Very hard to be independent in thought and action

How enthralled we all seem to be to this culture!  Is there really any way at all to be independent of it, to step back and critically examine it?  Everything that a person is is what has been given by that culture.  All skills are learned from somewhere, and that somewhere is provided for by the culture.

If that same culture is ill, how can it cure itself?  Unless there is some way to spot what is wrong and to apply corrective measures, the culture must die off.  It has all happened before in the history of the West, it could all happen again.

As I write this, I note to myself with a certain bit of disgust that few people in this culture could identify this illness, as most would not welcome anybody's criticism of it.  I recall someone on the radio talking to a youngster.  The youngster didn't believe that he was being "brainwashed".  Everybody is brainwashed in some way.  The culture is given to you.  You didn't invent it.  Everything you see, hear, feel, and touch gives an impression that is registered by a brain that thinks just exactly the way it was taught to think about that impression.  Independence is an illusion.  The world is full of illusions given to us by our culture.  One would think that to be intelligent that you could be able to step back from that and see it for what it is.  It appears to me that is a rare quality, if it exists at all.