Like most people, I want the solutions to social problems to be quick and all encompassing, but the best (and possibly most effective) solution is more complicated. It would require applying ideals on a personal level.

I sometimes think it's too easy to blame the big guys for our problems, its a distraction from what really ails us. Playing the victim keeps us from acknowledging our individual responsibility. Truth is, the influence of media is really only as powerful as we let it be.

The system takes advantage of the holes in our psyche. It seems folks will forever be targets as long as they are lonely, lost, and overlooked.

So maybe the answer begins with ourselves and our relationships.

Perhaps, along with steps we take in our professional work, the best defense against corporate influence is to concentrate on the importance of family and friends on an individual level. We need to find our own solutions instead of the formulated ones given to us as consumers. It requires us to be true to ourselves, which isn't always easy.

Children will learn it in turn, and others from them. They will learn that they are useful and important. They will learn responsibility, respect, and loyalty... key components to their mental confidence that allow them to be expressive and analytic. These individual traits are the most dangerous for those who would take advantage. If we teach children to think for themselves then corporate culture won't be able to do it for them.

Corporate and marketing executives would make better decisions for us all if they knew they were accountable to individuals who are confident enough to have ideals. They may even be inspired by those ideals.

...............

Its funny, we go to school for so many years. We learn how to fit into society by familiarizing ourselves with academics and learning how to make money. But in all that time so many people never learn such basic things as communication, trust, and love. The priorities at hand can be a distraction from what's really important.

I hope I can forever apply this simple outlook when life gets stressed, in times of need my wife pulls me back and focuses my perspective. I will be forever convinced, as inspired by my wife and family, that real strength lies in one another.

Our heroes are each other.