Century of Self
In the documentary 'Century of Self', the 'transformation' of the human being from a being that simply works/lives for survival to a 'spiritual being' as one that desires for there to be more to 'life' than merely surviving is very well laid out, walking through the changes in society that created the changes in the self-perception and world-view of the human being.
This documentary clearly shows that there is much more to ourselves than who we believe/think ourselves to be, that there are factors that determine and shape our very personality and experience of ourselves that we've always taken for granted - more specifically these factors are the economic system as businesses and corporations that shaped our society and our experience of ourselves within it that we know today.
It is fascinating that the human being never really sees itself as a part of a bigger picture, in that is very gullible and naive as it will believe and copy its environment very quickly and easily, quite like a robot/computer is able to be programmed by inserting certain programs as knowledge and information about 'who/what it is', 'why it is' and 'what it is here to do'. The human being will construct its views and experiences of itself and 'reality' based on copied and accepted information and experiences rather than to investigate itself and reality to find out what is really going on within and as 'the bigger picture'.
Therefore the human being as who/what it is today will never truly consider itself to be but a product of certain events, changes and evolutionary processes that occurred in the past, and it will simply live out its 'programming' based on for instance the belief of 'individuality' - without even realizing or noticing that this concept of 'individuality' in itself is a concept/idea that was 'programmed into us' by our environment.
This is a point that is very well explained and laid out in this documentary 'Century of Self' - wherein they show what changes the society went through in terms of new scientific development that in turn shaped the external factors of society that shape a human beings perception/experience of itself and the world
Shaping the individual through consumerism
The 'scientific development' that made a great impact on the economic (and later on the political) landscape was specifically the theories and discoveries of Sigmund Freud. He discovered that the human has a subconscious and unconscious mind/layer underneath its conscious mind that is actually the driving force of the human being in this world, and these 'sub-layers' are filled with various hidden and suppressed emotional experiences and desires that could trigger a being into doing irrational acts --which then implies that the human being would actually be very easily influenced and directed by someone/something who knows how the mind works and who knows how to push the unconscious/subconscious 'buttons'.
With the advice of Edward Bernays, Freud's nephew and 'public relations adviser', the Business world would eventually apply Freud's theory in their advertisement and marketing strategies to direct, channel and use the unconscious desires of human beings to their advantage, by linking their products through symbols to unconscious desires of the human being. Thus, consumerism started because corporations and industries were no longer only focusing on what the human needed to live/survive, but on what the human (unconsciously) desired --which didn't necessarily have anything to do with what they needed.
And so, also the idea of 'individuality' started growing - wherein human beings were supported in advertisement to 'express their uniqueness' and 'individuality' through the products that they buy. 'to live' became equal to 'to consume/buy', as people would basically be presented with this new idea that they are 'an individual' and that this 'individuality' must be cultivated through buying certain products to show to the world the kind of individual that you are.
The idea that arose at this point was that the human being is 'so much more' than merely a being that tries to survive in this world. This notion of there apparently being 'so much more'/'something special' to the human being, which was called into being by corporations seeking to make more money through going from a market of limited needs/demand to one with ever changing demand/needs , is what would lay the basic foundation for the 'spiritual personality' that we are growing into today - as we search ever more diligently for our 'special purpose in life' and for 'who we really are' as the apparent specialness of our human existence.
The power of powerlessness
Now, this was happening around the 1950's, starting in the US. Based on Freud's theories about the unconscious mind, governments and corporations sought to use and direct these inner unconscious desires of 'the masses' towards a specific mind-set that benefited both the political and economical world - because, as Freud claimed, the inner desires of the human being are inherently evil and therefore must be suppressed/repressed, and at the same time conformed to a single goal that is to be determined by those in power.
However, towards the 60's, people started to 'rebel' against this conformity, ignited by a few people like Wilhelm Reich and Martin Luther King - large protests and campains were held by students on American campuses against the society that they apparently had to conform to, which was capitalism, religious doctrines, racial segregation and manipulation through advertisement as these students began to notice that consumerism is in fact a way to keep the people docile and distracted while the government could wage its violent war in Vietnam without being questioned. These 'rebels' were then seen as the 'new left', to which the government reacted very violently in their attempt to keep 'the masses' controlled, contained and conformed.
As a reaction to this violent attack from the government that in a way rendered the 'new left' with a feeling of powerlessness towards ever being able to change the status quo - they turned to a new ideology: "If it is impossible to get the policeman out of ones head by overthrowing the state, instead one should find a way of getting inside ones own mind and removing the controls implanted there by the state and corporations".
This new idea sounded in the era of the 'new self', the 'self-actualized human being' - based on the idea that 'the external world, like governments and the economic system doesn't need to be changed - as the human is perfectly capable of being happy/creating happiness within its own mind'.
From this, many 'spiritual movements' and therapies came forth that supported the human in cultivating this 'inner happiness' and 'self-actualization' and thus human beings again felt like they had found purpose and meaning to their lives, they found their point of 'individuality' wherein they were apparently freed from the grip of the corporations and the governments that were apparently trying to conform them into docile slaves.
