Once again, Award Winning Animator Steve Cutts hit the nail on the head about our crazy society, this time with his newly released short film, ‘Happiness’…
Political analyst, philosopher and life coach Gavin Nascimento has written up of a personal analysis on the video:
The video begins with the proverbial Rat Race, where the rodents are clearly presented in the context of human beings and their society a representation of our own.
At the train station, they crowd in uncomfortable numbers to embark on their destination to “NOWHERE.” Sadly, this is precisely where most people in life are currently headed.
Countless billboards and advertisements can be seen throughout the rat’s society, all of them claiming to sell happiness, which is what’s behind most marketing strategies — Manipulate people’s associative memory, and emotions, so that they will buy things they don’t really need because they think it will bring them happiness.
There is also a can of Soma being advertised in different parts of the film. In Aldous Huxley’s award winning novel, Brave New World, Soma is a drug used by the ruling class to distract and pacify masses.
The film follows one rat in particular, who is clearly in search of happiness…
He buys stuff he doesn’t really need, attends black Friday, buys himself a new sports car, turns to alcohol, and then eventually pharmaceutical drugs — all in pursuit of happiness. Of course this is the modern day human.
Sadly, the rat still cannot find happiness. Refusing to give up, he begins to chase a $100 bill.
Before he can even realize what has actually taken place though (because he was so blindly focused on getting the money) he finds it is too late and he has fallen for the Money Trap, which has turned him into an unsuspecting victim of the Rat Race — like everyone else.
Happiness (Animated Short Film)
HOW CAN WE GUARD OURSELVES FROM THE HAPPINESS TRAP?
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.”
Edward Bernays aka “The Father of Public Relations”
Unfortunately for us, our backwards society uses the world’s best psychologists to exploit our precious minds through advertising and marketing, and instead of educating us on how we might defend ourselves from these insidious influences — that we will obviously encounter at some point in our lives — the education system is too busy teaching us how to do math equations that we will never have to even use, amongst other frivolous tasks.
Corporations manipulate our minds through a variety of different methods, but all of them are invariably rooted in the fact that they know we aren’t content and truly happy within, so they find a way to exploit that. In fact, this is the root cause of many problems we face in our society today, people are simply not happy and content with their lives. They pretend, they lie to themselves, they distract themselves, and they bullshit themselves for years and years, sometimes decades, and sometimes even an entire life time — but they know deep down they aren’t happy.
Artist credit: Anthony Clarkson
So we are conditioned from a young age to replace our enthusiastic imaginations with blind conformity to authority. We are indoctrinated to surrender our curiosity and self belief in pursuing the impossible, to obedience to the status quo and what we are told we should and shouldn’t do. And we are taught to follow the intelligence of the crowd, and not the intelligence of the heart. In short, we are conditioned to sacrifice our happiness to serve this exploitive system.
Then, as we try to navigate our way through this insane asylum we call society, we learn that buying things is not really going to bring us happiness, at least not long term happiness. We discover that drinking alcohol, or taking pharmaceutical pills is not the answer either. And we search and search and search, but because we are drowning in a world of manipulation and skulduggery — that is literally thriving off of our ignorance and insecurity — many of us never find it. Some of us even commit suicide out of desperation to escape our internal pain.
As my readers know, I come from a background of alcoholism, addiction, depression, anxiety and even contended with suicide in my mind. I have experienced great sadness and unhappiness in my life, but more importantly, I have experienced the journey of finding happiness and purpose. And that key lies in first realizing that we live in a society that wants to actually keep us ignorant, weak and easy to manipulate and control.
Once you become aware of this ill intent, you can begin to defend yourself intelligently.
Stop watching their programming through network television, and start watching documentaries that are going to educate and empower you instead. Stop listening to their radio broadcasts, and start listening to motivational speakers that have overcome adversity. Stop eating their bullshit foods, and start investing in your health by consuming organic based products. Stop hanging around people who are unthinking zombies that only indulge in gossip, ignorance and other forms of stupidity, and spend time with people who actually want to grow more, learn more, and see you grow and learn too. Stop consuming energy drinks and soda cans filled with bullshit, and start drinking non fluoridated water or raw juices. Stop getting shit faced on the weekends, and start spending time in Nature which has therapeutic effects. Stop polluting your brain and lungs with their toxic cigarettes, and start exercising and feeding yourself oxygen. Stop wasting your time mindlessly surfing the internet and start using it to educate yourself. Stop focusing your precious mind on all the problems in your life, and start focusing it on the solutions. Stop feeding the power of fear, insecurity and shyness by hiding from the world, and instead find an organization like Toastmasters to practice communicating and public speaking. In short, we must start making conscious choices that strengthen our minds and develop our intrinsic characters, because by default the system is setup to use us and exploit us.
So happiness is found through the development of self my friends, not in chasing material things. Stress, heart ache, and difficult circumstances are a part of life and the only thing that will keep you happy and able to overcome those things is a strong mind, which can only be built through lifestyle changes.
If you would like a very detailed explanation of how I personally overcame my struggles, and made these lifestyle changes, please read this blog HERE
It will take hard work, and there are no short cuts my friends, but if you are genuinely serious — and you follow the advice given in that blog — you can start changing your life for the better.
I sincerely hope it helps you find your way.
One Love.
Written by Gavin Nascimento, Founder of aNewKindOfHuman.com
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