DE-
PROGRAMMING

A Manifesto

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“I give a fuck if you’re a damn Jew, or a Serbo-Kroat, an American or the devil knows what! – What are your human qualities, if I may ask? – Are you honest? Do you treat your family and friends lovingly and with respect? Are you happy? Or do you exploit other human beings, in order to silence your frustration with the filthy lucre?”
(Inno)

 

 

Introduction

 

This world is on the brink of self-destruction. Senseless wars are being fought, millions of people are being oppressed, women are treated worse than chattel. Many people are dying daily of starvation and diseases such as AIDs. The meaning of life is either a dogged fight for survival or the flight into brainless consumption. It seems that mankind is governed by greed, fear and poverty.

The globe itself is sick, because our boundless greed, with which we are trying to distract ourselves from our inner boredom, has exploited it and disturbed its delicate homeostasis. The equally delicate balance of our economic system can be upset any minute, and masses of fanatics and fundamentalists are ready to destroy civil liberties in the East and the West, also in countries that still pretend to be fighting for freedom.

The present political institutions have not even been able to reduce the world’s population in order to decrease starvation and make the individual human life more dignified. What’s worse, the politicians would not even consider such measures, since they are afraid to offend certain religious and ethnic programs, in other words a lot of their voters.
While some countries are throwing thousands of tons of valuable food into the sea – for economic reasons – millions of people are dying of starvation in other countries. Would it not be sensible to create a world government, which could move resources to where they are most needed?

But the worst scenario can still be avoided – not by replacing one ideology with another one, though. Yet if all intelligent human beings start feeling responsible and becoming aware of what the roots of this tremendous chaos, in fact, are and decide to drop all attachment to the sick ‘Programs’ that have led mankind into this miserable state, it is possible to avert greater disaster.

I would like you to consider this short text and, if you agree with it, do something to spread it.

 

 

 

De-Programming

 

 

Wasser kocht Water boils at 100 degrees, whether the scientist observing the experiment is a Jew or a Buddhist, a Japanese or an American, a communist or a fascist, a man or a woman.
Science is neutral, objective. And this objectivity would be impaired if the scientist were dependent on any social, cultural or psychological program. Science is looking for truth, not for an illusion as do religions and nations.
We know that scientific truths work all over the globe. Computers, cars, TV, etc. are neither Christian nor American, neither communist, nor separatist.

Another example: Sex is pleasurable for the Chinese, the eskimos, the Russians, Italians, men and women, cats and dogs. And yet our so-called cultural, ethnic and religious conditioning has almost destroyed this natural source of pleasure. Above all the religions have given us guilt feelings in this area (which the cats and dogs do not know), they have forced us to repress our own nature and have thus produced homosexuality and prostitution and perversions. Moreover, they have suppressed woman all over the globe, denied her the natural pleasure, cut off her clitoris etc

This is just a strong example for how destructive certain programs have been in the past. And that is why we should all of us endeavour to get totally de-programmed.

What are those programs?

Programs are ways of behaviour and thinking that you have learned from society and your environment. They are not innate, they are not real needs – and they limit your perception of the world and your freedom of expression. They are like prejudices.

If people cannot respond in a fresh way to a new situation it is because they are prejudiced, they are programmed and they will start reacting to the new situation.

Children do not have any programs when they are born, except, of course, instinctual and genetic ones. As they grow older they lose this innocent state and internalise many programs they have received from their parents, their friends and society. But since they have been acquired in the early stages of your life, they can also be dropped as your awareness is growing.

People are not aware of why they are acting in a certain way. Programs are not often questioned. They are irrational and you are simply asked to believe in them. In India, for example, cows are considered to be sacred and drinking cow urine is seen as a sacred action. We may laugh at such things, but then a hindu has every right to sneer at Christian assertions that Jesus is the only begotten son of God.

On the other hand, if you dare drop the programs of your social environment, the people with whom you live will feel threatened by you and will try to get you back into the flock.

Here are some types of programs you may have unconsciously taken over from your environment:

. Believing in anything,
. religious creeds,
. political creeds/nationalism,
. cultural, ethnic and racist conditioning,
. social values,
. morals,
. idealism,
. history,
…

Religions: For example, before Galileo Christians were expected to believe that the sun moved round the earth. Now we know they were wrong. Catholics still believe that god is against condoms and that is why the pope is against AIDs campaigns in the developing world. Today millions of human beings are dying of AIDS because they do not know about this disease and how they can protect themselves against it.

