Growing up with media.

Its an amazing coordination between genes and environment. Both look out for the best compatibility of situations , thereby influencing each other considerably. How much of a person's traits and beliefs are personal or environmental , cannot be said for sure. In the same context it would be interesting to observe the role that media plays in our lives.

Media is the conduit through which the voices (influential and powerful), ideas, thoughts, beliefs percolate down the social structure. If I consider my own childhood to be an archetype ,I would consider media as my second parent. It is true that I got my values and beliefs from my parents and guardians, however its nonetheless very true that I got another set of guided support from the movies, soaps, etc. They shaped my thoughts in a certain way , which is quite irreversible now. The real damage was that of perception, caused by the truths perpetrated by them , with elements of untruth embedded. To name the few conceptions that I have grown up with and nurtured from them was of a black and white world, afterlife horrors, sex and death as taboos, "and they lived happily ever after", definitions and requirements of love, narrow nationalism, "us" and "them" line of separation and so on and so forth. I don't intend to say that it was solely there "gifts" to my inquisitive mind, my own personal inclinations too molded the facts and accepted it. The real issue was that the underlying falsehood was wrapped in a glittering , shiny wrapper of truth which made me accept the whole package as sole truth.

Needless to say that all of those leanings that I grew up with suffered serious jolts. It shook up the very foundation I was raised on. A person may say that he follows no principles in his life, but then again that is his principle. And so as these "maxims" were eroded with time, my underlying base got too weakened to be referred to. I gave in to confusions, indeterminism, agnosticism. Although, I have discussed it in the terms of my own growth , I very confidentially presume that the story won't be too very different for you. Particulars and durations may differ, but the underlying facts would be the same for most of us.

However, as every dark cloud has silver lining , I understand that by employing our own brains, our own reasoning, our own rationality, we will expunge the adopted "values" and shall create our own "values", the one we truly believe in. It appears difficult and confusing, not very different from the former, but the fact that its you who are at the helm of the affairs now, compensates.