Everyone is Superficial

[TheMusketeersOfNapoleon]

I could of never imagine how successful Edward Bernay was in conditioning society to be so superficial.  Who was Edward Bernay?  He figure out a way to link a product to character disposition.  For example, in the early 50s, it was unheard of for a woman to smoke, so he found out a way to link "empowerment" to smoking which played on the memes of women's independence at the time.

It's kind of sad to see people think who they are is based on what they own now.

The Ego

The ego is pretty destructive because it is so fake; it has a mind of it's own.  What is the ego?  It is the ideas a person receives based on the media, education, and society memes, thus it is open for manipulation.

The ego is not who you are.  You think it is, but it is not.  Everybody has a split personality; you can test this by simply talking to yourself and you'll hear a response, no, you are not going insane; that is your other mind speaking to you.  Some have more than 2; we call this multiple personality disorder.

So what is the purpose of the ego?  It is trying to eliminate your true self and dominate you; it feeds off conflicts and creates enemies; it is greedy, selfish, and deadly.

I'm probably not making any sense to most people, so I'll use The Dark Knight to explain what I mean.  The guy who made the Dark Knight is a Psychologist and he centered the whole movie around the ego.

Batman represents your true self: all good and altruistic.  The Joker represents the ego (selfish, destructive) and then we have Harvey Dent who is the split ego.

In the movie, the Joker's only purpose is destruction and chaos.  He doesn't have a purpose or motivation to do what he does; his creation is because of Batman.  Batman then fights back, but the more he fights back, the more the Joker absorbs him and destroys who he is.  Half way in the movie he says, "For me to fight him, I have to become him."  In the end he refuses to kill the Joker and decides to let him go in order for him to maintain his sanity.

The mind is split in a similar way; it is constantly at war with itself.  The ego is like the Joker: it creates conflicts and enemies in your life to absorb and dominate you.  It uses sex and fear as a drive; it makes you think your whole personality revolves around the societal memes such as money, possession, and superficial needs.

The Split Mind

Harvey Dent represents the split mind; at the beginning he was all good and fighting for justice but unlike Batman, he succumbs to the dark side because his GF died. The mind splits through trauma and then it decides to choose one side or the other.  If one mind is destroyed, the other weaker mind would try to dominate, subjugate, and negate it since it has been weakened by a traumatic experience.  Usually people who are incredibly superficial and egotistical will shift more to spirituality and those who are generally good can convert to pure evil at the blink of an eye.  Highly moralistic religious people are more prone to shift to evil from a traumatic experience, but not all are like this.  Some can be like Batman and still maintain their goodness.
 
So many people are lost with no sense of direction.  It's sad really to see what their ego is doing to them.  I think it's really important to know what the ego is, hence why I'm discussing it. 

Thanks for reading.

[ninwa]

Are you actually basing this off anything, or is this just what you think human beings are like?

[TheMusketeersOfNapoleon]

Yes, Ninwa, I think this is what human beings are like.

I think my interpretation of the ego is very difficult to understand since a lot of people are not very versed in Psychology(so am I but I'm learning). What I'm trying to come across is the ego is not who the person thinks they are but an entity by itself.

The educational system and the media creates the ego: both compliment each other. Education trains the pre-frontal cortex and perceptual learning, so after going through 12-13 years of being conditioned to believe in things they see, the child is easier manipulated by the media archetypes and subliminals.

Education is synonymous with the media: the whole brain washing scheme is set up that way.

If you don't believe me, look around you at any high school or university and you'll see how brain washed these kids are by the media: name brand clothes, popularity, music, and even the girls and guys with traits like height, weight, penis size, sense of humor, etc. are memes from the media. Almost every asian has a country road bag, isn't this true?

They really believe driving a nice car, bigger house, popularity, university degree, etc. defines who they are as a person and anyone who lacks these superficial traits are consider the outcast.

This brainwashing creates a superficial ego; and this ego is destructive. It is selfish, jealous, greedy, narcissistic, violent, etc. It only cares to compete and dominate; it creates enemies to maintain it's powers. Enemies are the person's self manifestation; people create their own enemies; it's called blow back; if you have someone who hates you, it's your fault; the ego does this to maintain it's control over you.

This is why society is so violent and racist: everyone is too obsessed with their ego and are not aware of their spiritual side.

You should watch this movie "Revolver." The whole movie revolves around the ego kind of like the Dark Knight where each character plays a trait of the ego.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9UCxRiTij0

In this video, Jason Stratham is playing a game of chess and he is really demonstrating how to defeat the ego every time.

He starts off with a line "The greatest enemy will hide in the last place you would ever look (the ego)."

1. The trick to winning is to make believe the ego took the pieces to give it this illusion it is smarter and you are dumber.

2. There is always an opponent (ego) and there is always a victim (you). The more control the ego thinks it has, the less control he actually has.

3. The more sophisticated you are, the more sophisticated the ego will be.

4. So you have to place him in an environment he cannot control. The ego will not accept defeat so it will fight back. Give it what it wants to reveal it's weakness. Keep feeding it; eventually it'll consume itself and destroy itself.

In the ending, he decides to not kill Ray Liotta; to defeat the ego, he has to no longer fear it to overcome it, similar to Batman at the end of the Dark Knight. The ego wins when you kill your enemies for you have became the thing you are fighting against.

Amazing movie; probably the deepest movie I have ever seen.

[TrueLight]

hmm interesting perspective

[Duck]

Everyone is so mainstream but not me. I'm not a conformist because I dress and act the same way as thousands of other people. You all just wish you were indie like me. You're all superficial conformists.

[Cianyx]

If OP is still here, here is my advice: You're on the right path, but your ideas still need some polishing up to do. As for now, you still tread dangerous ground.

Ah, who am I kidding. Making movie allusions is a fucking stupid idea for an argument

[zomgSEAN]

Your contrast of the ego with oneself reminds me of Plato's separation of the human soul into three;

Reason (that which you have described to overcome one's ego)
Emotion
Appetite (the ego; fueled by desires)

You should refine your theories and re-post; i can see this turning into quite an inspiring proposition.