prepare children for the social hierarchy of life. Children are trained to be obedient employees, and this ensures them to be hard workers who think the same and perform their best to receive a grade, academic validation, and parent’s approval. How do schools do this? They enforce punctuality, uniforms, and rewards/punishment systems. Students live on a deadline regarding work submissions, the time classes start and finish, limited freedom to use the bathroom, etc. Additionally, students are forced to wear uniform, promoting lack of individualism, to be the same as

18 Psychology A level Edexcel Book

19 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02253/full

20 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02253/full

everybody else and to feel comfortable when you’re in the same position as the majority. Because why would you want to stand out in fear of judgement or leave your comfort zone to be a minority in society by not conforming to conventions if certain aspects of your social identity, thought system and more have been habituated? Now, even though there may be more advantages to setting these regulations in place (primarily avoiding chaos and instilling respect in everyone), the subconscious message is kept forever, prolonging the fear, or dissenting and being individualistic. Pupils are then being impacted negatively by obeying, because their imagination and individualism is dismissed. Lastly, with rewards/punishment systems that clearly replicate the social hierarchy of life, students are awarded when they do, they’re ‘best’ according to the teachers, sourced from the authorities who created the school system.

Nonetheless, back to obedience at home, if a child is growing up in a toxic environment and being taught in a way that is completely contradictory to in school, it can’t entirely be teachers’ faults or responsibility to modify a child’s behaviour completely. It could be argued that fact Horace Mann, the man who created school, was incredible. Mann’s motive was to ‘boost society’s shared values of co-operation and work ethics. He believed in free education to all and his founded expectations, are:

• The Life of the Mind; Mature Behavior;

• Mutual Respect;

• A Secure and Healthful Environment; and

• A Balance between Individual Achievement and a Caring Community21’

Even if his ideology had many faults, the establishment of schools and education systems was highly important at the time. The issue is that the system has not changed, even today. While physical punishment is illegal, and the curriculum has changed, society has advanced so much in technology, thus what important life skills do we genuinely still need to know that students can benefit from that are not being placed in higher value? Do most schools even prepare us for the world of work?

The reason why children and teenagers are so easily indoctrinated by influencers and content consumed on social media is because we

21 https://www.horacemann.org/our-school/mission-core-values

are already constantly indoctrinated in schools every day, that we might as well be bound to believe what a stranger is telling us on a video online. In school, we are told that ‘this is the right way’ to think about ourselves, letting others create our own self-concept, or that our goals are ‘unrealistic’, lowering excitement to grow older. What is the point of school if valuable life skills aren’t being taught such as financial literacy, gardening, cooking, household repair work, first aid, how to manage time effectively, using technology at standard level, doing tasks to increase attention span, social skills, and compassion, speaking more than 2 languages? University of Portsmouth indicates that ‘British students wanting to get ahead in the world of work should be studying an additional language22.’

School should unite people but instead the language department in the UK is lacking and what jobs can students get that won’t be replaced? While the world is changing and evolving, school has always been the same. The issue is not in education itself; it is the content and how it is taught.

Lastly, in an article I read about how the education system is holding children back, Treseder wrote a lot about how school is regressive and that what we learn will not bring economic value into the world. This is because nowadays with technology on the rise, people value creativity and innovation much more than conventional thinkers. He states that the ‘modern American school system was primarily designed to instil discipline, not to foster learning. Education was more about forming behavioural habits to enforce mental habits, not vice versa. Let that settle in for a moment. Education isn’t really about learning! More specifically, it isn’t about learning how to learn. It’s about learning how to conform. Predictability is the goal23.’ This source is great to get an insight into the mind of an American man

22 https://www.port.ac.uk/news-events-and-blogs/news/students-lacking-language-skills-will-miss-out-onjobs-new-report

23 https://medium.com/the-mission/one-man-created-the-education-system-holding-you-back-c50c39496023

who attended school in the United States, yet as someone who has always been in the British/international schooling system, I disagree that school doesn’t promote creativity, as it does in many ways. Moreover, I think that as students get older, we are given a lot more independence and are treated like young adults (in a workspace) encouraging freedom and the ability to work around the timetable we are given, learning the skills of organization and time management in a way that benefits us (or not). Horace’s views are undoubtedly outdated because he created a system that solely perpetuated conformity, respect and having everyone do the same tasks all to create his ideal society. However, at the time it was revolutionary and gave everybody opportunities, removing children from factories and giving them an education. The extent to which obeying authority figures in school affects one’s individuality and imagination is negative, however there are many arguments suggesting the opposite which I also agree with because there are exceptional cases. The school system is referred to most of them because there will be exceptions to art schools/drama schools and specific niche schools.

What good/bad media is?

Before I discover whether the media as a source of influence on people’s actions in reference to conformity and obedience, impacting one’s individuality and creativity and if it is negative, I’ll be sharing what I learnt about the positive and negative aspects of the media.

Firstly, the media is the means of communication that reaches or influence people widely. It consists of social media, the internet, the news, TV, movies, radio, music, newspapers, magazines, books and more. Marxism, a theory that suggests capitalism is the root of all evil, yet in practice always leads to dictatorships, (ironically implying neither radical societal structure with or without a hierarchy can

function in this world) argues that media ensures that the ideas and values of the elite become shared by broader society, making force unnecessary. The Marxist belief above implies that propaganda is everywhere, and citizens aren’t even aware that content they consume has a deeper message, and the person behind the potential Facebook account or News Station has an ulterior motive. For instance, comedic videos on Facebook could be subtly promoting a political party, or a wealthy influencer on a platform like YouTube could be spreading a machinist movement, truly impacting thousands of men to harm women. By harming women, I mean that unhealthy and untrue beliefs about women are formed and then behaviours are practiced that destroy society. Additionally, adverts are everywhere, perpetuating us to buy more useless items. Now, regarding the news media, there’s something called the ‘Framework of Discussion’. It is what journalists/news reporters are permitted to spread awareness about, to ensure the elites and secrets are kept safe. Not only people in the news must conform to this, but anyone with a platform like the Jimmy Fallon Show, the Ellen Show, Hollywood movie directors and everything you watch/read/listen to that is mainstream. Many common facts known now used to be censored until 20 years ago, including the existence of unethical sweatshops where child labor is undergone and where workers don’t have the right to safety. The media love to paint a positive light on everything that promotes the economy, until ethics is raised. So, who are the ‘elites’ that own most of the mainstream media? The 6 companies are the National Amusements, Disney, Time Warner, Comcast, NewsCorp and Sony. Together they share 430 billion dollars in the industry24 . For example, a cliché but relevant topic to discuss about ways media in Disney movies pushes children an agenda, are the way the princesses are represented. Something that appears so insignificant and clearly outdated, but is acknowledged by almost everyone, is the fact that most of the Disney stories have a dark message within them. For instance, in the Little Mermaid, Ariel gives up her voice (singing is her talent) just so she can get legs as an exchange, to walk on land and meet Prince Charming whom she met once when she saved him on a shipwreck. However, as she claimed to have fallen deeply in love with him, she risked everything. This included

24 https://www.webfx.com/blog/internet/the-6-companies-that-own-almost-allmedia-infographic/

herself, her life, her mermaid corps, her voice, and her family to meet a stranger. What’s so interesting about this is that it suggests a woman must sacrifice everything to be with a man and change herself completely to fit into his life, which is absurd. Did you know that women are scientifically proven to have a higher IQ, empathy level, more mental strength and are ‘better investors than men’? Women are also better leaders, have longer life expectancy, are better computer programmers, have better memory, better immune systems, better survival skills, and are more likely to reach Mars? Women have also been better historical leaders in power and when queens had husbands, those husbands brought in unnecessary conflict and ruined the empires25 .

