Clarity & Perspective: On the pursuit of happiness, success and desires
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Are we chasing to get what we already have? The innocent following the blind, herded by the wolves who want it all for themselves.
We have been taught and programmed to believe that we are not enough, that we are not worthy and that we must constantly strive to achieve happiness and success.
No single person can claim exclusive credit for this. Its roots lie in the repetition of human beliefs and traditions we inherit when we are taught languages and cultural history from authority figures.
But, the amplified, modern incarnation points to Edward L. Bernays, likely the most influential person you’ve never heard of. Bernays is widely acknowledged for applying and rebranding Sigmund Freud’s (his uncle) propaganda techniques and beliefs to advertising, marketing and public relations.
His 1929 campaign branding cigarettes as “Torches of Freedom” framed smoking as an act of female empowerment and liberation
👉🏼 cigarette sales to women grew from 5% to 33%!
Quote from Propaganda, Edward L Bernays, 1928
The words you see are a direct quote from his book, Propaganda, which was a founding pillar of our material consumption paradigm.
His ideas found resonance in the minds of business and government, launching a tidal wave of pleasure-seeking and a century of intoxicating self-consciousness.
I first heard about Bernays in a documentary from Adam Curtis called The Century of the Self. It opened my eyes to a different way of seeing what had unfolded in the past century.
When the weight of these words really sunk in, I felt so angry and frustrated about falling for this ruse. How I’d wasted so much time and energy in pursuit of manufactured checkboxes.
For a while, the feelings and emotions consumed me and I lost perspective. I wanted nothing to do with it anymore.
→ Pause, breathe and reflect.
I reframed. This is what has happened.
I am here now. I cannot undo the past.
But I don’t have to bring the past into the present. And I don’t have to carry it into the future.
I can let it go.
Right here, right now.
I dropped everything I’d ever been told or believed about who I was, what I’m worth and how to be happy or successful.
I stood free of any concept or model.
It was time to discover what had never been lost, only veiled by the passage of time.