Wait, Do You Have Stockholm Syndrome? I Thought So

You’re locked in a small cell in your mind — just like Jack

The little boy named Jack reached through the bars with a dirty, scabby arm and tried to grab the bowl of grey mush, but it was just a little too far. He was so hungry! He made grunting noises that almost were speech. He started crying but still reached.

His father laughed cruelly at his frustration and said “Wow, you’re really hungry, aren’t you. Okay, I guess you can have it.” He nudged the container closer and the boy snatched it over to the bars. The bowl wouldn’t go through the metal tubes, so he scooped up the flavorless slop and shoveled it into his mouth by the handful. He was in such a hurry that he spilled some of it in the dirt, but that wasn’t a problem. He grabbed that up too and ate it.

The man turned and went to the stairs of the basement. “See you tomorrow, Jack. Be good down here. Mom will come read you some stories soon. Love you.” As he trudged up into the daylight world, Jack looked after him with a love filled smile. His family was so awesome!

What if You Are Like Jack And Don’t Know It?

I bet you’re suffering from an insidious psychological condition, right now. it’s gone un-diagnosed all these years, but don’t worry. I’m here to help! You have Stockholm Syndrome.

I’m sure you’ve seen it in movies like Split. Stockholm Syndrome is a bond formed between a captor and his or her victims, after they spend hours together in a basement, dungeon, or otherwise confined. The victim is secluded and helpless, completely under the control of her or his torturer. It causes a form of brainwashing where the captives actually feel affection for and identify with their tormentors.

After you were taken from the womb by your parents, they did this to you.

You were subjugated to various tortures and prevented from wandering freely. These tortures included being bound (tightly wrapped in blankets, sleepers and car seats), restrained behind bars (crib), locked up (doors), and left in the dark for hours. Food was carefully controlled, bland, and with very little consistency. Outside human contact may have been limited.

There was absolutely no attempt to inform you why you were incarcerated, how long your sentence was, or even if you would get out alive. But eventually, after the brainwashing started to take hold, they allowed you more freedom. You could at first crawl and then eventually totter around the environment — within limits. You weren’t allowed outside unsupervised. Visitors were by appointment only.

Depending on the family who stole you from the universe, there were arbitrary rules which you became accustomed to. You learned to call these bossy people “Mom” and “Dad”, and the two really weird wrinkly people “Gram” and “Gramp”. You had to do what they say, even when it was obviously ridiculous and nonsensical, like wearing pants and not peeing in the front yard. You found out that the green Bay Packers are the best team in the universe, and real men drive Fords, and every living person in the country needs a loaded gun by the bed.

You were made to realize that Kraft makes Mac and Cheese, that Santa Claus loves Coke, and that Heinz makes Ketchup. And really, there are no other kinds.

They trained you to put on your underwear before your pants, to put the toilet seat down, and to eat with a fork instead of your fingers. All of these instructions were implanted in your brain, because they were in control.

Screens Are Used To Brainwash You

Mom takes Jack out for a walk and runs into her friend Karen.

Mom: “ Oh, Hi Karen! (turns to son) — Jack, if you’re good, you can use my phone to watch YouTube and play games while I talk about of this boring adult stuff. (hands captive the brain washing device that will turn his mind to goo) — So Karen, blah blahbitty blah blah blah? Ha ha ha haha!”

Karen: “Oh, I see you got Jack some of those Nike toddler shoes, Susan. (eyebrows draw together) You know what Nike stands for, don’t you?”

Mom: “Ok, Karen, enough about the corporate stuff. What’s Ken up to?”

You found yourself feeling appreciation for these captors, even though they kept you on a tight leash (sometimes a literal child leash.) Eventually, this will blossom into love, and you might feel indebted to these captors for the rest of your life. Because after all, blood is thicker than water. Family is the most important thing. The kidnappers are actually your friends.

Dad: “Jack! Can you bring me a Bud Light? The Packers are about to carry the ball! Wow, did you see that? It’s crunch time! Blah blah blahbitty blah woo sports!”

Dad: — checks to see that son Jack can’t hear — “Susan, our programming is starting to work!. He’s almost six years old now. It’s time for phase 2!”

Mom: “ Frank, do you mean public school? Where any remaining common sense will be extracted with alternating treatments of boredom, teasing, shame, and peer pressure? Let’s do it!”

Dad: “You got it, Susan! Information of a dubious nature will crammed into Jack from a state issued propaganda program, designed by experts in manipulating easily influenced, naive minds!”

Mom: “Frank, I love you! He will be like putty in their governmental hands!”

Dad: “I love you too, Susan. Look out, here comes the subject.” speaks louder — “Hi, son. Thanks for bringing me that beer. What have you got there, is that a new game on your iPhone?”

If the programming failed to take in the first year, no need to worry. After twelve more long, brutal years, Jack will finally be a willing pawn in this game.

When Jack is finally released from this eighteen year brainwashing experiment, he will be deep undercover as a super sleeper agent.

Jack has now been forced to adopt the beliefs, attitudes and customs of all of the adults in his life. Many of the Jacks who survive to this point think they know exactly who they are and why they are here. They identify fully with the established order. They still think that, for example, the Packers are the ultimate team in the world. For no logical reason, they will defend this feeling to the death, even getting into fist fights over it.

