“We seldom realize, for example, that our most private thoughts and emotions are not actually our own. For we think in terms of languages and images which we did not invent, but which were given to us by our society. We copy emotional reactions from our parents, learning from them thatexcrement is supposed to have a disgusting smell and that vomiting is supposed to be an unpleasant sensation. The dread of death is also learned from their anxieties about sickness and from their attitudes to funerals and corpses. Our social environment has this power just because we do not exist apart from a society. Society is our extended mind and body. Yet the very society from which the individual is inseparable is using its whole irresistible force to persuade the individual that he is indeed separate! Society as we now know it is therefore playing a game with self-contradictory rules.”
Quote by Alan Wilson Watts
Work
The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
This book delves into the complexities of self-discovery and the cultural barriers that prevent individuals from fully comprehending their own identities. more
Author
You May Also Like
Source: Civil Disobedience and Other Essays
“Good humor may be said to be one of the very best articles of dress one can wear in society.”
Source: Sketches and Travels, Etc.
“A society without democracy is a society of slaves and fools.”
Source: ZAMANISM Wealth of the People
Source: Sister
Source: A Canticle For Leibowitz