Think For Yourself

Here's an essay I wrote for a Humanities class that I think helps flesh out this principle:

A lot of us just don’t know who we are.  We may play roles within our society and our families but when it comes right down, many of us simply haven’t asked the question “Who am I?”  This is because that the answer has already been indirectly provided.  In our consumerist culture based on the trading of services and commodities there is a constant reaffirmation of who we ought to be and what we ought to do, but never the mandate that we should investigate the matter for ourselves.  All we have to do is keep the system going, live as we would like, and the rest will be provided.  Our identities are not something that is called attention to, because they are under the influence and control of our culture, and it is to that systems advantage not to ask such questions of us. 
    This situation is similar to the one we find in Plato’s dialogue, the Meno.  Here, Socrates convinces his compatriot Meno that no one really does wrong things knowingly.  When on does something such as steal or commit a crime, they are not doing so because they wish to commit harm or an immoral act, but because they think it will benefit them in some way.  Thus they do these things because they mistakenly think that they will benefit from them, that they will give them more status or more material wealth.  For Socrates these things are not worth anything compared to eudemonia, so anything done in order to acquire these things is done in ignorance. 
    But this is not the point I wish to dwell on.  What I wish to call attention to is how Meno or the average lay person got these ideas about what is desirable.  Part of Socrates’ own outlook was that even though people seemed to desire material wealth, status, and so on that when pressed about this issue most people would not admit that these were the things n life that really mattered.  What mattered to them were more abstract notions that were considerably more difficult to define.  This suggests that these ideas about commodities, these values about consumerism and these ways of living were not genuinely chosen by the individuals, but were rather imparted upon them by some other means, other than personal conviction and decision. 
    The source of these ideas seems to be rather obvious.  We need only glance at our televisions to see what constitutes the “full and happy life.”  No longer are we presented with the familial paradise of the picket fence, the trimmed hedgerows, the forever-chipper stay at home mother, the pipe-smoking husband, and the 2.5 children.  We are presented instead with an endless barrage of new toys, gadgets, clothes, and accessories.  This is the new “good life,” the one in which you have a credit limit that would rival God’s on the first day of Creation.  This is the message brought to us by the media, created by corporations, and tolerated by democracy.  It is a system that provides us with a kind of default mindset, bombarded upon us within our first world civilizations.  So long as we remain passive towards these areas of our lives, it is no wonder why so many people could think in such a way, to live in such a way, and to allow the system that perpetuates and allows these ideas and ways of life to flourish.  
    This is the state of the corporate and consumer reality today.  Consumption of this kind is seen as normal and productive and the dominance of such a force in our culture and our media is still largely unquestioned.  We allow this reality and system to be established as a sort of pay-off.  In return for our money and a mind-share in the consumerist worldview, we are allowed to live our lives however we so wish.  We get to remain comfortably within our own bubbles, potentially oblivious to our neighbors and the rest of the world.  Since we are mostly free to live our lives the way we see fit, we tend not to see these ideas as being forced upon us.  The power and influence of the commodity is not considered a totalitarian force.  I think that this is to some extent true, but nevertheless, if our minds are vessels to be filled then the rules and ideas of consumerism are torrents happy to fall into us until we are full.  The ideas are not forced upon us, but they are everywhere, in every media outlet, and they are difficult to ignore.  But yet the very existence of this paper and this class shows that it is possible to close ourselves off, to put a lid on our minds and consider the contents instead of accepting them and moving on.
Ironically it is the system itself that allows this freedom, for we live in a system that allows us our private freedom to do what we will, so long as doesn’t harm anyone.  If we did not have this, then it would be impossible to think our conduct in a way contrary to the will of the government, corporation or whatever authority that felt it necessary to intrude upon how we think.  Even though the media bombards us with images, ideas, and values, and corporations inject these messages with consumer values, at the end of the day it is us who chose whether to accept them or not.  Though we may not consider these ideas as constructing our identity, or critically analyze the system, we are still in a sense choosing to accept what we are given rather than thinking for ourselves.
We therefore have the potential to realize, like Meno, that these ideas are not something that we have actually chosen.  It is perfectly feasible that we all be able to see the world as I have just described, to see how the system work, and to see the messages and ideas that saturate our lives.  But just like Meno, we must also approach these ideas through a discourse, with others or ourselves, so that we may see that these values, ideas, and ways of living are not something we have pursued genuinely, but instinctively and naturally.  It is a mistake to think of it as a sheepish mentality, what else are we to do when presented with a simple and seductive mode of life from every possible angle?  They are simply the ideas that presented themselves to us, and that continue to exist thanks to our complacency and comfort with them.  But they can be challenged, and therefore we may take an active role in shaping our identities and our beliefs, instead of ignoring the issue and accepting the default position. 
What these identities should be made with, which ideas people should decide to value and take as part of their beliefs and identity is not my concern.  One could even decide to stick with consumerism and define himself or herself as someone who must buy and acquire wealth in order to have a happy and fulfilling life.  I have no problem with this so long as it is a genuine choice that the person understands.  The point I am trying to make is not that people shouldn’t be consumers and pursue the typical, nine to five life, the point is that if we do not get the opportunity to step back and see the myriad ways of living and believing then we are not taking an active part in forming who we are.    Without this kind of active participation, we are nothing more than the product of our society; full of whatever lifestyle choices were prevalent when we were growing up. 
You may think that this is all very well and good, but how exactly do we bring this change about?  I have so far illustrated that our culture defines our identities rather handedly so long as we don’t take notice, and that if we continue to do this we can be likened to someone asleep and dreaming about their life.  They would be enjoying the ups and downs of existence but in a rather passive fashion that we wouldn’t genuine living and existing.  To approach our lives genuinely would require us to “wake up” as it were and take part in applying ourselves to our lives in a constructive fashion.  All that is required for this to happen is to realize that a gap does in fact exist between what we see as important and how we are living our lives.  If we find that there is no such disconnect, and thy way you were living before you had considered the question of who you were and what you were doing then so much the better, but I do not think that is the case for a great many people.  Many people do no want to strive for the life we see painted across our skyscrapers in bright neon.  We want something else, we want to identify with something else, and ultimately you are the one that must find it.  The issue to keep in mind is that before an identity was being pressed upon you and now you can sit and consider whether or not this idea is valid and something you want to be a part of you.
This is not something that is going to change the world; the purpose of writing this essay was to investigate the idea of being separated from our identity and being lured away from ourselves and our responsibilities, not to provide a method of overturning that system.  But it is interesting to note that within capitalism itself we have a stepping stone that could awaken enough people that real, large scale changes could eventually occur.  The first thing one must do though, is figure out what you are doing and why, and I think this is just as important as stopping this never-ending cycle of consume, consume, consume.