Indians believe that god created four castes into which men are born. Social injustice was thus cemented and justified by god’s will. Most religions believe in the concept of ‘sin’ or ‘karma’, and that’s why everybody is carrying the heavy burden of guilt around with him. Moreover, the Christians believe that all non-Christians will go to hell, the muslims believe the same thing about non-Muslims and so forth. There are more than 300 religions that believe they are the only true religion and their god is the only one, while some religions, e.g. the Buddhists, Jainas and Taoists, do very well without the concept of a god. Must be a bit confusing for the old woman up there!

The fundamentalist Christians of America, the Imams and Mullas of Islam, or the orthodox Jews have clearly shown that they have not been able to bring peace into this world but only more violent conflicts. In the name of love and spirituality they indulge in irresponsible political gambling.

Religious beliefs are easy to pinpoint and they have been the most disastrous programs of humanity. They should therefore be eliminated first.

Nations: Nowadays, millions of people are moving from one country to another, e.g. to live with their partners, to seek asylum or for reasons of work or studies. Their children, the next generation, are often completely integrated in the new social context. It seems absurd to uphold the concept of nations, which has annihilated so many millions of human lives in armed conflicts.
And do not forget, nowadays the problems are global, yet the solutions are still national. The politicians behave in an utterly egotistic way, because they only want to please their own voters. They do not feel responsible for the whole world. Unfortunately, America is giving the world an extremely bad example by being so ridiculously nationalist.

Just imagine, if we abolish nations and introduce a UN passport, we shall be able to drop all armies and collect and destroy all instruments of death. We shall have an amazing amount of new resources at our disposal to feed and educate the poor. And the hundreds of thousands of scientists, at present busy in the arms industry, could make a more constructive contribution to this world with their creativity.

Also local patriotism, which goes under the name of ‘ethnical background’, has proved to be a continuous cause of conflict all over the world. The ‘melting pot of nations’ in the US and in many other Western countries demonstrate clearly that ethnicity does not have to prevent you from integrating well in the social surroundings where you live, as long as you put humanity above all other derivative values.
More and more people are travelling all over the world and create many friendships. Why don’t we go a little step further and declare friendship to be more important than division? By the way, it’s not a question of ‘imposing’ new programs on people limited by their ethnical believes, but of not allowing their ethnic programs to be a reason for division and killing each other.

Imagine, if one day we simply dropped this disastrous nationalist distinction between human beings. Most people would certainly not feel ecstatic at first. They would feel somehow empty and suddenly realise how they have been let down by their leaders for thousands of years. They would become aware of the social injustice within their own countries. – The politicians are, of course, afraid of this moment of truth, and they will try to stick to nationalism as long as they can…or as long as you do not lose patience.

Ideals: Everybody who has studied history or sociology knows that social values and morals are mere trends and fashions and not ‘divine law’. And ever so often legal practise lags behind new insights by about half a century. All these laws just punish advanced individuals for being more open than others.
Idealism easily becomes fanaticism, especially if idealists try to impose their personal philosophy on others. The opposite of idealism is scientific research.

Examples for misled idealists are the German Nazis, the communist theoreticians, the promoters of New Economy, the Christian missionaries, the American presidents, (who want ‘to bring peace’ to some countries and manage only to destroy them), or the people who fight for a drugfree world by penalising harmless hashsmokers heavily while financially supporting alcoholics who kill millions of people in the streets.
It’s hardly imaginable how much destructive idealism is around. Every politician wants to save you from the opposition. The anti-abortionists demonstrate their pro-life attitude by making women’s lives into hell. We protect our kids from every inch of naked flesh and, on the other hand, let them watch the most violent and atrocious films, provided they promote nationalist ‘values’. We forbid some poor women to save their lives by working as prostitutes and let a few greedy idiots accumulate billions of dollars in the ubiquitous pornography business.

The fact is, society cannot accept you the way you are, and so it forces you to be false, a hypocrite. Just as religions first make you feel guilty and then promise that some redeemer will save you, society rewards you for keeping up appearances. It asks you to wear a mask of respectability no matter what your real feelings are.

