Dear Friends,
It seems to me, if you allow others to set your goals, even if you hit them, you will always be unfulfilled. It is only when we set our own goals, then live up to them, do we become fulfilled human beings, able to move to the next step. People with an external locus of control are especially prone to this problem, but even people with an internal locus of control are susceptible. Because we are immersed in culture, and culture has a defined set of goals, goals we are “supposed” to strive for. They are not human hearted, nor are they good, but they are pervasive. Moreover, they are ever changing. Persistently going from the good to the bad. Teens used to strive to have a family, home and good career to serve the first two… today it is career, hedonism and selfishness to serve the first two.
Locus of control, whether it is internal or external, only applies to the way we see and act in the world… not the way the world sees you. Due to social media, NSA spying and in a myriad of other ways the elite keep track of us, we are transparent to them. Both as individuals and as groups. They use that knowledge to manipulate us. Those who are the most plugged in, are the most effected, to the point of denying reality for the concocted reality of the media that calls itself unbiased. Such manipulations move our locus of control, from internal to external, as we succumb to the thought control that is modern media today. They can do this even to people who’s default is an internal locus of control, by managing what we think we know, and thus the perspective that informs the internal locus of control.
Culture is another way others move our locus of control outside us whether or not we know it. We cannot escape the culture as a fish cannot escape water. It surrounds us, supports us and in some sense, we are made of it. You or I can no more live in our culture and not ooze of it as someone could live in a cesspool and not smell of it. Our morality is set by the culture, of which religion used to be a big part, now not so much. Our tastes are set by culture, ie, escargot in France and french fries in the US. Even our personalities are effected by the culture, as we see the average Finn is less friendly than the average Irishman. These things effect our locus of control, by effecting our core personalities, wants and morals. Unless we recognize this effect and control for it as best we can.
Even those of us who have a default internal locus of control do so within this context. Often seen as the outliers, the socially awkward… or the innovators. Often the most internally focused locus of control is bounded by the limits of culture. As those limits expand or contract, so do the limits of an internal locus of control. No matter how you see the world, that the world runs your life and you are a leaf on the wind, else you are a force of nature and the world provides your playground, the frontier of that playground is always fenced at our cultural bounds. The real swindle is, when people are manipulated into thinking their goals are their own, when they have been programmed in by culture. Eschewing family, a home or your sex because they are offensive, is doing this.
If you chase externally, especially culturally set goals, you will run a hamster wheel all your life, die unfulfilled and never understand why. Because the goals our culture sets are the opposite of human hearted. Wealth, sex and power are hedonistic, unfulfilling and actually harmful to our psyche. The goals we are born with, the ones post modern society tell us are wrong, wanting a family, to be part of something greater and to worship God, not the state, are inner goals… culture deprograms us of. If we embraced internally set human goals instead, not only would our lives be better by every measure, but society and culture would follow. The wise are human hearted with an internal locus of control, even transcending the fence of culture and modern sensibilities… to be greater than we are allowed.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
