RE: Creating Lasting Change by Getting People to Change
I have been toying with the idea of faith as a means of control for a while now and I may eventually write about it.
You are right that it can be used to good ends also. I guess it depends on the idea and who is spinning it.
As to changing the world, I agree that it can work but getting people to listen is the trick and hell if I know how to do that. I mostly cover counter culture type of stuff, cannabis, psychedelics, my own view of things, et cetera. I can lay out a good case for some minor change in thought about drug laws or what have you and I often see a comment that says something like "but drugs are bad." That tells me that they stopped reading when they saw that I said we should stop locking people in cages for using those drugs and never considered the argument. A lot of people seem to turn their mind off when they disagree with an idea and that is a major issue for those of us who would like to see a better way of living.
Yeah, drugs might be bad (some more than others), but that doesn't mean people should go to jail for using them... :/
Haha I look at as a matter of how they are used. I would say that it isn't a great idea to snort a bunch of coke at a party but if I was having a tooth pulled and the choice was to put some on my gums or have nothing for the pain, I would take the cocaine every time. The problem though is that some people don't know how to see past the "drugs are bad" thing enough to see that the statement doesn't reflect reality. In that sense, the issue is getting them to cast off their faith in whatever authority told them that this was true and getting them to put into something that won't lie to them to for its own gains.
The way I see it, all things are what they are. They only have meaning because we choose to give it to them.