History: History is a great thing. It can, for example, teach us that all ideals have failed up to now. Unfortunately, what we inculcate into schoolchildren is mainly the importance of military and economic struggles together with names such as Alexander the Great, Djengis Khan, Napoleon or Winston Churchill. If we did not teach history in this way, no megalomaniac would dream of sacrificing the well-being of others to his dream of going down in history.
In addition to this, history, to the conservative mind, means that whatever happened in the past is essential and a determining factor for the present. In other words, if a country at one time in the past occupied another country it has a certain right to reconquer it again. These conservatives also believe that countries and nations have a god-given identity and personality and cannot be dissolved. You cannot divide, or change the borders of countries since that would be like injuring or killing a live organism.
But think of a young child who has not yet been programmed by his society and does not even know the names of the countries. He will not see any borders and nations, he will only see mountains and rivers and trees. I personally give a damn what the name of a country is, provided its people treat me civilly and with respect.

On the other hand, the same people who insist with so much vehemence on the precious identity of nations, can easily attack, conquer and take over the whole world. In colonial times, not so long ago, European states stole just about every piece of land still available for landrobbers and started to exploit its inhabitants. A whole black continent was reduced to slavery in order to make some white men richer. If anyone did the same to these rich modern states they would let their historians tell you that we should respect the historical growth of political situations. This may show you how important it is for historians to be scientific and de-programmed

Racism: It seems necessary to me to redefine racism in this context. - Everyone who identifies himself with an institution is laying the foundation for racism. Everyone who feels in any way different and special is running the risk of becoming racist. If it is more important for you to be a Muslim or a Christian or a Jew than to be just an ordinary human being, you have violated your nature.
Only he who puts his humanity above all cults and flags and the history of a country, is free from that dangerous fanaticism.

. lifeplans,
. your “image”
. habits,
. knowledge,

Ask yourself, what your lifeplan is, and where it comes from. You may suddenly wake up at some point in your life and realise that you have a nine-to-five job, a wife, a TV, two children, a dog, a car and a barbecue grill. And you know that it is exactly these things you dreamt about when you were younger. You have created this life and its particular circumstances. No, you have not even created this unoriginal kind of life yourself. You have probably blindly imitated or taken over the beliefs of your social surroundings, since millions of other people have ended up in the same situation.

Your ‘image’ is often a copy of some famous person, or one of your parents, you intend to imitate in your life. Why don’t you try to see who you are deep down, without any interference of idols and role models?

Your habits, too, are bound to be blind repetitions of a pattern, a program. You drink your coffee and eat your bacon and eggs without ever asking yourself whether this is really what you, your body, wants at this moment.
You know what you are going to do tonight and what you are going to do next weekend. You know where you are going on holiday next year and what you are going to do when you retire.
Women often have very strong instinctual and social programs. They want children, security and respectability, and this prevents them from seeing the world as it is.

It may be difficult for you to see that also ‘knowledge’ creates programs in you. But think of the moment your wife (or husband) enters the flat in the evening. You hardly look around to ‘see’ her, because you ‘know’ her, after all. What you know you don’t see anymore. It has become dead. You may know the Latin names of a thousand flowers and plants, but you have never met an individual plant. Knowledge is one of the deepest programs. If you know nothing, like a child for example, you are open to the world and its myriad wonders.

Negativity and defeatism is an emotional program that intellectuals often adhere to. It is neither scientific nor to be found in nature. But it can be as destructive as any other more ideological programs.

Expectations and desires, hopes and fears prevent you from living now. And deep down you have these expectations because you want to please the world around you. You hope for success because this will help you pass muster, and people will call you ‘a good boy’. – The crowd seems to be the ultimate value in life, while the individual is looked upon as a disturbance. But then, Mozart, Buddha, Shakespeare, Einstein, Michelangelo, all the people who have contributed so much to our civilisation were individuals.

What’s the difference between De-programming and Re-programming?

Re-programming means replacing one program by another, e.g. conversion from Christianity to Islam, from capitalism to socialism, from alcoholism to the Jehova’s witnesses, from reckless driving to “these young people drive like maniacs!”,
It leaves you in the same mess but gives it a different name. Gandhi started calling the sudras, the lowest caste in India, who, for thousands of years, have only been allowed to carry shit from the houses of the other castes to a ditch outside town, ‘children of god’ – but he did not do anything to change and improve their lot.
Democracy is not good per se, if masses of greedy consumers, in other words the majority, are to decide what is supposed to be best for all of us. Advertising and politics like giving new, nice-sounding names to unpleasant facts. A friend of mine calls this ‘putting sugar on shit’.

Brainwashing is a particular form of re-programming. It just puts different beliefs in the place of the old beliefs. An American nationalist and hero worshipper is as brainwashed as a member of the Chinese opposition detained in a prison for ‘re-education’.
De-programming is the opposite of brainwashing.