‘WOMEN were also less likely than men to support the Vietnam war, the Gulf war, or the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. They commit far fewer murders. They are less likely to favor drone strikes. For scholars such as Steven Pinker, a psychologist, and Francis Fukuyama, a political scientist, these are grounds for thinking that a world run by women would be more peaceful26.’

‘In fact, between 1480 and 1913, Europe’s queens were 27% more likely than its kings to wage war, according to a National Bureau of Economics working paper (paywall). And like Isabella, queens were also more likely to amass new territory during their reigns, found the paper’s authors, economists Oeindrila Dube and S.P. Harish27.’

The need to mention this is because even though these are the facts, a lot of women don’t act accordingly because they are not aware of this being the case. Media has indoctrinated them into thinking women can either be beautiful or intelligent and that if they are one of them, they’re still not nearly as good enough as men. If the owners of the media stopped creating a false depiction of women in the modeling industry/commercials/ movies/ fictional books/ everywhere, then maybe women would be authentic,

25 https://thoughtcatalog.com/lorenzo-jensen-iii/2015/07/17-ways-that-science-proves-women-aresuperior-to-men/

https://www.healthyway.com/content/ways-that-women-are-superior-to-men-according-to-science/ https://www.healthshots.com/mind/are-women-stronger-than-men-here-are-8-scientific-facts-to-putthis-debate-to-rest/

26 https://www.economist.com/europe/2017/06/01/who-gets-into-more-wars-kings-or-queens

27 https://qz.com/967895/throughout-history-women-rulers-were-more-likely-to-wage-war-than-men

confident, and powerful. They would also stop putting on a character and performance because they think that’s how they should be. ‘‘We can only achieve what we think we can. We can only be who we think we are’’ - Neville Goddard (simplified)

Back to the ‘Framework of Discussion’ which I learnt about in this article:

The Brutal Truth About the Mainstream Media is that ‘Too many people passively accept the messages given to them without ever noticing the strangeness of what they’re looking at. Too many people are so completely confused by the mainstream media that they can’t tell which way is up and which way is down. Too many people have wildly inaccurate perceptions of the world around them28’ what I loved about this article is that it taught me so much and it had evidence for every statement it made. It truly exposed the reality of the mainstream media from 30 years ago until now, and the fact that most people willingly accept absurd sounding ‘facts. For example, to summarize what the blog wrote, in capitalism, monopolies are going to happen regardless and after 1983 the 50 companies that controlled the media, melded into 6 because power is not distributed, and only given to the hands of smaller and smaller groups with time. Also, it is the government’s job to split these monopiles up yet when the big 6 media controls and influences the government, this will unlikely occur. This implies that the elites will choose what the media controls, using narratives to present certain perspectives as truthful. So many topics in all mainstream media are forbidden to be discussed. These consist of War, Big Pharma, Lobbing, The Arms Industry and if they were to be debated, the population would start questioning the injustices that take place. The article states that the reader ‘may think all this talk of “elites” and “controlling the narrative” sounds like an insane conspiracy theory. But just take a second to consider exactly what’s at stake. We’re talking about having influence over the minds of millions of people. Entire nations. The military force to destroy entire countries. And ultimately, control over the human race. Every human society in history has been ruled by elites. In the past, kings and emperors ruled us. All human societies that have ever existed have had a pyramid-like power structure. With a small number of elites controlling the rest of the population. You think about the peasants of the who were controlled

28 https://mediavsreality.com/mediavsreality2/2019/9/2/the-brutal-truth-about-the-mainstream-media/

by their kings and imagine that situation to have been left in the past. But that situation isn’t left in the past. It’s our present. Our quality of life has dramatically improved thanks to technology. But we still have rulers. These rulers have an incredible tool they never used to have: Mass media. An ability to send messages to millions of people that was never possible in the days of kings and emperors. They use this tool to control thought about any issues that are close to the centre of power (The inner ring)29’’. The blog then gave an example of someone who revealed the government’s war crime and got oversaw by the elites. Julian Assange, an Australian journalist who had good intentions of exposing America’s military committing war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2010-2011 got imprisoned in 2019 and until this day people have been protesting for his freedom. The USA and UK claimed he was leaking confidential government files, putting assets at risk. However, when Wikileaks spread the information and his books were published, it hadn’t actually been his fault as ‘The Guardian’ was responsible for this. As a result, this shows how inaccurate information is spread on the media too because the elites then tried to portray him negatively, distracting the mass from the true story. Meaning that while citizens believe they are being informed of every new update happening globally, there are always stories being missed out. This is because news stations will only tell society stories that’ll sell and catch their attention, sometimes even bending the truth. For instance, after the Iraq War, all CNN did was promote the American soldiers’ strategies, efforts, achievements and indoctrinating the agenda of ‘America’s National Pride’ onto everybody, dismissing the other key highlights of the war. Whereas Al-Jazeera, illustrated the bloody pictures of the victims’ bodies and the innocent civilians. They showed the public the truth of this war, addressing it as a war crime and unacceptable. In the Iraq war, 460,000 civilians died. While Bush declared that ‘the security of the world required disarming Saddam Hussein30’ after the horrific events of 9/11, it was Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan who led the terrorist attack in 2001.

Nonetheless, Bush feared that Iraq could be involved in the next terrorist invasion with distribution of armaments that’d lead to mass destruction in the West and other places. There had already been so many disputes and conflict surrounding Iran, with battles in Turkey,

29 https://mediavsreality.com/mediavsreality2/2019/9/2/the-brutal-truth-about-the-mainstream-media/

30 https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/03/20030317-7.html

Iran, and an invasion of the small oil rich nation in Kuwait. Even though the UN inspectors did their job and found no weapons under Hussein’s ruling, Bush allied with Tony Blair and announced an ultimatum 31that if Saddam Hussein didn’t leave Iraq with his sons in 48 hours on the 18th of March 2003, military conflict would resolve. The result of this was that America and the United Kingdom attacked Iraq 2 days later, because Hussein refused. The point is that the media lies all the time, especially by sugarcoating and censoring the truth. Fox News and CNN supported the war, impacting millions of Americans to agreeing with it.

Milgram proposed that following rules can lead people to commit acts of destructive obedience. For instance, when soldiers are in the agentic state, they follow the herd and the military clearly has extremely negative impacts as it completely invades other people’s homes, territory and causes genocide. Never mind a person having individuality and imagination here, none of that is possible in a war.

