How strong is my conviction, how strong is my thought, how strong....

I can think, I can work, I live an independent life, I make my own rules, I don’t repeat what others say, I don’t get and wont get influenced by others – at some point, at multiple points in time, we would have, I have thought some of these lines. They give a certain kind of confidence, pride… of standing up by myself, of having made an independent thought, knowing that I am capable.
As I walked into the ice cream shop, I kept wondering of the fallacy of all this. Here I was asking the vendor which flavor was good, I guess my taste-buds weren’t working or the cone I got was a slow moving one. The weather was hot, the ice cream cooled things off a bit so I really didn’t care. More importantly my mind had already gone off into the next dimension. My ears were in the meantime catching bits of the exchange of words between the vendor and the next customer. I want the choco chip, is it good? Yes ma’am, it’s the best, freshly made. I haven’t ever heard a vendor say that his produce isn’t good, fresh or the best. Here ma’am, this isn’t that good, it was made last week, not too fresh but its ok, edible; wont that be the day.
There are so many average movies that become hits and blockbusters with reviews. A CEO becomes the next management guru because his PR agency had written or edited some of his outstanding write-ups. I let myself be influenced by those in my favourable environment. I trust the news channels to be giving me proper information, I believe that news papers are usually right and do not exaggerate. I also believe that my family and friends wont lie; and I believe that the ice cream vendor sells me the best ice cream in town even if its 3 days old. Today when I vote for a candidate, I don’t vote believing his words and promises, I vote for him because he seems to be the least corrupt. Fine, I might be exaggerating here but you get the drift.
I guess it is in-built in me; I don’t take all these things into consideration when I think, I’m thinking independently. My girlfriend or my sister would definitely influence my choice of shirt colour, “Your cupboard is full of grey shirts, why not get a red one?” , “this spaghetti is really good, you should try it sometime”, “I think you will fit right into a management course, this institute provides quality education…..”. Choices are influenced even without us knowing it. The first names when I think of non violence and freedom are Gandhi and Mandela; Vivekananda influences me, Hitler too influences me but in the reverse and so on and so forth, the list is endless and will remain so. This is because these do not come into reckoning when I talk about influence and independent thought.
I’d still take a choco chip... I'm bored of writing about this...typing is too slow a thought process...

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