Though what was not realized is that they may have felt as though the world has changed by cultivating 'inner change' through generating certain inner experiences, yet the political and economical structures that actually shaped and governed the world and the lives of each human being were still here and still very much in control. In fact, they were very busy searching for new ways of using and directing this 'new self' to their advantage.
What actually happened here was that the hold of the political and economical structures on people and the separation between those in power and 'the masses' only became stronger/bigger as politics and economics in a way moved to the background into the 'unseen' as human beings now existed within this belief that 'the inner experience shapes the world'. In this they never realized that this 'state of mind' only made them more vulnerable to being manipulated by those 'unseen forces' that were actually governing their lives.
Human beings became completely consumed by the idea of individuality, wherein 'the self' as the inner experience of self stepped into the foreground and took the center stage - losing all touch with the basic foundational structures that direct and govern this world, as they had 'given up' when they stood in the face of the violence exerted towards them by their own government. Instead of facing this inner defeat and being self-honest about what is really going on to continue to look for a way to change the basic infrastructures of this world to create a world that is best for all, they gave in to the defeat by looking away from it and distracting themselves by creating the opposite experience within themselves, which was that of 'self-glorification' as the belief that 'if I change myself on the inside, then the outside world will magically change'.
This never actually worked as human beings didn't even realize their very starting point of wanting to 'change their inner self', which was the experience of powerlessness towards the world. This glorification of the inner experience was in fact but an excuse that human beings used to not take part in the world anymore, to not have to deal with the reality of what it would actually take to in fact change this world - as they had accepted themselves as 'powerless towards the powers that be', 'powerless towards the world-structures'. So the only power they could experience was inside of themselves wherein they apparently had the power to 'become whoever they wanted to be'.
Out of this flowed various forms of apparently fantastic, wondrous, great and glorious 'inner experiences' such as 'love, peace and understanding' with the hippie-movement in the 70's, in which they placed their faith, hope and trust that these 'wonderful inner experiences' will 'magically' change the world. Yet - it obviously never did as beings would continuously overlook the actual real workings of this world because they didn't want to be confronted anymore with the very things they feared and felt powerless towards.
The consequences of individuality
As a result and outflow of these 'evolutions' in the mind-set of human beings due to various events in society - what we now have is a human being that is lost within its 'self-glorification' as the idea that 'my individuality and my inner experiences is all that exist', that is cunningly directed by corporations to 'keep the economy going' and by governments to ensure that 'the masses' will never again question 'the powers that be'. We are now in an age of mass ignorance that grew over time - as a result of human beings accepting their apparent inherent powerlessness towards this world and towards creating a world that is best for all, eventually turning towards the 'light' of spirituality and television that feed an inner experience of power. Yet we never realized that this experience of power is not actual power - it is actually powerlessness in disguise.
This explains why many beings react with aversion and rejection towards the message and idea of an Equal Money system as a political solution that aims at bringing about practical change in this world in fact, using the basic infrastructures that is here - because people don't want to be confronted with reality anymore, as they'd rather believe in the light and the positive inner experiences as the illusion of power. We have at this point in time become so disconnected from what is real because we fear what is real, we fear the government, we fear economics, we fear money and what it could do to us, we fear the power of the system, we fear police - because we have come to identify ourselves with the experience of powerlessness towards the capitalist system and politics, and we have even accepted it as 'reality' that is apparently 'unchangeable' as if it were designed by the very hand of God, never to be questioned by us 'common folks'. Therefore apparently our only choice is to distract ourselves with love and light and inner experiences, to at least create the feeling that we have power.
Is there a solution?
What this 'Century of Self' documentary clearly reveals and exposes is that the human perception and experience of 'self' as 'an individual' at this point in time is in fact a 'construct'/program that has been built up over time through 'shifts in consciousness' that occurred as reactions to certain situations/events that happened - very similar to how differences in 'mentality' between cultures are defined and shaped within major events that happened in the timeline of that particular culture, that caused the beings within that specific 'culture'/country to react a certain way and thus 'shift' their understanding/consciousness of themselves and the world.
So, what this essentially implies is that we as 'individuals' as a collection of thoughts feelings and emotions within ourselves that we call 'our identity/personality' - are/is a program and that we/it can thus be 'de-programmed'.
The reason why this realization is so important is because it is clear to see that we have become lost in our programming and we have made a mess of this reality, because we never realized ourselves as who/what we are, which is basically programmable robots. Once we realize that we have been programmed, we can de-program ourselves and 'recreate ourselves' into a being that stands as what is best for all life within and as the self-directive principle of life, to ensure that we never allow ourselves to make such a mess of reality ever again.
Visit www.desteni.org to get to the practical how-to of the process of de-programming that is ahead for each one of us - so that we may stand up to direct this reality without fear and practically create a world wherein each living being can live in dignity.
And read about the Equal Money system to get to know what is possible within this world - in the first book about Equal money 'The Future of Money - Volume 1'
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