Showery thoughts

Sitting in the train, gazing at the snow-white mountains in this sunny mid-winter day, I was caught suddenly in this dreamy conversation that I now recall. He -I do not know who he really was, as I said I was suddenly drawn to this guy talking- started talking: “Wahrnehmung/ Wahrnehmen” or Perception or just to perceive. “You know? If you cut it down it literally means the word true/real and the verb to take”. I look at him questionably, wondering even if I was part of this conversation, looking for any other witnesses of this invasion of my privacy (no not really, I was actually eager to hear what he have to offer). He continues: “Now, as a person who likes to play with words and make links between one in a language and one in another, I am always triggered to find the logic, the basic engineering, the, the architecture ingenuity behind a language, I really find this German word amazing.” Rubbing the back of his head, playfully passes his hand on his dark yet graying unruly unkempt cu...

He asked me: “Do you think conformity (as in following certain thought process, idea, fashion, be it scientific, social or religious) can be considered as brain wash or thought control?”. I was baffled, I did not know what to say, and at that point, I did not want to argue, to be frank, I just wanted to lay back and listen to this disturbed fading image of a man. He continued: “Media, advertisements, religious and political institutions all bombard us unconsciously with certain images, and ideas that makes us believe that this is the norm, this is the right, this is how should it be, and this is what you should believe. You do not have to think anymore (and of course not critically), just follow blindly, because they know better, and they want the better for us. Follow the heard, or you will be shunned, and you do not want that, it became inherited in us that we think we want to be part of this cog, we believe we want to belong, to be liked, to strive for others acceptance. It b...