A few more examples of what is not to be discussed under the ‘Framework of Discussion’ for the reader to get an idea, includes how the top 1% avoid tax laws; how the governments in some countries allow terrible food to be sold (worsening the diabetes and obesity rates) and of course the Iraq War being a crime war (all just for-profit gains).

After researching all of this and asking other questions as I was curious about the media and its effect on people, this is what I found out (regarding social media).

To what extent does the media we consume impact us negatively?

Most people are aware that social media is not a reflection of reality. In fact, I conducted some research by creating a survey and here are the results:

https://admin.typeform.com/form/Y9IpIQwc/reports

Here are some of the findings of the investigation. To summarize it, most participants chose 10 on a scale of 1-10 about how likely teenagers are influenced by social media. For the question regarding ‘what makes people fake on social media’ almost

31 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr7OKqqTb_o

everyone shared the same ideas about people creating a ‘false narrative’ and ‘facade’ of themselves when they are not truly who they pretend to be. Most participants suggested the internet has no negative or positive impact on the intelligence of young individuals, whereas 1 suggested it was positive and 3 suggested it was negative. Additionally, most participants agreed that the impact of the internet on young people's intelligence dependent on the content they access. For example, 1 participant suggested that ‘some sources may be trustworthy whereas others aren’t, yet they appear to be’. Another participant wrote that ‘people with access to a wide range have more freedom to create opinions but an individual’s want to learn also plays a role’. Lastly, someone else suggested that with resources about ‘mental health available on YouTube’ this encourages new knowledge and is helpful. 4 participants stated they never listened to podcasts/audiobooks whereas 3 did weekly and 2 did monthly. 2 participants were aware of what the ‘Framework of Discussion’ was whereas 7 were not. 3 participants claimed to know that 6 companies own most of the mainstream media, whereas 6 did not.

From conducting this research and taking the approach to do some further research online, I concluded that the issue is not that people lack extreme self-awareness, it’s that they possibly don’t know how to break the habit of believing everything online and getting off their gadgets to find some time to enhance their creativity. Moreover, they are acknowledgeable about the fact that media is false, yet they don’t know the depth of the rabbit hole when it comes to lies and who is behind each story. It is a shame to waste one’s time relentless scrolling or watching other people’s lives for ‘show and tell’ when they could be living in the present.

An advantage of the media is that it brings people together and unites them. The contribution of ideas is now much more efficient and social media gives a platform for anyone to attain power and fame. Although the harm in this is that we must be careful with who we are giving an audience to as misinformation can be spread. The media can have a positive impact on one’s individuality and individualism. This is because some conformity is necessary to connect with others in a more intellectual, respectful manner. Additionally, media may not always promote obedience.

The western world and Muslim women

The western media world attempts to liberate Muslim women, yet they sometimes actually oppress them. This is because some white American man who’s a journalist speaks for them, when it’s important we go to the source for accurate information. This is crucial especially because news reporters and journalists love taking pictures of people without their consent and depicting the image in the way they assume to be the case, as context is not explained. Again, the media is not a reflection of our reality. Yet the media does this for citizens who are unaware of different cultures and traditions. In Daniela’s trip to Yemen, in her ‘Yemen Diaries’ 32video, she politely interviewed multiple Yemen women about their passions/future goals/living conditions/reason for wearing hijabs, niqabs and burkas. It was a lovely video, and it was footage that featured Muslim women being interviewed about so many aspects of their lives, besides the fact of the obvious questions. Something I learnt however, which I had no prior knowledge about was the fact that Muslim women believe covering up prevents getting unwanted attention from men. For instance, when they are out in public, by dressing up, they avoid getting male attention, publicly harassment and it sends a clear message that they are already in a marriage, etc. This may sound regressive and patriarchal, however if the women who abide by this don’t mind it, I think it is completely in their choice and devotion to their religion. Furthermore, many of the women don’t have any dislike towards it and enjoy wearing their traditional cloths.

In every place in the world there’ll be people who disagree with their country’s laws and culture/religion and those who are content with it. However, it’s crucial to watch news, which is less biased and more objective, in search of news that reflects the truth, as this avoids corrupting the minds of the masses, and instead teaches them to be open-minded and curious to learn.

Another crucial topic to be discussed is the constant criticism from adults of teenagers’ use of social media and how easily influenced they are by it. Nonetheless, what do you expect will arise from teenagers learning more about the truth of the world, ironically 32

through Tik Tok, when we learn more from the app than in school?

Personally, I’ve been introduced to aspects of spirituality, finance, business, exercise, mental strength tips, psychology and more due to the ‘dangerous social media’. The consequences of me being active online have increased my desire to become more intelligent. Instead of buying liabilities, I try to invest in myself to become smarter. My only issues with it are the overstimulation on our brains and how unnatural and unhealthy these emotional changes are while swiping every 5-180 seconds from video to video, changing topic each time. Additionally, it lowers our attention span, there is misinformation on the app and the addictiveness wastes our time and diminishes our proactivity. Did you know that people’s attention span has decreased by over 15% in the last 25 years33? Social media encourages motivation but not discipline. Furthermore, the dopamine releases the app gives a user is unhealthy and causes more addiction.

How is media impacting individuals negatively?

The media is just entertainment at the end of the day and not everything we consume is an exhibition of real life. Therefore, the media can impact us negatively by indoctrinating us to believe we are not good enough and making us unhappy. If agendas are constantly being pushed upon us, we lose our ability to think about the truth of the content and whether it’s a facade or not. Additionally, we soon lose our individuality from following so many people and obeying what they suggest is the ‘right way of life’ or things we ‘must do’. We lose our imagination because everything Is already made up for us, it’s right in front of our eyes.

How to stop consuming all the negativity?

Self-awareness

It’s clear that most of the mainstream media is owned by 6 companies and that it’s over a 400-dollar billion industry. Therefore, their sole purpose is to entertain and somewhat inform some of the

33 https://www.wyzowl.com/human-attention-span/#:~:text=According%20to%20research%2C%20our %20attention,or%20object%20for%209%20seconds.

“truths” about the world. Now that the reader is aware that the media isn’t a reflection of real societies and reality, there’s no need to feel obligated and pressured to conform to what everybody else is doing. It’s no longer crucial to be indoctrinated to buy all the products influencers and marketing or argue about gay marriage and all these minuscular bits of content we think is the most important thing to be discussing. The media is here to indoctrinate us and keep us back with the limiting beliefs they’ve pushed onto us.

To stop consuming all the negativity, you can look at how some of the people/the ideas they perpetuate are the cause of your unhappiness. To unlock your hidden potential, it could be avoiding negativity regarding content you have been watching (Fox News, Pornhub, CNN, Tik Tok).

Ask yourself ‘what is the message behind this?’ as there can be an ulterior motive, e.g., making you think a particular way/ pinning you against other people and it’s crucial to be cautious with this. Lastly, being less sensitive and easily affected by what people say online and in real life is important, because anything anyone says reflects their self-image and perception of themselves. A perfectly confident person will not see a point in tearing somebody else down in a million years. Self-awareness about the issues that come with obeying what the media insinuates and authority figures at school and home is the first step.

