People may often be unaware of the cultural influences in their lives. They may think they are highly individualistic and original thinkers only to realize later that they are nothing like that and are actually heavily influenced by cultural beliefs. For example every culture finds itself superior to others and this is called ethnocentrism. People in the east actually believe they are far superior to those in the west because of the boundaries they maintain and respect. However in the west, people may think they are better off than those in the east because they have more freedom.

It is so unfortunate that even the so-called wise and intelligent people among us can be blindly controlled by ethnocentrism. For example in one Oprah Winfrey show, she commented against the practice of arranged marriages in the east and said, "we should be grateful that we were born in American where we can choose our partners." This is really the height of ignorance. People in the east must have laughed at this comment because they believe Americans have to suffer so much- moving from one partner to another in search of the One. They consider this disrespectful and degrading. Oprah Winfrey really needs to become more broadminded than that.

It must however be made clear that all these forces or influences are usually positive. They tend to benefit us if exercised in limits...

You may become a completely free individual but then you turn into someone like Britney Spears or Paris Hilton. To be more normal and sensible, its good to life yourself with limits imposed on you. People with absolutely no limits are either celebrities or freaks and if you think carefully, we don't want to be like them because we can see the nuances of abnormality in their behavior.
So in short, we are all influenced by power in the society, our own beliefs and cultural values. But the fact is that it is when we exercise our individualism within boundaries that we can truly succeed. As a child its good to have your parents tell you what's right and what is not because children who do not have that kind of influence in their lives become very rowdy and are avoided by other children. Similarly if we never had professors who could exercise control over us, we may not really bother about attending lectures and being active in classroom discussions. There are important learning phases in our lives and during these phases we all need instructors who can guide us and shape our behavior.

However these forces should not become too controlling or we can completely lose influence over our own lives. There should be a limit to which these powerful influences affect us and the rest must be in our hands.