Difficulties

Everybody is so convinced that they are totally objective. People don’t usually see their programs. And if you tell them, they will react and let you know that you’re just against them.
And don’t forget, all vested powers will fiercely oppose de-programming since people can only be exploited by the politicians through their unquestioned beliefs.

Why should we get de-programmed?

Because it’s these programs that have caused all the wars and the misery. They limit our freedom and other people’s freedom. They make you reduce the infinite beauty of reality to a rigid or depressive image of your own projection. If you have a program you will walk through life and only see tits and asses, or terrorists and immigrants, or money and dividends, or sins and god’s wrath. But life is so immense, so poetical and miraculous.

We are first of all human beings, and not exponents of a political creed or an ethnic background. And yet, the politicians and the priests and society want us to believe that it is the other way round, i.e. that we are first of all Catholics, Muslims, Americans, Kurds, Jews, Brahmins and the like and not human beings who share the same emotions, the pains and the desire to be happy.

Human beings feel pain and pleasure, sex and hunger, compassion and grief, anger and fear, whatever religion they have. Shylock, in Shakespeare’s ‘Merchant of Venice’ says: “If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh?” He wanted to show us that Jews are human beings like everybody else. Unfortunately, the Jews themselves still think they are special – and they suffer for it. The same thing goes for Serbs and Kroats, Jehova’s Witnesses or militant Gays.

Consciousness, passion, compassion, intelligence, sensitivity, warmth, courage, etc are human qualities. There is no such thing as ‘Christian love’ or ‘Communist intelligence’. – Yes, there are different climates and regional expressions of humanity, different cuisines, styles of music, clothes or architecture – and that is great! But there is no ‘Fundamentalist salami’ or ‘Catholic coffee’.

Who/What are you, once you are de-programmed?

You will just be an ordinary human being. You will feel pain and pleasure. You will be aware, intelligent, loving. You will not be great just because your nation is great. You will make mistakes – and learn from them.
Consciousness, joy, love, spontaneity, trust, positivity – that’s what you are. You are perfect just the way you are, when you no longer adhere to any programs. You will be open and authentic. You will be tolerant and flexible and accept life the way it is. And you will also be very creative.

In short, you will be free. Free from all programs that have prevented you from being the beautiful human being which you are. You will no longer be doing things in order to please somebody else, but only because you like doing them.

Test yourself. – Can you accept these definitions?

? A de-programmed person does not believe in ANYTHING. Either he knows or he does not. But he would never replace his ignorance with any creed.
? He/she considers him/herself first of all a human being who is merely a guest on this planet.
? He does not belong to any nation or ethnic group. He is a citizen of the earth.
? He does not belong to any religion. But he will search for religiousness himself.
? He is not a member of any political party.
? He does not destroy love by making it a legal contract. In other words, he neither marries nor divorces. He does not consider his children his possession, either. He knows has no right to give them any programs, neither political, religious, ethnic or moral. He allows them to search for truth themselves.
? He accepts the political equality of men, women, children and the various parts of mankind.
? He does not try to convert any other human being.
? He does not accept being given any lifeplans by other people, e.g. his parents, peers or society at large.
? He would never fight or die for any ideal.

These are only the political prerequisites of a de-programmed person. It would be easy to just sign a declaration in which you agree with the above principles. There must be millions of intelligent human beings on earth who have tacitly done so by this time.
As you can see, nothing is said about the econimic models, social justice, personal possession and similar aspects of a future world. We have total trust in the intelligence of a de-programmed human being. De-programmed people will decide differently on these issues from the way people in the past have done.
I do not think that revolutions are necessary any longer, once we have put understanding in the place of fighting, defensiveness and reacting. Intelligence itself is rebellion.

In order to deal with the subtler forms of your conditioning you would need a special kind of therapeutic treatment and learn the art of meditation. It may take years of effort to rid yourself of these subtle conditionings and hidden programs in your life.
You would also have to learn that truth is ‘that which is’ and cannot therefore be talked about. There are thus no sacred scriptures about ‘truth’.
Reality is your personal interpretation of the world the way you experience it. It is bound to be very limited.
And all ‘shoulds’ create ideals and thus new programs. (E.g. you should give up smoking, you should behave like a woman/man, you should get married, fight for ‘your’ country etc).

Taking a scientific attitude towards questions and problems would also mean that you would always ask yourself whether your opinions are based on any hidden program. (E.g. why are you for or against genetic manipulation? Is this an answer you have arrived at yourself or have you been influenced by religious groups, economic groups, particular newspapers, your country, some trends or your primary relationship etc?).

How can you be de-programmed?

