Indoctrination

How indoctrinated are we?

This question has been bothering me for a while. We constantly talk about how indoctrinated certain civilisations are. How the people there don't have the freedom to think and act as they like. Examples thrown out are the Arabs, the Muslims, the North Koreans and to a slightly lesser extent the Chinese, Fundamental Christians and the anti-globalisation groups.

But how indoctrinated are we?

I can't help but think that those people are just as convinced of our indoctrination as we are of theirs, especially in the case of the leftist anti-globilisation groups. Their educated people must tell them that we are mentally enslaved to an improper paradigm just as our educated people tell us, right?

And who are we to say that they're wrong? We are just as unable to step outside of ourselves as they are. I worry about this, because I've come to the conclusion recently that some of the basic ideas that I base all my other ideas on are nothing more than beliefs. For example, the idea that all people should have a say in whom should govern them, that people deserve equal opportunities and that people do what is inherently best for themselves and their neighbours, but that they just sometimes end up confused and frustrated.

Why do I believe these things? Well, really because that is what I've been told by my parents and my teachers. Isn't that what indoctrination is? These are basic emotional arguments that have no more backing than me saying 'I think these statements are right'. That is not the foundation of a fully functioning moral code, is it?

Yet, it is becoming ever clearer that it is impossible for us to disassociated our logic from our emotions. Without emotions we can't make decisions, without decisions we can't apply logic. So emotions are involved in every single value that we hold dear.

You see my predicament? How can we force our ideas on anybody when it seems they are all emotional. How can we claim not to be indoctrinated when, during our formative years, it is our teachers and parents who tell us what feels good and what doesn't?

How can anybody deny that we are all indoctrinated?