Television and radio are shaping public perception, with the help of mainstream movies. They are telling you what culture is, what you should think and how you should act. You however have a choice. You can go along with it - the road of least resistance. Or you can choice to go your own way - the road less traveled. Most people will allow themselves to be manipulated because of a need to conform and be part of a group. They bend to peer pressure. But they seek safety in the mass. As Thoreau observed, "Most people live lives of quiet desperation."
What if you choose the other road? You may be alienated by the group. You may have difficulty finding others of like mind. Yet you will be able to provide many things for yourself that the others leave to the 'authority'. You take back your sovereignty. You do not give away your rights as a sovereign being.
That is what the others loose by their willingness to conform. They give away - because no one can take it from you - their rights as a sovereign being.
If you have just woken up to the problems inherent in the system and are realizing just how much of your life has been programmed. what can you do? Start small. You can't fix it in a day. But get into art - art is not a plaything. Art is the expression of your own primal urge to create. It is essential to the human condition and to one's realization of their own gifts.
Life is a delicate balance between creation, destruction, solidity and yielding. But our education system leaves much to be desired in becoming the kind of creative individuals who come into their own with power and passion. The closest to it may be project based learning but only if it is done by a wise human being who is passionate about learning. Most education tends to create subjects who are fitted to work in certain jobs but who will live believing they are less than others.
This breeds anger and resentment which are the seeds of revolution. Revolution is something that promises change but never delivers. Revolution simply turns the wheel downward and people end up worse than before. But that is what is being programmed.
Manipulation and programming is a deep subject. Michael Tsarion and Jordan Maxwell are two who have researched all of the factors behind this. Worth taking a look on Youtube. But be warned - once your eyes are open, they are.
Namaste!