What is individuality?

Individuality is a particular quality that distinguishes us from others. When someone is very authentic, they stand out from the crowd. However, due to obedience being instilled in us at a very young age, our own ideas are constantly ignored and diminished, and so is our confidence and hence our power to be individualistic.

According to Robert Greene’s Book the ‘48 Laws of Power’ we can reinvest in ourselves to reinvent ourselves, so we become the person we wish to be. He states that it’s ‘‘the limitations and boundaries society put onto us due to others’ own envy and misery’’ that cause us anxiety and unhappiness. Yet, we can choose not to

obey the standards and conventions that allude to this. Now, how can this modification take place?

‘Judgement

Do not accept the roles that society foists on you. Recreate yourself by forging a new identity, one that commands attention and never bores the audience. Be the master of your own image rather than letting others define it for you. Incorporate dramatic devices into your public gestures and actions-– your power will be enhanced, and your character will seem larger than life’34 Cleopatra was someone who specialized in this and lived for the drama – she is mentioned a lot in this book. In the Keys to Power area in the chapter, Greene states that you are not who you think you are. ‘The character you seem to have been born with is not necessarily who you are’. Additionally, there is more ‘beyond characteristics you’ve inherited and the personality your parents and friends have helped shape for you’. The ‘Promethean’ task illustrating risk-taking, and willpower is to ‘take control of the process, to stop allowing others that ability to limit and mold’ you. Greene also declares that ‘working on yourself like clay should be one of your greatest and most pleasurable life tasks. It makes you in essence an artist- creating yourself’. The first step to self-creation is self-consciousness, and not in the insecure sense but more of a selfaware, conscious state. It is about taking control and being mindful of our behaviours and actions, as well as their long-lasting consequences, affecting our reputation. Lastly, before leading this onto how to act, Greene suggests we are actors and bad theatre should not be tolerated thus to live a fulfilling life and take back our power into shaping ourselves into who we want to be, be seen as and respected as, we must be good actors. This now highly ties in with my next source written by Marelisa. Everyone has something called an alter-ego and it can be described as the ‘hidden self’ which we mask from others in fear of rejection and judgment. In Marelisa’s article about the ‘alter ego’, I learnt that some of the benefits of having an alter ego are that:

■ ‘It can help you to step out of your comfort zone.

■ It can be very empowering.

■ You can channel your genius through your alter ego.

■ An alter ego can give you some distance from yourself.

■ Having an alter ego can make life more fun.

Additionally,

■ The ego says: “That’s too scary. I better not do that.” The alter-ego says: “That sounds exciting! When can I get started?”

■ The ego says: “But what will they say?”. The alter-ego says: “Don’t those people have anything better to do than gossip about others? Let them think what they want. Their opinions aren’t going to get in the way of my living my best life.”

■ The ego says: “What if I fail?” The alter-ego says: “If I fail, at least I’ll know I gave it a shot.”’35

It is so interesting to research new topics, ideologies, social aspects of ourselves and more. I love doing it as it helps me re-create myself and reach my goals in a more effective way. The alter ego doesn’t stop us from doing what we want, it empowers us. In the Article, she states that when:

■ ‘You play a musical instrument.

■ You work on your novel.

■ You learn to code so that you can build that app you can’t stop thinking about.

■ You dance.

■ You paint.

■ You do whatever it is that you were put on this earth to do.

During that hour, you allow your alter ego to take over, and you channel your genius36 This concept of ‘channeling your inner genius’ can be done by focusing on one’s dreams and gradually improving our skills whether it be in music, coding, painting, etc. Yet, when following what others are doing, as it is normal to instinctively try and fit in your ingroup (potentially in school, online, at home or at work, etc) to boost self-efficacy, you adapt others’ internal beliefs to be accepted and validated, (when you might actually disagree or be completely different yet you don’t realize this and end up wasting potential to do something outstanding/meaningful with your life) in order to be liked. In life, most people overcompensate to be agreeable and relatable which can be argued as respectful,

35 https://daringtolivefully.com/alter-ego 36 https://daringtolivefully.com/alter-ego

altruistic, and healthy for societies to function and restore peace. However, there should be no fear in arising some conflict if you’re wanting to live a life that possibly goes against conventions. Moreover, maybe authority figures being strict on us and on our individuality could be causing a larger rebellion and more desire to be different as some may feel the need to prove authorities wrong. A manner in which authority figures/ the media can help us with this is by the positive ones encouraging us to follow our dreams. This could be your music teachers who pushes you to keep practicing, or a youtuber who helps you learn self-confidence, etc. With reference to what I wrote earlier about distinguishing good authority figures from bad ones, I believe that if an individual is exposed to helpful, proactive, and good leaders, they will be confident and at ease in their individuality.

What is imagination and why is it significant?

Our imagination is made up of a huge range of thoughts and feelings that are impacted by what we’re able to experience from the 3D reality (the physical world), the online world and from our dreams which are also influenced by our conscious being. For instance, picture a child at the beach, who sees the sand and thinks of how much they want to build a sandcastle, then proceeds to do so. We humans think of what we want, imagine it, then act (normally for ‘easier’ and quicker ‘in the moment’ situations as we can’t get anything we want in the snap of a finger). Imagination is also said to be the opposite of our reality and the saying ‘living in your head’ comes from being someone extremely imaginative and creative who is not living in the present reality. Our imagination has ideas we form about our desires and what we’d wish might happen in life (in certain scenarios connecting to wider aspects of our life such as social status, health, love, finances).

Nonetheless, it is not the opposite, in fact it's an ‘extension of our reality’37. Imagination can be said to fill up a person’s void in their 37 https://sidhere.wordpress.com/2012/09/09/21188/

brain yet causes us to feel real emotions, raising the question ‘if imagination isn't real then how does it make one feel such strong emotions?’

‘The subconscious mind is habit-based and controls 95% of your life. It’s like a computer processor that can multitask, is present-based, and is also involved in dreams.

The subconscious mind is primal, always awake and takes everything literally. It communicates in images, feelings and metaphors focusing on emotion rather than logic or reason. The subconscious mind is subjective and does not differentiate between negative and positive. It doesn’t think or reason independently, it simply obeys the commands it receives from your conscious mind.

– ‘Fake it’ – use your imagination to move to a state where your wish is fulfilled.

– ‘Until you make it’ – persevere until what you desire has been externalized in your physical reality38.’

Our imagination is so important, and this is perpetuated in the article, because it can improve our life significantly. Thinking outside the box encourages us to think uniquely, creatively, and freely, enabling us to be authentic and develop new concepts. As our subconscious mind controls 95% of our life, it is crucial we program it to be of positive use. It would be dangerous to not be able to think for oneself. Imaginative people are usually those who don’t follow the herd and end up doing something they love in life, and that is exactly my purpose in life. I want to do the things I love every day and not mind if others understand or accept it. From my research from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, imagination was described as this:

‘To imagine is to represent without aiming at things as they actually, presently, and subjectively are. One can use imagination to represent possibilities other than the actual, to represent times other than the present, and to represent perspectives other than one’s own. Unlike perceiving and believing, imagining something does not require one to consider that something to be the case. Unlike desiring or anticipating, imagining something does not require one to wish for or expect that something to be the case.

