Enslaved Minds

Slave mentality” is a phrase packed with a lot of meaning. It’s a disease inflicted by America. On the one hand, it is the perception that one merely accepted slavery as one’s lot in life. It’s realizing that things are never going to get any better. It’s a recognition of your bondage and trying to make the best out of the worst… out of beatings, rapes, whippings, constant exhaustion, near starvation, and brutal lynching. You get by to survive. Naturally, there were many who, mentally, had given up even if their hearts yearned for freedom. How could you not? However, lest we forget, there were those who were enslaved who rose up and revolted against their oppressors. They would not give in and instead fought to free themselves and others

A slave is an extension of his or her master or mistress; he or she is incapable of holding an independent thought or investigating a matter in order to come to an independent judgment on any issue

A slave sits when told to sit, eats when told to eat, believes whatever he or she is told to believe, and regurgitates the same without question.

Slaves rarely offer to become slaves out of the goodness of their hearts.
Every slave has a story, a gory story to tell.
Some became slaves in order to repay debts, while some were enslaved by force by a superior military might through conquest.

We saw in the Bible examples of slaves who didn’t have a slave mentality
Joseph, Daniel, Esther, and the three Hebrews.
And we saw that the majority had a slave mentality
When Pharaoh told them to make bricks without straw, they only came to the palace to beg.
When Ahaseurus decided to kidnap one thousand ladies for his harem, nobody could question him in the whole of the kingdom
When Nebuchadnezzar decided to kill all his magicians and diviners, the only response was “The King has spoken.”

Slaves don’t dare ask questions or pay attention to context.
They just parrot whatever the prevailing thinking of the master may be.

The worst kind of slavery is the slavery of the mind, a condition in which a person believes himself to be free and capable of holding an independent thought, while actually being brainwashed into believing things that are not true as true and allowing himself and herself to be so convinced of this even though in reality such a thing was a fabrication or a total lie.

One of the Theories of Mass Communication was the Hypodermic Needle Theory, which is also known as the magic bullet theory.
It is a communication model that suggests that media messages are directly injected into a passive audience, leading to a uniform and predictable effect on their thought and behaviours.

The example we were given when I studied this in the University was a radio broadcast in the USA in the sixties in which the presenter announced that aliens in UFOs had invaded America.
The majority of those who heard the broadcast believed it and fearfully stormed the streets, looking at the skies to check out the UFOs
They didn’t question the announcement at all; they just believed it.

I argued that people are smarter now and that the magic bullet theory is not applicable in these modern times.
However, events of recent years have made me review my position on the power of the media to influence minds several times.

In recent years, someone rose up in South West Nigeria. Obviously sponsored by some power-hungry politicians, and he started claiming that he would lead the Yorubas into freedom from Nigeria.
A lot of Illiterate Yoruba people believed him and would watch his broadcasts while also talking about it at their workshops. (My mechanic and other mechanics in his workshop were my case study)

They didn’t even ask themselves how feasible it was, they just believed.

Another person or persons living outside Nigeria started a radio station targeting a tribe and began to broadcast heavy propaganda in the name of an imaginary republic.
People embraced it, believed it, and began to act based on the instructions of this person.
Even after the persons had been arrested and one of them sentenced to imprisonment, while the other is still behind bars, their grip on the minds of their followers seems absolute.

People had been murdered gruesomely by individuals who bought into this propaganda and are convinced they are doing the bidding of the messiah.

I have seen the same thing playing out over and over again globally.
Those who listen to the mainstream media are told things over and over again until they believe them, even when those things are false.
They had a president who was having serious mental issues (seen on camera), but the media kept saying he was as sharp as a tack.
People believed even when what they saw was to the contrary

They then had a presidential candidate who wasn’t good enough, but they propped her up and started this brainwashing thing, which failed woefully.
She was well beaten in the elections despite all the lies from the mainstream media.

If the mainstream media were a husband or a wife, and the partner paid attention to their words and actions. He or she would have sued for a divorce by now, judging by the constant lies and half-truths.
The worst is how they cut people’s sentences, strip them of context, and play them over and over again in order to label such a person as fascist or racist or Hitler.

I remember someone who raised his right hand in a speech, and it was presented as a Nazi Salute, and many people bought it.

People don’t know what the truth is; they were just told what to believe, and they believed it.

When we believe the wrong things, we make wrong choices. Our beliefs always inform our choices.

I remember Iran’s Military handle on Twitter posting “Everyone will feel it” and giving a blow-by-blow account of their victory over Israel and the USA recently.
Three days later, it was the USA and Israel that were announcing victory.

One side did all the propaganda, and people believed them; the other side did all the winning.

Christians are supposed to do better in all these. The Word of God encouraged us to use our minds and allow ourselves (our thoughts) to be guided by the Holy Spirit.

Whoever controls your thoughts controls your actions. Product manufacturers rely on this and pay a premium price for advertisements because of it.

Is your mind enslaved or free?
Can you hold an original thought in your head, or do you just believe whatever garbage is fed into you through the media?
Do you allow other people the room to think and believe things according to their convictions, or want to force-feed them what you believe, like a conqueror or a slave owner?

I think, therefore, I am.

PS: Word and Tongues Fest is starting today!!!