What are we without our beliefs?

I’d like to believe we are free and open minded enough to receive a different perspective or eye-view we previously didn’t understand or comprehend, but more often than not, because most of the human populace are sheep, it’s simply not the case.  

We rely on popular culture to tell us what we want, who we are, what we should look like, how we should act, and even what we should do, and we don’t question it, because asking the relevant questions is just too hard and will put us at a disadvantage in being the odd man out.  We all want to fit in and be a part of the norm, right?

Before I define what the norm is and why we need to shift from it, -with a quickness, I figure I need to define: what it is we want, who we are, what we should look like, how we should act, and even what we should do according to pop cult, as mentioned above.  

I use pop cult here opposed to popular culture because it can be poetically defined and takes on the full definition, in my opinion, of what popular culture is, pop -meaning quickly populated, to the likes of a popcorn kernel instantly popping into the delicious, buttery confection we all love, in this context, and cult implying all the negative meanings that come to mind primarily exemplifying a group of brainwashed, vulnerable people who are taken gross advantage of. Yes, society is an instant zombie sect (pop cult), and we need brains because we have lost all rationale.  

What it is we want…

Can be defined according to pop cult as the American Dream, I’d surmise, the fancy two story house with picket fence, 2.5 kids and what is life without Fido?  Prosperity via hard work, and how hard do we have to work to pay for that mortgage and luxury sports cars?  That’s one reason I have to give it to the millennials, who have denounced the idea of accumulation and adopted the minimalist lifestyle, to acquire experiences opposed to material possessions.  (Check out my poem for further explanation: “For the Better” https://theprose.com/post/218600/for-the-better   https://poeticmc.wordpress.com/2018/06/06/for-the-better/ )

After all we can’t take all our accumulation with us when we leave, and even if you pass it all down in your will, what’s the guarantee that your next of kin will have any use for it or can afford the affiliated costs that come with it, be it storage, space, HOA fees, insurance, etc.?  It’s like passing on your debt, unless the inheritance can be sold.

Humorist Robert Quillen said it best in defining the concept of “Americanism: Using money you haven't earned to buy things you don't need to impress people you don't like.”

Who we are… 

Pop cult tells us we are sheep, susceptible to the 3 to 5 minutes of brainwashing ad campaigns every 15 minutes, they shoot our way across all mediums, be it television, phone, internet, road signs, flyers in the streets, signs and wall hangings at every business and corporation, -the marketing never ends, -we even dream it. 

What we should look like…

Pop cult tells us we need to look like Barbie and Ken, just more ripped now a days (and that applies to both genders). You can’t look like Homer Simpson in this era, you have to have a 6 to 12 pack with bulging muscles.  Ladies have to be stacked in the back and the front to the likes of Kim Kardashian and Dolly Parton with a waist disproportionate to such a physique, -I’m talking tiny, and hour glass of course.

How we should act…

I could probably write a multitude here, but why waste my breath if it falls upon deaf ears, as I am sure more sheep will read this than those who are wokish, if I can use that terminology here.  I’ll just say pop cult sets parameters for how each culture should act, because we could never be a collective group…

What we should do…

Aside from work, eat, sleep, repeat, again the caste system is interpreted for us via the brainwashing circuit… oops, -I keep forgetting we’re all zombies, in need of brains to survive…  Therefore, pop cult tells us we should do what sheep do and all that baa, baa, baa (opposed to expletives) …

To define what the norm is and why we need to shift from it, -with a quickness, it should be clear as crystal, apparent, in an era of the repeated civil rights and social reform movements of: “Me Too”, “Black Lives Matter”, “Blue Lives Matter”, “All Lives Matter” and “National School Walkout” for gun regulation.  But with all these movements, the only thing that we see that matters, is the money and the power.  Has anything changed yet? I mean was putting Bill Cosby in prison, an 81-year-old elderly man, who is blind with deteriorating health, a real win, or is it better late than never, since the accusations started back in the 60’s?

In all honesty, I can’t make any justifications or exceptions for Mr. Cosby, despite him being a positive role model for the African American community with the Cosby Show and Fat Albert and his endorsement of pudding and comedic routines, but at this point I see it as no different than a mask or guise to the likes of Catholic Priests who pray with, and for you on one hand, and prey on children on the other, with the multiple cases of child molestation across the world.  (This is a sickness; beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing ladies and gentlemen.)

All these movements speak to the same premise, we all want justice, but beyond that, to live in a society free of violence, -be it gun violence, sexual abuse and rape or being beaten beyond capacity or shot 16 times, or to live one’s life in fear.

Not to stray too far off topic, and to address the original question: what are we without our beliefs? I have to say we are free thinkers.  Everything we are indoctrinated to believe, whether it comes from the psychological manipulation of media marketing, or the beliefs your parents instilled in you early on, are mechanisms of control if you can’t get out of your head and see right from wrong.  There is no gray area when it comes to right and wrong.  Karma or God, the universe, however you want to define it, is a supreme ruler when it comes to making right, what is wrong, but eventually we need to get out of the pop cult, take off the zombie costumes and become the sheep dog, -the protector of the flock, opposed to being the sheep, because who else will?  We can’t be that brainless, -that caught up in our beliefs -whether we rationalize or justify what we believe on a religious basis or superiority complex, that these movements can’t move, -can’t change society where it needs to be changed.  Are you woke or are you a “Z” in the Pop Cult?  It’s up to you to decide.

On that note, I’ll leave you with a pertinent quote that comes to mind from En Vogue, “Free your mind and the rest will follow.” You can see the video here: https://youtu.be/i7iQbBbMAFE

***Woke as defined by the Urban Dictionary, definition # 2, states: “Getting woke is like being in the Matrix and taking the red pill. You get a sudden understanding of what’s really going on and find out you were wrong about much of what you understood to be truth.”

Urban Dictionary. Math Police. (2017). Woke. Retrieved October 8, 2018 from https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Woke