Sovereign Manipulation; "Thou Shall Not..."

Growing up, out of love and safety, our parents provided us with a plethora of "do this, don't do this". Even under our education system, we're also taught "do this, don't do this" in order to become effective members of an alleged educated society. Going into religion, we're also taught "thou shalt not do this, and do this". Hence, right from the get-go, a child's experience and ability to make it's own choices is overwhelmed by the trinity: parents, education, and religion. 

Parents, schoolteachers, religious instructors, and many other adults unknowingly serve my purpose by helping me to destroy in children the habit of thinking for themselves.
- The Devil, channeled by Napoleon Hill, Outwitting the Devil

Children are naturally curious. They are going to fall, their going to make mistakes, all the while learning to navigate themselves in human form. Though, most of us were punished for making the mistakes, or intellectually degraded by being provided a lower grade, or condemned to some sort of hell. In other words, the penalty, not the natural injury provided from making a choice, is often provided to force a child, a budding individual, in a certain direction. Though a mother may yell at her child coming closer to a hot stove, there is a difference in the child being told that the stove is hot and can burn, as opposed to the child having even the slightest experience of the heat. Though provided as a metaphor, that is the difference between knowing and (g)nowing something, knowledge and wisdom. 

Though it is good that certain direction is pointed especially by someone who has walked down a similar road, the penalty of choosing otherwise may pay a significant and debilitating psychological role in manipulating an individual. Right from the beginning, a child is moved from his/her curious scientific experience, into the realm of having to do what he/she is told. Parents, education, and religion take on a dictatorship where significant manipulation is provided into the efforts of molding a child into a type of conformity. When such conformity is provided, the child grows into an adult holding to such psychological barriers or habits, which further continue to dominate the individual even under a subconscious level. As modern psychology has shown, parents are typically the ones capable of psychologically harming a child the most, which gives new meaning to the concept of "parents are a child's first guru". No doubt, the parents religion, politics, nationalism, etc., all play a major role in influencing a child, as opposed to the child's own intellect. 

Religion is probably the pivotal example, where much relies on faith, not necessarily a natural cause and effect outcome. If certain conduct is followed the outcome will be found in the currently unprovable afterlife, either reincarnation or a spiritual heaven/hell. Most exoteric religions fall into this category, where at least in the East we have the concept of Karma. Karma provides a more scientific or philosophical approach, where certain conduct/attachments produces certain results. One can use a decision-tree to make decisions, see the available choices and probabilities of the more likely outcomes, and proceed to make a choice. Nonetheless, even in the East, outright prohibitions have even arisen in the "thou shall not..." category, which the masses in that group are expected to abide by. For example, the eating of a certain animal in India, as if this animals life is more holy than the next animal, is continually propagated, most likely due to the result of an over-extension of religious symbolism. Under such understandings, a free-sovereign spirit is placed on this planet, and is quickly provided with beliefs, not experiences or choices, and quickly molds into a collective thought process as opposed to thinking as a sovereign being. 

Such molding into conformity without logical assessment is provided throughout our society. Parents mold us into their beliefs, politics, religion, culture, as well as hereditary addictions. Education has been mainly memorize and regurgitate, where it was only in law school that I was forced to analyze, given that law schools framework is different using the socratic method (asking questions to find the answer). In addition, education has significantly sought to instill blind-patriotism, where much of the history books are written with a strong slant in a nationalist favor. Lastly, religion has probably been the worst, where much of an individuals soul growth is based on faith, a belief in someone/something else. In personal assessment, it appears all three have sought to significantly provide further limitations on an individuals expression.

Let's face it, society as we know it has sought thoughtless conformity as opposed to sovereign expression. But, are we here to be worker ants? What separates humans from the animal kingdom is that humans are psychologically capable of asking questions and pursue curiosities beyond the basic animal instincts. But what is the use of having the human intellect if it is to be subdued back into its animalistic state. What's worse is that many of us don't even know that we're in this psychological state given that we've been provided with these impressions and habits since early childhood. 

I'm all for advise and learning from the prior generations, though the goal should not just be to know, but to (g)now. I mean, what is the purpose of our human lives if we cannot learn and grow from our experience and we're expected to conform to a societal belief structure. How are we being true to ourselves, when we've adopted and just accepted so much from external sources. 

I live in fear the at someday some courageous person will reverse the present system of school teaching and deal my cause of death blow by allowing the students to become the instructors, using those who now serve as teachers only as guides to help the children establish ways and means of developing their own minds from within.
- The Devil, channeled by Napoleon Hill, Outwitting the Devil