38 https://www.giancarloserra.org/every-thought-you-think-is-creating-your-future/

Imagination is involved in a wide variety of human activities and has been explored from a wide range of philosophical perspectives. Philosophers of mind have examined imagination’s role in mindreading and in pretense. Philosophical aestheticians have examined imagination’s role in creating and in engaging with different types of artworks. Epistemologists have examined imagination’s role in theoretical thought experiments and in practical decision-making. Philosophers of language have examined imagination’s role in irony and metaphor.’ 39

What I learnt here was that imagination has no limits and can be about anything. Thanks to our imagination, we can solve issues, get through challenges, and help others all because of taking a step back from reality and tapping into our minds and thoughts. Furthermore, there are so many viewpoints demonstrated here from all sorts of people regarding imagination, its purpose and benefit for us. Consequently, this dissertation applies to everyone and once we activate our conscious and subconscious imagination, we become less obedient to the wrong standards and limits society has put on us (authority meaning the bad side of school systems, parenting, and bad media).

What destroys our imagination?

According to this article I read, written by Annie Zhu, our imagination is destroyed by the fact that ‘‘mediocrity is often rewarded on social media. The Internet is not a great place to experiment and make mistakes. Not when the pitchfork mob is waiting for the next villain to shame. There seems to be little room

39 https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/imagination/

for nuance and context on social media. A tweet can ruin a person's life.’’40 She also states that as an artist she feels she is ‘‘volunteering to work for free so that obscenely rich tech companies can get even richer.

On social media, fans are not open-minded to seeing others experiment new things, fail or be a new type of creative. If you open your life to the public, be prepared for public scrutiny as well. Everything you post online is going to stay there, your past self digitally frozen in time. If you want to change and evolve, you risk going "off brand" and alienating your hard-won followers41.'’ I learnt that it can be a tough world for artists and that the digital world may be destroying our creativity and tolerance for others making mistakes/being different. It’s tough because behind a screen, people easily write criticisms whereas face to face, less people have the courage to do so. With the world evolving constantly in technology, people don’t realize they are being harsh online. Many people’s sources of income in the creative industry rely on their fans so it can be challenging.

Another source I watched was a short film which had a sweet message behind it.

In this short film called ‘Alike42’, a son and father go to school/work every day and are burdened by it. The son knows what he enjoys doing, which is drawing, being creative and listening to this man on the street (on the way to school) playing the violin. Whereas the father seems to not want to admit how exhausting his workday is with all the repetition, making him turn grey (like everybody else in the world). Only after both characters share a hug do their blue colours come back. However, as the days progress and the son are less and less satisfied with his lessons because the teacher doesn’t allow him to draw, he no longer helps his dad turn back to blue. My interpretation is that love is what connects us, yet if one person by themselves isn’t feeling comfortable in their own skin, or happy,

40 https://zanniee.com/is-social-media-killing-creativity-for-artists/

41 https://zanniee.com/is-social-media-killing-creativity-for-artists/

42 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQjtK32mGJQ

then they can’t share that with someone else. Of course, everybody must attend school and work, yet a balance of duties and freedom is necessary to be happy. For instance, the boy should be allowed to draw and colour at times. This is a metaphor for the online world because if you watch the short film, you’ll see the amount of people surrounding the son and father and how they’re all extremely robotic and are being distracted by their duties instead of taking time to do something they love. In the article, ‘Solis writes, "When we avert distraction and focus in order to create and achieve our goals, we feel capable and successful. Purpose also pulls us out of our harmful self-focus and makes us feel part of something bigger, beyond ourselves. It frees us from our rumination about ourselves and the past and keeps us oriented toward the future, with a sense of what we can contribute.’’

In a tech-centric world where it's easy to become digitally distracted, Life scale goes way beyond being a practical guide for improving our relationship with technology. It inspires us to stop, reflect, and recover a connection to the creativity and deeper purpose we need for living happy, healthy lives and succeeding as individuals, organizations, and as a society at large in the digital age.’43 This suggests that if one is constantly distracted by the media online and has access to a large dynamic of content, creativity is at risk. Additionally, it is a priority that children from a young age are accepted for their unique qualities and are praised, instead of punished. Obedience has a negative impact on individuality and imagination.

What does Stoicism say?

‘‘The Stoics had long recognized that our imagination had ramifications throughout our psyche. It could impact our wellbeing, our actions, and our perception of the world and of ourselves. It could skew it in such a way that it would lead us to self-deception. They saw no benefit to complaining about things outside of our control and in fact warned against the potential dangers of allowing our imagination to run wild. They also saw anxiety as a by-product

43 https://www.inc.com/shama-hyder/how-digital-distraction-is-killing-creativitywhat-to-do-about-it.html#:~:text=Digital%20distraction%20kills%20creativity,is %20diminished%20or%20lost%20altogether

of this type of thinking, to be transformed by our own will, inner strength, and rationality.

As Lucius Annaeus Seneca highlighted:

‘We are in the habit of exaggerating, or imagining, or anticipating, sorrow.’ In doing so, we put ourselves in a mental disposition which is incommensurate with the situation we happen to be in truly. We lose track of the present, and we embellish the future with our fears and insecurities. Oftentimes, our greatest inner turmoil is not an ailment of actuality, but an unconscious manifestation of our perceived shortcomings. This leads to repercussions on both the individual, and on society at large. The immediate consequence of the gap between perception and reality is that on the individual, as briefly described above. That is the largely self-inflicted, but nevertheless perturbing, anguish of the mind. Another, more recently observed result, is that of a tendency towards individualistic thinking – by worrying so much about our own future and placing ourselves as the epicenter of all that primarily matters, our pursuits become more selfish, driven by our hope of overcoming, or compensating for our worries. This in itself can be hard, and it’s not all on us - it might be also a sign of our times: in a time where globalization and technological development have fostered a new array of options in all aspects of our lives, we tend to exacerbate our worries not only because we are the protagonists of our stories, but also as we find ourselves asked more and more to choose. The freedom that we have also demands a responsibility of us, that of making the right choices. Then the possibility of failure rests solely on us.’’44

To summarize the extract above, it states that we as individuals become so self-absorbed in our problems, that if we scale them to everything else occurring in this world, we are not that significant. Additionally, overthinking is the creation of content we make when we don’t know about something, and thus we assume and fill in gaps which are non-existent. By doing this, we may be selfsabotaging as we start believing what we created in our minds to be the case. Now, if that is something negative, we’ll act as if it is true, letting anxiety take over us. If one stopped thinking all at once, they’d achieve gratitude and happiness.

44 https://aureliusfoundation.com/blog/we-suffer-more-in-imagination-than-in-reality-explained-2022-04-01/

Stoicism states it is crucial we know we are the masters of our thoughts. By realizing we can control how we perceive and the feelings this brings, we can think beyond ourselves and our silly lives. Furthermore, by avoiding self-sabotage and lowering our mood by focusing on the ‘what ifs’, and instead solely engaging in the positive, this shifts our power back to ourselves. Next, there’s the ‘view from above’ portraying looking at ourselves from a wider lens. It’s the fact that when we distance ourselves from our identity and look at the ‘grand scheme of things’ we realize our issues are not nearly as outrageous as we make them out to be.

