Addiction mongering

Money forms the principal criteria that most societies have organised themselves around, so it should be expected that there is a lot of propaganda around supporting that idea.

Money is tokenised value, which enables us to be more socially mobile than other schemes like bartering, which relies upon both parties having something of interest to the other. However, some extremely greedy people don't want all to share in the benefits of mobility, but instead manipulate the monetary system to benefit them while making it extremely difficult for others to attain the same.

Furthermore, they have created lobby groups and set up think tanks to promote their ways of thinking among politicians and the general public. They promote individualism as an ideology to the point of promoting greed and self-indulgence, yet prevent those who don't have economic power from pooling their resources so they have a chance of lifting themselves out of their debilitating circumstances.

Following sports is almost a religion in many societies, often used as a rallying point for whipping up national fervour.

The original olympics were created to distract Greek soldiers from being violent and disruptive during peacetime. Sports today is again used as a distraction from the real problems in societies, but has been expanded into a huge money machine that promotes following their teams and individuals as a core part of our identity.

They make a big deal about teamwork, yet the real result is that only a very few get rewarded, while most players lose. Sports today promotes elitism and arbitrary rewards based upon skills that don't actually benefit anyone other than those few that succeed. Meanwhile, they extract much public money from governments to build sports facilities that perpetuate their business model and the consequent money streams.

The business model of sports relies upon building obsessive and irrational behaviour among its followers so that they just become followers and consume merchandise. Sports don't promote health nor help the disadvantaged, but sap societies of the resources that could really make a difference to many.

Religions have a long history of requiring dogmatic belief in their doctrines, often under the pain of dire social consequences or even death.

Religion is not spirituality per se, the latter being about the true nature of our being and what we can do to facilitate our understanding of it. Rather, religion is a formalisation of a set of beliefs compliant to the governing religious organisation's agenda, which may not want to allow the range of thinking that following our own spiritual path may require, and so possibly undermine their authority and legitimacy in our eyes.

Religious organisations have obtained much wealth for themselves, demanded exemptions from laws so that they can perpetuate their highly discriminatory behaviours, and deliberately aided and abetted sexual predators from discovery and prosecution in order to protect their institutions from public scrutiny. While the founders of the major religions had lives of much experimentation, their lessons and teachings have become tools for the institutions that arose in their wake to enforce separateness, bigotry and regimented thinking.

People are gregarious by nature, and so tend to associate with those who have similar goals and outlooks, so they are ripe for some serious manipulation by those wanting to selfishly acquire power.

As we have further progressed into our experiment with democracy, all of the above individuals and institutions have sought to pervert the will of the people by influencing or outright bribing elected politicians, though that influence started well before they were elected through the undemocratic manipulation of the political parties that put them forward. Instead, people are encouraged to be enthusiastic supporters, but not question why seemingly dubious decisions are made.

Parties are formed by those with particular interests that favour themselves, but are also subject to influence by well-paid lobbyists for other sometimes nefarious interest groups wanting favours for their financial support. If not checked, those influences can lead to serious adverse outcomes for those disadvantaged peoples who find it difficult to gain the necessary aggregate power to push back.

Of course, the ways each of these areas of obsession are created are fairly similar, because the required result is enthusiastic but unquestioning adherence to the agendas of those in power.

The main thrust of the process is to build a belief system that relies upon the structures that keep those in control in power. They form pyramid belief schemes that only get their power from so many believing in their importance. Any doubts start unravelling the house of cards, hence the constant stream of propaganda.

Against such odds, it is obvious that uncoordinated individual action will not change much. Only united efforts will be able to challenge the power of those with such nefarious agendas.

To really counter this propaganda, we need to make sure our societies are more open and transparent, and not subject to influence by those who lurk in the shadows. That means our public institutions need to be set up with clear guidelines and equitable policies, and be more open about their decision-making processes.

Those who have been seeking to shift public resources for their own means have spent billions on their lobbying and public disinformation campaigns. To counter this, not only more of the actual facts about the consequences of downsides to their agendas needs to be made public, but also how they directly influence those who are supposed to work for the general good.

The key is that coordinated and targeted effort will be the most economical and effective, as lots of individuals whingeing randomly on social media won't cut it. Target politicians and mainstream media, especially via forums and talkback radio. Relay facts about the downsides, but also express where society should be implementing changes for more equity and support for all.