Impact of media influence

 

Talk about being influenced by media. Even a baby boomer like me can be subject to mass media influence. Presently a few sources have kind of shaken my silo thinking. 

I am half way through reading the book 'Nomadland'. It gives you a glimpse of an increasingly large group of people in US who live a huge part of the year in a RV (recreational vehicle) or caravan, moving from place to place to work at seasonal jobs. Though often exploited by employers offering low wages and back breaking work, many of these 'workampers' love the freedom from being enslaved in a lifetime of paying rental or mortgage for a permanent home. This is so counter intuitive to the Asian mentality of owning a home at all cost.

At the same time I am watching the popular Netflix serial 'Squid Game'. The story is a portray of social inequality where people who live on the edge of poverty are prepared to risk their life playing a game which may promise them a fortune and a way out of their financial distress. To them living in another world which offers them a glimpse of hope is better than the harsh hopeless realities of the real world. 

Then there is so much literature about 'Metaverse', the game changing approach to living where you can engage in virtual experiences as good as the real world. I recall Cyber the character in the film Matrix who prefers the more comfortable virtual world to a miserable real world, "I know this steak doesn't exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that its juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realise? Ignorance is bliss." Another quote from Matrix when Morpheus asked "Have you ever had a dream Neo, that you were so sure was real?". 

I wouldn't say all the above confuse me. They however shake me up to explore new paradigm in thinking and exploring new approaches in living. I remember once, waking up from a very pleasant dream and thinking to myself I don't mind living in a dream if it is this good and so what if it is not real. On the other hand Buddhist teachings encourage one to be awakened or be aware and to live beyond the preconceived notion of needs (determined by our societal matrix) which causes suffering when unmet.

Hence our mind darts between longing to live in a dream that fulfills our sense pleasures and one which wants to transcend these attachment and be aware of the mind knowing how a trained mind will change our world. I guess that is the process a human has to go through.