Jack now fully believes that Ford trucks are what a real man drives, there are no other kinds. Why does he believe this? Because Dad told him so when he was five, so it must be true. And just like the ketchup, which has to be Heinz.

He also believes that anyone who dresses different than him is a weirdo. And that women shouldn’t be President. And that there never was a moon landing, because obviously the earth is too flat to allow a rocket to get up there. And that anyone from the middle east should be shot if they don’t stay “where they belong.”

He also believes that he’s not really very smart, he’s bad at math, that he can’t run his own business, that computers are hard, that seafood is weird. He thinks that girls secretly laugh at him, that the government is putting chemicals in the water to poison him.

Jack knows that he isn’t meant for big things. He has to stay inside the fence, never leave his bubble. He is just like his Dad, no use in fighting it. No one in his family ever leaves the country and that’s the way it is. Cheer for the Packers, drive your Ford, polish your gun and watch out for the foreigners. They’re coming for our jobs.

Jack has now been fully conditioned. He’s a “grownup”. Ready to enter the workforce as a “productive member of society.” But is this person that we see here the real Jack? Is any of this his real personality, or is it all imposed from the outside?

Jack would say that he chooses what his life is about. He chooses to drive a Ford and cheer for the Packers. And yet he obviously didn’t choose. Society chose for him.

If the exact same person was raised in British Columbia, Canada, he would have been brainwashed with an entirely different set of programs. His parents might be “Dad” and “Daddy”. He might have had six grandparents all called by their first names. Maybe this other set of brutally enforced circumstances saw him eating only organic foods such as kale, avocado and chickpeas, and being taught that anyone who owns a truck is a disgusting planet wrecking savage.

Sports were to be avoided except for the Special Olympics. Home schooling was utilized to make sure that the programming isn’t ruined by outside influences. We can’t have our special flower growing up with the weeds, now, can we? Jack is especially brainwashed to hate anyone who has work in the oilfield. Those kinds of people must be shunned, since they are obviously the devil.

This Jack will be an entirely different person, to all intents and purposes acting in ways that are completely different from the first Jack.

What if Jack was adopted by a family in Newfoundland, Canada when he was a small baby? He would grow up speaking another language. You almost need a translator to understand this Jack!

Adult Newfoundland Canada Jack Meets His Buddy For a Beer

Jack walks up to friend at bar: “James! Whaddya at? (yells to bartender ) Got any of that good screech?”

James: “Jack! Whatta yat? Is ya ‘ard attit all de time or wa?”

Jack: “My cousin come from away. Oh me nerves. He got me drove.”

James: “Oh. Where’s he longs to?”

Jack: “Vancouver. He’s got two dads! (shakes head) Hey, do you want some taken up?”

James: “Yes b’y! I’m just ‘bout gutfounded!”

I don’t know if you agree with me. You probably think these are all surface parts of the person and the inner Jack is still there.

This may be true, but largely irrelevant. For any new circumstance that Jack finds himself in, he will be forced to view it through the eyes of his parents, his society, his grade school, and through the eyes of corporations who have trained him from birth to be a great consumer.

“We are the Borg. Resistance is futile.”

— the Borg, right before they give you Stockholm Syndrome

Every decision he makes is filtered through multiple layers of memories, programming, and influence. When he sees a Chevy truck, he will have preconceptions about it. And these are not his preconceptions! Jack is a slave to the programming and memories he has been implanted with, without his consent. Newfoundlander Jack will have a hard time communicating with Vancouver Jack. They will both have a difficult time understanding Mississippi Jack.

Jack has Stockholm Syndrome, and So Do You.

Your personal reality is your personality. About 5 percent of what Jack does could be considered conscious thinking and decisions, because he is running 95 percent of the time on memories of feelings and events. He is living in the past. And we all know the past has passed, but we insist on living there anyway.

So what, if anything, should we do about it?

I’m not suggesting we immediately divorce our parents and flee our current lives. But I’m going to offer an idea that many will find horrifying. Are you ready? Brace yourselves.

We need to view others with compassion, respect and understanding.

None of us picked where we were born, or the religion we might have been indoctrinated into, or what kinds of advertising we were force fed. And that means that we are coming from different places through mostly blind luck, or maybe fate. We aren’t in control of our reactions to the environment around us unless we exert some effort to look outside the box we were put in from birth.

If you aren’t responsible for your starting point, then no one else is either.

When we look out at whats going on in the world, it’s so easy to just start blaming. But ultimately, it’s like screaming at the sky because it’s raining. Things just are the way we are. All we can do is be aware of our reactions to the outside world with a bit of self love.

That family that never saved any money for a rainy day? They were operating on their programming.

That woman who has a different religion than you who is saying all those mean things about “your kind”? She is operating on programming.

That internet troll on Facebook or Twitter who trashed your post and dragged you through the online mud? Programming.

It’s even more important when things are scary and times are hard that we draw together as a functional race of intelligent beings. Between the pandemic, the economy and the environment, we have a triple tide of emotional pain and suffering. When words get thrown around and emotions are running hot, try to remember the fact that we are all following programming from either the government, family or corporations. A lot of this programming makes us hate each other’s guts for little to no reason.

Please. Be nice to each other.

Have compassion for those in need, instead of blaming them for bringing it down on themselves. And maybe in return you will get the same courtesy when it’s your turn to fall in the mud.