Our chosen environment will shape, format us

Question from the Internet:

“How do I know my thoughts are my thoughts and not just the product of my environment. For instance what if I had my upbringing in USSR and endorsed communism rather than these western ideas I currently possess?”

There is a very important article written by a great, empirical, Natural scientists who researched and fully understood Human nature, called “The Freedom”.

The article was written about a hundred years ago, uses a slightly archaic language with biblical references so it is not easy to understand.

But basically he describes 4 layers of “freedom” determining our thoughts, desires, and actions.

Those layers are our genetic inheritance, our “core”, and then how this “core” develops through the additional layers of upbringing, education, and finally the environment we exist in.

From that we can see, that as we start adulthood, after the initial education we completed we are completely influenced, shaped by the environment we place ourselves into and mutually interact with. As a result, one growing up in Communist countries could still become either an ardent Communist or a freedom fighter, as in a Capitalist society one can become a blind, ardent consumer, or one that wants to escape the consumerist Matrix.

Of course, the “core” and the layers of upbringing and education also play a part, so not everybody becomes the same “shape”, product, nevertheless, the environment finalizes the product and the choice of the environment that polishes completes, formats us is the only free choice we have in life.