Frequently, I get chain letters and nice presentations to my E-mail box containing some "wisdom" that my friends believe they must share with me and all their friends.
It could be about Love, Happiness, Friendship, Money and other "life philosophies".
Some of them even contain a threat that if I do not pass it on, something terrible will happen to me, and if I do pass them on, I'll get a reward...
I am sure that all of you who communicate through e-mail know what I am talking about...
Many times I get the same presentation again and again.
I do wander sometimes why people continue this chain of e-mails although some of them are really rubbish, what is the power in this tool that makes our brain numb? For example, I got this E-mail, which evoked me to write this article.
The Headline was: "For Good Luck", and the content goes like this: "A song about money Money can buy a House but not a Family, Money can buy a Bed but not the Sleep, Money can buy a Watch but not Time, Money can buy a Book but not Knowledge, Money can buy a Status but not Dignity, Money can buy a Blood transfusion but not Life, Money can buy Sex but not Love.
This is an ancient Chinese poem that circulates the world 8 times.
Now it is your turn to pass it through.
You have to send this to people who need luck.
If you do, the luck will be knocking on your door...
Luck can't be bought.
Do not keep this letter more than 96 hours...
(Here comes a threat).
" This e-mail was sent to me by a good friend of mine who is not stupid at all so it triggered me to ask myself why people keep sending those messages? I am sure most of them do not care about the threat or the reward but rather think of all of those "life philosophies" as some kind of truth or values worth sharing.
In my opinion, some of those messages are carrying some brain-wash' techniques to keep us holding some irrelevant values in our modern world.
First, they write that this is an ancient Chinese poem.
Well, it is common knowledge that the ancient Chinese philosophy holds an ancient wisdom which is very much popular today.
"If it is ancient Chinese wisdom it must be true" you are saying to your self, and you are already open to embrace the massage...
I did a test and asked some friends if they think this message about money is truth.
All reply - yes! After all, every body knows that you can buy sex but can't buy love etc.
Here lays the catch and the brain-wash - to connect two different things logically in one sentence, in a way that your brain will automatically see them as controversial (using the word "BUT").
As if love and sex are controversial or house and family are controversial and as if you have one you can not have the other!!!! Moreover, the bottom line, if you can not buy the most valuable things in life with money ( family, time, life, sleep, dignity, love) and money can only buy things that are contradictions to those valuable things and "unimportant" (property, objects, sex, status), money is bad, and you better be without it...
When I show this brain-wash trick to my friends, they all say" Oh, no, that is not what I mean.
I do appreciate money...
bla, bla...
Why people keep passing through those "smart" messages and presentations? Why don't you use some judgment in your mailing content? The fact is that people keep sending those messages for years!!! Brain-wash techniques are penetrating your mind like a thief.
You do not control it unless you are aware of it.
Lately, I saw a message that used this same technique to pursue people to boycott a commercial company.
You usually do not know the origin of those email messages.
Everybody can write every thing and refer it to some wise men or to ancient wisdom.
Be more selective and stop the chain when the messages are inappropriate.
Clean the air from poison.
Let's use some "Green" attitude in the Internet also.
It is not only air-pollution we need to be concerned about but also brain-pollution...