ARE YOU BRAINWASHED?

© 2013 Roland Watson

Your culture

- In your national culture, how much control is exercised by social institutions over individual liberties?
- How much are these institutions, particularly the government, involved in your daily life?
- Is this relationship supportive, benign or restrictive?
- What personal freedoms are prohibited? What are you not allowed to do?
- How are the prohibitions enforced?
- To what degree is your nation "developed"?
- What is the normal educational level achieved?
- To what extent have the citizens of your nation traveled within the country, and abroad?

Your parents

- What is your class background?
- How well educated are your parents?
- How much time did they spend raising you, versus working and pursuing personal interests?
- How devoted were they to various social groups, particularly to an organized religion?
- Would you characterize them as satisfied with, or in opposition to, modern society?
- Were your parents strict?
- Did they try to force their views on you?
- To what extent did you feel the need, and were you able, to disagree with them?
- How much TV do they watch?
- How much have they traveled?

You

- How much education have you achieved?
- Have you ever been in the military?
- Have you ever worked for a large organization, such as the government or a corporation?
- Are you a workaholic?
- Are you observant of an organized religion?
- Are you a true believer?
- Do you have a strong attachment to a particular political party?
- Do you do things because they are "cool"?
- How many pieces of clothing do you own?
- And never wear?
- Do you buy glossy "lifestyle" magazines?
- Do you watch TV every day?
- How many hours?
- Do you watch soaps, or game shows?
- Do you look at advertisements?
- Are you interested in celebrities?
- Are you a fan of People magazine, or its local, TV and Internet equivalents?
- Do you take any anti-anxiety or anti-depressant medicine?
- Do you constantly monitor yourself as being the recipient of outside influences and, in the first instance, until they have passed the muster of your reason, reject them?
- Do you have, express and defend views that run counter to society at large? Even to your closest group of friends?
- How much have you traveled?