Awareness?

To exist outside of the hive mind of society; that is my goal.
Purposefully, I avoid manufactured headlines and advertisements urging me to partake in the orgy of emotion that is the current system of things, rather than to bathe in the clear, rational pools of critical thought.
But, are these my own thoughts and feelings? Or are they the fruition of seeds somehow sown into the fertile soil of my mind long ago by the purveyors of the emergent zeitgeist of our age? I don't know.
What I do know is: I am an individual, just like everyone else.