‘In his 78th letter to Lucilius, Seneca writes:

“You will not die because you are sick, but because you are alive […] That end still awaits you when you have been cured”.

This shows that at the end of the day, the things that happen to us throughout our lives won’t change our fate or outcome, only the quality of life while we are still alive, again putting in perspective the sort of things we worry about and the frequency at which we do.

d. Negative visualisation

This is a process by which we imagine negative events to prepare ahead of them and form a rational view on what a suitable and actionable, rather than emotional, response would be if they were to materialise. The aim is not to imagine the worst possible scenarios for the sake of it, but rather to use our imagination as a preparing tool, one that allows us to see beyond immediate emotions or ‘first impressions’ as Stoics call them and assess events for what they really are45.’

As someone interested in philosophy and psychology, Stoicism has really put things into perspective for me. I am hoping the reader will learn something from this and take it with them into their daily lives. Sometimes, we just must look at the reality of the situation (may it be something from the past or something happening now and think rationally, calmly).

What destroys our imagination and reality is the fear and negative anticipation of the future. This is significant because not enough people have mental strength

45 https://aureliusfoundation.com/blog/we-suffer-more-in-imagination-than-in-reality-explained-2022-04-01/

or emotional intelligence, sabotaging their happiness and potential for a healthy lifestyle. For one to upgrade their imagination, (after being aware of the harms obeying does to it) it is a great idea to explore philosophies that can alter one’s perspective. This’ll assist one in critical thinking, questioning the truth and assessing whether the media/authorities are manipulating people.

What should we use our imagination for?

If thinking and dreaming is free, why not dream big and positively? Ignoring what the media and authority figures tell us, restricting us from believing in ourselves, this is what I have learnt. Neville Goddard, a ‘Barbadian New Thought author and mystic who wrote on the Bible, esotericism and is one of the pioneers of the "law of assumption46’ suggested that:

“To reach a higher level of being, you must assume a higher concept of yourself. If you will not imagine yourself as other than you are, then you remain as you are47.”

This can be applicable to performing a dance choreography in front of hundreds to create a successful business. My interpretation of this is that if the dancer did not initially visualize herself on stage performing to a large audience, it would not be in her reality. Additionally, knowing she is about to do this, she should believe in herself and overcome her fear by simply showing up and trying, as anxiety cannot be avoided but can be lived through and reduced with more experience. This is especially because the more her brain and nervous system gets accustomed to dancing in public, the easier and more confident she will be. More about ‘reconditioning the brain to overcome fear’48. On top of that, if a businesswoman hadn’t planned her visions and acted or believing she had the potential to be successful in her journey, she would not have continued after the first few months/years, let alone even starting. From more research in the Stanford Encyclopedia, I learnt that:

46 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK557811/#:~:text=It%20is%20defined%20as%20the,traumatic %20brain%20injury%20(TBI).

47 The power of awareness by Neville Goddard

48 https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/reconditioning-the-brain-to-overcome-fear

‘Imagining and believing are both cognitive attitudes that are representational. They take on the same kind of content: representations that stand in inferential relationship with one another. On the single code hypothesis, it is the sameness of the representational format that grounds functional similarities between imagining and believing49.’

Now, what does this all signify?

Well, belief is based upon truth and imagination isn’t. This means, if a boy is lying about his pants being on fire, he will not put the fire out as there is none. However, if he believed there was fire, he would act upon it. That is the difference between imagining and believing - the action one takes. Hence to convince our brain (rewiring so we can change our reality) we must act according to the belief we’d like to set in stone, instead of merely daydreaming.

Our imagination influences everything we do from our beliefs to our actions and social interactions. If we want a high quality of life, we must think we deserve one and be exposed to what that would look like. We can only create what we think we can and thus our brain has to be displayed to this new imagination and visualization we are creating. Taking time off watching others live their lives to focus on ourselves and ‘self-reinvention’ is key to being happy. After learning about the media and the authorities’ negative impact on the mind, these are the next steps. Think about something you are passionate about and go for it, don’t be afraid to make mistakes and visualize yourself attaining your desired goal because it will come true. Einstein,

Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Marie Curie all had to tap into their subconscious mind to reach their level of success50

Where to find good media and resources for reprogramming beliefs?

CHANGING HABITS TO DESIRED ONES

According to Healthline, it takes 18-254 days to get rid of a habit yet to develop a new habit, it takes 28 days. And in the book ‘Atomic

This implies that even though life can be overwhelming, we are all capable if we use our time wisely and simply try. An easier way to look at it is by competing with yourself, instead of others, as only you know yourself inside and out. By staying consistent with something you are working for every day, on a long-term gratitude scale, you are more likely to benefit from it then if you did nothing at all. This is why people say, ‘better late than never’ and ‘every little bit count’s etc.

For instance, by staying disciplined you’ll inevitably increase your attention span; happiness, enhancing creativity, self-confidence, and individuality. There are even multiple meditation apps specialized for what it is the person wants to achieve (piece of mind, less anxiety, less paranoia, gratitude, self-love, etc.).

50 https://www.aboutmybrain.com/blog/the-importance-of-imagination#:~:text=It%20influences %20everything%20we%20do,is%20the%20key%20to%20innovation.

Additionally, there are so many free meditations on YouTube which are either guided or have music frequencies which heal the brain and trigger you positively. Something so simple as listening to music can uplift you. ‘Higher frequencies reportedly boost your brain

‘Mindfulness of Breathing Meditation helps concentrate the mind and allows us to be able to function better and more effectively, both in our everyday and in our spiritual life. Meditation on Friendliness helps us drive away our negative thoughts and feelings and replace them with positive ones, primarily about ourselves and then, consequently, about all living beings. Focusing on ourselves, without guilt or our ego getting in the way, is a necessary and sufficient condition for a happy life. It improves our personal relationships, as well as our relationship with the environment we live in. We become loved, trusted, and compassionate individuals, ready to help others if asked, while maintaining our peace of mind.

Insight Meditation includes exercises on memory, mindfulness and awareness which are used to observe and comprehend the transient nature of all intellectual and physical phenomena that can cause unhappiness if they linger.

51 https://www.healthline.com/health-news/your-brain-on-binaural-beats#:~:text=Generally%20speaking%2C %20low%2Dfrequency%20waves,better%20able%20to%20recall%20memories.

Finally, Insight Meditation helps us live without illusions, know the reality of our existence, and detach ourselves from anything that brings unhappiness and suffering in our lives.’52

Meditation and mindfulness help with increasing attention span, creativity, imagination, happiness, and gratitude. There is always good media out there and we should check out what we want to learn more and what we enjoy for free. The fact that there is so much resourceful, expansive, eye-opening, intellectual media for free that can help us is amazing.

The Neuroscience and Biopsychology involved in obedience and imagination.

