the red pill or the blue pill?

So this idea got started in my head because of another blog. I'd recommend looking at it because it's kinda cool to hear the opinions going on over there... http://trajan86.blogspot.com/ . They were talking about consuming, more specifically but I think this is a valid question in general as well. I’d like to put forth that every mind in human kind is controlled by something. The majority of the world lets their minds be controlled by things around them in society. In the U.S. the things that do this controlling on a regular basis are (WARNING... generalization ahead) products. We need stuff. We're too busy to make the stuff ourselves. We have to buy stuff. The real problem comes when people are on a search for the best stuff. If it's not the best stuff then it's the newest stuff. If it's not the newest it's the oldest. If it's not the oldest it's the stuff that fits our personality best, our taste. You get the point, I'm sure. Materialism. The general population is controlled by a want for stuff, and because of this they (we) are slaves to the people selling the stuff. Now, I think most people agree with the idea that, in general, Americans are controlled by a want for stuff. If you don’t, feel free to comment on that as well… What I'd like to hear your views about is if there's really a way anywhere to "free our minds" (like in the Matrix : )). Do our minds have to be controlled by something? Free will comes into this and I guess, but what I mean is... is there anyway to put our free will in anything that doesn't control us? As Christians, I think we put our free will in God's hands and let him control us sort of. If we weren't Christians and we had decided we hated Christianity because it was God controlling our minds then wouldn't we be putting our free will into the hands of our defiance? Can we really be, as the Simon and Garfunkel song suggests, “a rock… an island”? Just wondering what y'all thought. Hope that made sense. It was a little hard for me to put down. Apologies.