Today is the 2423rd day of intensive reading to accompany you throughout your lifelong growth
Are you really yourself?
Or, just someone else's puppet?
Darren Brown, a famous British psychological magician, has done a reality show "The Push".
It only took 72 minutes to make an ordinary person a murderer!
This sounds terrible, but there is only one principle behind the experiment, and that is human subservience.
People with high subservience are more likely to lose themselves and be guided and manipulated by others.
Darren Brown first chose four such highly subservient targets.
Then step by step to break their bottom line, and finally let them kill.
Of course, the "victim" is protected, but the subject is not aware.
They kill people, and to them they really kill people.
Of the four, three were killed, and only one refused to kill.
The point of this show is that we can see how we are manipulated.
In real life, we often don't perceive ourselves being manipulated.
There's a movie that digs deeper into the theme of "manipulating and being manipulated."
Become John Markovich aka Puppet Life.
01
Manipulating others
Craig finds a door that leads to the brain of actor John Markovich.
Once inside, you can control Markovich's thoughts.
In the eyes of others, Craig was a loser.
He only manipulates puppets and does not gain any other value.
In his own eyes, too.
Perform puppet shows on the streets and are often beaten.
So her wife would say: You're beaten again?
Disheartened, Craig decided to go for a "formal job" in some other people.
The new company is on the seventh and a half floors of the building. Everyone had to walk with their heads down.
However, new options do offer new opportunities.
Here Craig finds "true love" Maxine, an attractive woman.
But people weren't interested in him.
This life of utter failure was almost going to make him despair.
At this time, he discovered a secret.
There is a door that leads to the brain of actor John Markovich.
Once inside, you can control John's mind.
The first person he told was not his wife, but Maxine, who was pursuing.
Maxine suggested opening a company that would charge someone else to experience, 200 at a time.
Craig agreed. However, this frequent operation made John himself find out and make a big fuss.
Craig, in a fit of error, controlled John with superb manipulation.
Taking advantage of John's fame and stature, he achieved career success and a love affair with Maxine.
Craig achieved his dream by controlling others.
There is no shortage of such examples in life.
For example, some parents who are "in the name of love" want to control their children and live according to their own wishes.
For example, many businessmen, through "for your own good," sell anxiety and courses. Or starting a company is essentially using the labor of others to achieve their own financial freedom.
Existence is rationality, and this is indeed a roundabout path to success.
02
Be someone else
The best way to control is to be someone else.
Everyone who enters into the mind of John Markovich becomes a community with him.
At that moment, everyone was the real Markovich.
Craig wasn't originally interested in being someone else. I was tall and handsome, ordinary but gentle.
He was really interested in Maxine.
Becoming Markovich is his means to an end.
To this end, he put his wife and orangutan in a cage like a demon, just to force her to help him get an appointment with Maxine.
By this time, he was already a little out of himself.
After becoming Markovich, Craig's talent for puppetry was fully revealed.
When the TV host praised Markovich, he was very satisfied and enjoyed his life as Markovich.
At this time, he had completely forgotten himself.
Until a group of older men, threatening the life of his beloved Maxine, left Markovich's brain.
He also struggled for a long time before agreeing.
Then he became himself again, but felt that he had lost the whole world.
Craig was not reconciled, so he went back to the small door.
He didn't know he had been replaced, and he was permanently imprisoned in the limbic zone of a girl's brain.
See the world through the eyes of others, but you can't do anything.
To be someone else means to lose yourself.
03
Who the hell are we
John Markovich is probably one of the poorest people in the whole series.
In his brain, I don't know how many people have controlled it.
At the beginning, as long as 200 yuan, everyone can experience it into his brain.
Of course, there is still a time limit at this time, only 15 minutes.
He also went in to experience it himself, and it was a variety of himself.
Later, he became a means for puppeteer Craig to achieve his life goals, and was manipulated for a long time.
Later, Craig was finally kicked out. Markovich was overjoyed.
Unexpectedly, before he could be happy for a few minutes, a large group of people came to his brain.
This group of people has been planning for a long time, and will take over his brain for the rest of his life.
But did he have a chance to resist?
Probably not.
He said to Craig, see you in court.
Craig said indifferently, Maybe the person in your head at that time was me.
Moreover, in the face of the brainwashing and encroachment that others have been planning for a long time, it is impossible to prevent it.
Being brainwashed has always been like this.
This kind of thing happens a lot in our world.
For example, the brainwashing and dissemination of cult organizations and pyramid schemes, the use and control of news by the media, and the impact of the social environment on people.
The horror is that it is subtle.
I don't know under what circumstances, I was controlled and did something that I didn't want to do.
Who are we?
04
epilogue
Of course, this is not all bad.
The first person to volunteer to become Markovich was Craig's wife.
Their marriage was boring, and the husband always found reasons to shirk the need for children.
Her husband looked down on her and always yelled at her.
After experiencing becoming Markovich, she felt that she preferred to be a man.
I want to have sex reassignment surgery.
The husband disagrees.
While becoming Markovich, she found herself liking women.
She fell in love with Maxine.
In the end, she got true love.
By manipulating others, the wife discovers the truth that she likes the same sex.
Say that other people's opinions can help us open up our minds and find more possibilities.
We can proactively try to bring in some better perspectives and get more innovation or motivation.
Being yourself or being a puppet, sometimes involuntarily.
Like John Markovich himself, it was his destiny.
It is also a truth that we will become social people when we grow up.
But sometimes there is a choice.
Like Craig's wife, she chose her own life after the experience.
Just like some people, in this materialistic society, they can still choose to keep their own hearts.