Can we protect ourselves from the negative influence of society?

Question from the Internet:

“Is it possible to discipline the mind enough to drown out all the negativity within the modern society of internet trollery and outright negative posting?”

The short answer is no. We cannot discipline our minds as we are not in control over our minds, our thoughts and desires.

We are totally controlled by the environment we exist in; we ourselves are just like “computer displays”, projecting and experiencing what comes to us from the environment. Then we all react according to our individual qualities and experiences, but at the end of the day, everything depends on the environment. Moreover, as long as we also stay within the original, instinctive reactions and calculations, we remain helplessly connected to the self-destructive Matrix of human society.

Thus our only choice in life is “choosing the environment”.

More precisely, our choice is to mutually develop an environment where we — together with other like-minded and committed people — determine the overarching values and goals. Then, even if such an environment is small, since it is qualitatively superior to the vastly bigger general environment, this small “cocoon” can already provide some protection from the negative influence of the steadily worsening general environment.

Moreover, the larger and stronger such active, mutually supportive and mutually responsible environments become, they can start positively influencing even the larger, passive, declining general society.