Obedience

‘Researchers from the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience measured brain activity while participants inflicted pain and found that obeying orders reduced empathy and guilt related brain activity for the inflicted pain. This may explain why people are able to commit immoral acts under coercion53.’ From reading this source, I learnt that if one can excuse themselves for committing an unethical act because they believe they were merely ‘obeying a law/command’ and don’t take accountability or responsibility, this is terrifying. It is like a switch in the brain which switches off feelings of remorse and self-reflections. This is what happens when soldiers are in the ‘agentic state’ and can obey orders to kill others.

Imagination

In this source which Silvia Damiano wrote about becoming an ‘innovative leader’ she stated that: ‘Humans spend about half of their time daydreaming or allowing the mind to wander.

Scientifically, these are known as stimulus-independent thoughts, meaning your senses aren’t relaying information. A set of brain regions called the default mode network are active during stimulusfree states, but these areas are suppressed when our attention is 52 https://www.theravada.gr/en/meditation-practices-at-our-centre/

53 https://neurosciencenews.com/empathy-orders-16876/

focused on our surroundings. Research now suggests that activating the default mode is important for mental processing, including recalling memories, imagining the future, and experiencing social emotions. These associations with brain health support time spent daydreaming and resting the mind. 54’ What I understood from this is that if one intentionally daydreams and uses their imagination for prolonged periods of time, then when it is time to focus, their attention span will be a lot better, and they can then avoid distractions. If one’s thoughts and brain activity are mindful and taken care of, long-term memory is enhanced and so is creativity. If the release or hormones is also constantly being displaced in unhealthy places, it’s challenging to restore peace in the mind.

Neuropeptides in the prefrontal cortex of the brain55 play a big part in our actions. People with depression who have bad habits create neuropeptides that are addicted to negative energy and thus the individual simply cannot heal and get help overnight. The brain’s neuroplasticity is ‘defined as the ability of the nervous system to change its activity in response to intrinsic or extrinsic stimuli by reorganizing its structure, functions, or connections after injuries, such as a stroke or traumatic brain injury’56. Therefore, this proves that one small habit one each day perpetually trains the mind to get accustomed to this alteration, still in some comfort. Moreover, it’s the ability for the body to fight back sickness and heal due to its flexibility. An example of ‘extrinsic stimuli would be playing football to win a reward, an ‘external’ factor, whereas intrinsic is ‘internal’ and one plays it for personal gain due to passion for football. Additionally, ‘every thought releases some type of chemical. When positive thoughts are generated, when you’re feeling happy, or optimistic, cortisol decreases and the brain produces serotonin, creating a feeling of well-being. When serotonin levels are normal, one feels happy, calmer, less anxious, more focused, and more

54 https://www.aboutmybrain.com/blog/the-neurobiology-of-imagination-becoming-an-innovative-leader

55 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35947618/

56 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK557811/#:~:text=It%20is%20defined%20as%20the,traumatic %20brain%20injury%20(TBI).

emotionally stable. Dopamine is also a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain’s reward system and pleasure center57.’ However, if dopamine is being released in unhealthy activity such as excessive smoking, drug taking, binge watching, binge eating and lack of social activity, emotions of long-lasting positivity are difficult to experience within that constant cycle of perpetual misery and most likely self-deprecation. The body is so habituated to this routine that to implement a new and more sustainable routine, it takes a lot of effort. This is why if a person (no matter their circumstance) implements listening to positive words of affirmation or exercises, etc. and takes the 1% everyday, a gradual yet very effective change will take place.

I believe it is extremely remarkable because ever since I started being more observant and attentive to my surroundings, I noticed just how much people complain and are negative.

What’s responsible for our imagination + how to enhance these brain regions?

The thalamus and neocortex are responsible for creating imagination in our brain. Foods and vitamins that boost these brain regions are omega 3, avocados, eggs, fatty fish, blueberries, leafy greens, and most organic foods.58 In fact, processed foods and soft drinks not only cause diabetes and obesity/every other obvious malfunction/illness in the body, but sabotages clear thinking59. A solution to becoming more imaginative and hence happier is eating healthier because non-organic foods can corrupt the brain. These thought patters, eliciting emotions, creating mental syntheses which connect neurotransmitters in the neural pathways to the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and basal ganglia will be prevented and slowed down (regardless of if it’s positive/negative)60. Our hippocampus’ mental capacity and abilities are also reduced a lot when one eats junk food. The ‘School of Health and Biomedical Sciences61’ stated that our neuroplasticity is also reduced and a new

57 https://meteoreducation.com/how-does-thinking-positive-thoughts-affect-neuroplasticity/

58 https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/11-brain-foods

59 https://www.levelshealth.com/blog/how-processed-food-is-harming-kids-brains-and-bodies

60 https://www.mdpi.com/2218-273X/11/6/823

generation of neurons is reduced by these processed foods containing chemicals and GMO62 . Additionally, neural networks permit thoughts and mental processes/imagery in our imagination to be created, which cognitive scientists have hypothesized. Our brain has limitless storage capacity too. Our mind has ‘mental playgrounds’ which are rich in new knowledge, concepts and can be further enriched when we perform mind-stretching tasks. In a study conducted by ‘Schlegel, a Ph.D. student in cognitive neuroscience at Dartmouth College63’, researchers found that when 15 participants who were presented with obscure jagged puzzle type objects on a screen were asked to mentally reframe them/create a new shape with them, eyes closed, more than one brain region had been used. After scanning their brains with an FMRI scan, they analyzed that the active areas included the whole brain (regions in the left and right, so logic and emotion) instead of what they had assumed (being 1 region only, the visual cortex). ‘Some participants concentrated on maintaining the image of the shape, while others were asked to change the images in their mind, either imagining deconstructing the shapes into requisite parts or combining them with others to make a new shape64.’ In addition to that, the mental manipulation activity took place in 12 other regions and not only the visual cortex which was expected by the scientists.

How are the body and mind linked?

This is important because in the investigation of whether obedience has a negative impact on imagination, it can do. Therefore, if the mind is connected to the body, and the mind is negative and distressed, this will affect one’s physical health. In this article about children’s health, it infers that:

‘The brain and body are connected through neural pathways made up of neurotransmitters, hormones, and chemicals. These pathways transmit signals between the body and the brain to control our

61 https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/all-news/2016/sep/five-ways-junk-food-changesyour-brain

62 https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/all-news/2016/sep/five-ways-junk-food-changesyour-brain

63 https://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-09/how-imagination-works/

64 https://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-09/how-imagination-works/

everyday functions, from breathing, digestion, and pain sensations to movement, thinking and feeling65.’ The consequences of this on the body are extreme as well. Biopsychology states that whatever the mind believes, the body will reciprocate, and the mind will see66 . This is because we act accordingly to what we believe, making something real even if it isn’t. This is why people who constantly talk about getting illnesses and heartache/all the worst outcomes then manifest this into their lives. Our body listens to our words and takes everything literally.

The freedom of our choices + Final Messages

How to avoid losing touch with your imagination and individuality even when obeying?