First of all, you will have to become aware of your conditioning. This is comparatively easy in the area of religion, nationalism and some moral issues. But there are also very subtle programs such as your unconscious lifeplans, the habits, the ideals and the things you want to do and to be…’for others’.

What is needed in order to understand and drop these subtle programs is some kind of therapy. But not every school of psychotherapy is appropriate for this task. The various schools are frequently a matter of creed, in other words, programs, too. Moreover, the aim of many schools is to adjust people to society, in other words re-program them. Behaviourism, for instance, which is one of the most powerful schools today, is famous for RE-programming people, but nor for DE-programming them. Humanistic psychology, on the other hand, makes de-programming an essential aim of its work.

You may think that therapy is only needed for maniacs. But today we are all mad. We do so many things that we never wanted to do deep down. We have substitutes for love (money, romance, pornography), for the meaning of life (e.g. success, consumption) and we constantly distract ourselves from ourselves. We have been conditioned negatively and have to finally dump this ballast in order to become free. - Hardly anybody, with the exception of children and animals, can simply be silent for a while, or just be. Very few people know what ecstasy means.

The ultimate de-programming happens when you start meditating, because meditation means just to be, without thinking or judging. It is not a religious ritual but a scientific method of self-knowledge. You will learn how to watch life, while the grass grows and the spring comes by itself – without your interference.
You will also learn to trust life instead of human institutions. After all, a considerable part of our history of civilisation is nothing but an arrogant interference in matters of gigantic dimensions, that, ultimately, we do not understand. Meditation therefore also means tuning in into the mysterious life that surrounds us.

Epilogue

Everybody knows John Lennon’s song “Imagine” – but only few have ever heard the lyrics. I know many intelligent people who no longer support the nonsense of religions and nations any longer and look at every new issue in a fresh way, without preconceived ideas or a partisan attitude.
On the other hand, I also know that many intellectuals tend to see only the complexity of the situation and thus become procrastinators incapable of doing anything at all. Nonetheless, I think the causes of the world’s predicament are very simple.

What we proudly call Democracy is nothing but ‘massocracy’. That means that the masses, the lowest common denominator of a country, are ruling with the help of some irresponsible representatives, who are only interested in power and privileges. (It also works the other way round, of course, i.e. egotistic people rule with the help of the blind masses). In Roman times these masses were screaming for “bread and games”, today they ask for security, consumer goods and entertainment. Just watch your TV program and you will find out what they mean by it. The Americans have certainly beaten everybody else as far as the lowest common denominator is concerned. They are hardly aware that there are other people living beyond the oceans, and other ways of living.

But instead of educating the masses and raising the level of consciousness of a country, politicians are doing everything in their power to enhance and exploit the most primitive instincts of people. Their rhetoric consists in variations of two topics: greed and fear.
Intelligent people, on the other hand, are dangerous to the vested interests. They doubt, they dare to ask questions and they can’t be taken in by bullshit.

Religion and politics have clearly failed in healing this world. Let the scientists do the job now. They are responsible for the amazing advance of ‘technological’ civilisation in the last few hundred years.
Of course, they will have to be willing to do some de-programming, too, otherwise they will wish like Einstein to become plumbers in case they are born again. (According to his biographers he realised that it was a mistake to create nuclear weapons and place them in the hands of unconscious statesmen.)

It’s especially the scientists, artists, journalists, mystics, the academics, students and universities that we are calling upon to accept responsibility for helping to create a better world. Many of them are already very much de-programmed. Others, unfortunately, still let themselves be used by politicians.

It is true, we already have the United Nations, but unfortunately they are mere puppets of vested political interests whose representatives do not show the will to have ONE mankind. Although we have elected these politicians and asked them to be efficient administrators like e.g. the director of the railways or the electricity board, they are always dreaming of becoming little Napoleons, Hitlers and the like. We have seen where this leads us.

We need a totally independent global institution, an international academy of science, just as we need independent magistrates and judges to check the other political powers. And we need to get ourselves de-programmed.

You are first of all a human being. Everything else is local colour, enriching maybe but ultimately insignificant in view of this one essential thing: that you are after all a human being like all the other 6 billion human beings. This earth is one and nobody owns the truth in the form of religion.

These ideas have been put forward by many philosophers and mystics from the Taoists and Diogenes to present times. John Lennon expressed them in a very simple way in “Imagine”, and Osho, the mystic, described the in the most comprehensive way in his “The greatest Challenge”. But even if you never heard of these people, common sense will teach you the same thing.