I believe in freedom and the first step is changing your attitude and mentality. By doing this, you’ll eliminate self-limiting beliefs, negativity and be mentally strong to rewire your brain for success. We have been programmed to ‘follow, follow, follow’ everyday all day. It commences when you’re a child and you’re talked about all these rules. I think that the ‘rules’ we should be taught are basic respect, compassion, and empathy for others, which ironically is lacking immensely in society. Demanding obedience from others is not necessarily the solution either. In 1974 Milgram stated that when individuals are in the agentic state following orders, it can lead to destructive obedience such as going against one’s personal morals of what is right and wrong. For instance, I am a pacifist, and everyone knows war is a money-making machine (for who wins), yet men/women are forced to be soldiers and kill others, however that’s ‘legal’ because it’s ‘protecting the country’ and ‘the government allows it’ so it’s alright to destruct other societies and dehumanize people. Instead, we should be taught how to deal with conflict, confrontations, aggression and learn more developed social skills, as well as dealing with emotions in a healthy way. Additionally, society

65 https://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/article?contentid=3667&language=english#:~:text=The%20brain%20and %20body%20are,to%20movement%2C%20thinking%20and%20feeling

66 https://www.simplypsychology.org/mindbodydebate.html

just perpetuates more and more consumerism. What we don’t learn in school, we’ll find out online or from others around us and outside I am implying we should be taking time out of our day to start questioning things. ‘Why this? Why that?’ Everyone nowadays spends their whole time sitting on their screens, letting technology, robots, AI and more tell you how to think, what to buy, what to sell, and so on. The cycle of life is literally one buying their life. It’s so important one is mindful and cautious with what content their mind is accessing/exposed to, as well as food consumption and daily intake of media/ social interactions with authority figures.

Through my studies in Psychology, I gained an interest in how what I learnt in my lessons connected to the wider world. Even before I started the Psychology A level course, I had been doing a lot of my own research. This is specifically about 'the power of the mind and changing attitudes' because ever since I learnt that our mental state impacts the world around us, I knew I had to have the cleanest, most positive, healthy mind. Just like when athletes train their body and watch what they eat, it's equivalent to being aware of what content we're watching and what our brain processes. Growing up, I have always noticed just how normal it is to live a life you dislike. People always do this, to conform, afraid of society’s judgements, hence reading Greene’s book allowed me to feel courage. If your day doesn’t at least consist of one thing that makes you happy and that you chose to do because you enjoy it, then what is the point? People love to make excuses for why they’re not where they could be, a better person and more advanced in a particular area, yet responsibility is key, hence sometimes instead of looking to authority and needing their approval, we should ask ourselves what it is that drives us.

My goal here is to reiterate the fact that there is no excuse (to an extent) if one lives in an unfulfilling life. I believe we have so many resources for free that can enhance our potential and the only person preventing that from fruition, is yourself.

Alternative consideration and conclusion

To what extent does obedience have a positive impact on one’s individuality?

Although it has been stressed in this dissertation that obeying conventions which the media present is negative, there is so much

exposure to diversity, different cultures, insights, and unique perspectives one might never have had the chance to listen to if it weren’t for the online world. Besides, being someone obedient to authority figures, makes one more agreeable and thus can fit into society easily, making new friends, connections and living happier in the social aspect. It is beneficial to be at least a bit conventional because it prevents one from being left out, seen as an outcast and possibly discriminated. In Conclusion, it is necessary to be selfaware about the harms of radicalism and destructive obedience so that one doesn’t get their imagination and individuality destroyed. However, imagination is not something that is lost, and neither is individuality, because regardless of what job one has, where one lives, etc., they’ll always have something special about them to be valued. By no means has school only indoctrinated us in misleading ways, it is a fact that one can gain incredible academic skills that can then be contributed to either the world of science, languages, computer science, technology, math, history and so much more. School is the one place that offers everyone education for free. Furthermore, obedience at home is crucial in the learning stages of a child and with positive parental figures (mentioned already with previous counter arguments) intelligent, empathetic, and driven people are brought into this world. If there is a balance between hard work with rewards and rest, a child should be fine. Lastly, not everyone is interested in tapping into their subconscious mind or reprogramming their beliefs, yet for those who are on a journey of self-development, this is the right place to be to be informed about how our minds work, emotions and habits. On this learning journey, I discovered that it is not in my position to persuade others to change if they aren’t wanting to, but with my writing available, anyone can learn about these important aspects of ourselves we shy away from. I believe the extent to which obedience has a negative impact on one’s individuality and imagination is massive.

Review of project

Across the course of my EPQ, I do believe I investigated what I set out to. I am aware my question took a lot of writing to answer as it is quite a complex and broad analysis. I did find out what I expected to, yet there were definitely a few shocking bits of information I

learnt that made me even more curious. I know now that my EPQ is not a project that ends here. It’ll take me far for future research projects in Psychology (as it is my passion). It was relatively easy to find relevant sources because I already had some books at home that I had been meaning to read, and which as a result highlighted and provided the necessary information for my question. I had some difficulties which made me re-evaluate multiple aspects of my essay, yet it was rewarding to solve every challenge and finish it completely, as I am now happy with the project. I had to overcome challenges such as organizing the structure of my writing, cutting down words and finding sensible references from sources I trusted. It took me courage, perseverance, and optimism to achieve this, yet it was worth it, and I am glad I stayed focused until the end. Some valuable skills I learnt from completing my EPQ were resilience, time management, planning skills, patience, curiosity, and openmindedness. I enjoyed learning a lot by writing this and reading upon the subjects this question applies to. Next time, I will write more during the holidays we had before the due date because I procrastinated quite a bit during that time. All in all, for the following EPQ students, my advice would be to pick a topic you already know somewhat about and don’t mind doing further research on, because it is time-consuming and tests your limits in independence. For my questionnaire, here are my evaluations on it: The sample of participants were a few men but mainly women aged from 13-65.

In the future I will get a larger sized sample for more reliable results. I used open-ended and closed-ended questions consisting of scales and ratings. These were effective because the participants answered the questions quite easily. A disadvantage of conducting research online is that there might be social desirability bias and thus inaccurate results. However, I am glad I got 9 participants that I know in real life, to fill in the survey. Lastly, I discovered that the issue with the media and its negative impact on people is not that people lack extreme self-awareness, it’s that they don’t know how to break the cycle of believing everything online and getting off their gadgets to find some time to enhance their creativity. It is a shame to waste one’s time relentlessly scrolling or watching other people’s lives for ‘show and tell’ when they could be living their lives to the fullest.

For Further Research

Having completed my project, I think people should look further into the idea of questioning the media and all authority figures in their lives. One should not be so submissive to reject an alternative truth. People lie all the time, and one cannot be so quick to dismiss the possibility of something being censored. Additionally, I encourage people to try positive thinking to enhance a good self-concept and perspective of this world, to achieving long-term happiness. Materialism won’t help, nor will scrolling relentlessly on a gadget.

Read:

- The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama

- Atomic Habits by James Clear

Listen to:

- Podcasts about self-confidence

- Ted Talks about positive thinking