Slightly inconsistent

A couple of days ago I read an article that listed the ten worst conspiracy theories. One of the theories it claimed was completely false was the use of subliminals in advertising. Subliminal messaging is the use of images or words hidden in a normal picture, it can also be done with sound.

A book called "The Hidden Persuaders" was the first to discuss them. The author recounts a documented intentional use of such techniques. Movies at theaters run at 24 frames per second. That means each second is 24 separate pictures. Because our mind anticipates consistency, it will attempt to ignore anomalies. Anyway, a machine called (as best as I can remember the spelling) a tachistascope flashed a picture of an ice cold coke and some words at 1/200th of a second and sales of coke increased. This is not a guess, it was an experiment.

This technology is not magic and it is not hypnosis. Our minds want to create associations, to find meaning. In addition, we seek to fit in. If you hated coke, you would not buy a coke; but, if you liked it, it would trigger a thought in the back of your mind.

Each year millions of dollars are spent studying how we react to colors, there are companies dedicated to it. Scientists have lately been spending a lot of time discussing how we react to things unconsciously. The linked article discusses how we are unconsciously effected by things. The problem is when they want you to think you are nothing but reactive they will talk about how you are effected by things subconsciously; but, if someone says this is sometimes done intentionally they are called a conspiracy theorist. Hmmmmm, sounds like it smells.

Modern advertising was led by a psychologist who was related to Freud, that is just a fact. Prior he had worked for the United States making propaganda. I guess the "authorities" and "experts" want you to know that you are easily influenced and also believe that nobody would do so intentionally.

How much television do you watch in a day? How much time do you spend listening to the radio or reading mass media or playing video games? How much time do you spend not analyzing what is in front of you; but, merely going along with the "entertainment". Most people merely accept the truth they think they are viewing, consider it as not relevant to their direct lives, file it away as a fact and never question it. That is how you allow yourselves to accept things unquestioningly. Zombies, brain dead, susceptible.

I read a lot of news sources. I read them intentionally looking for the lies and subtle spins. I do not accept everything I read nor do I ignore it, I actually question it and sometimes I write about it. We spend too much time listening and not enough time quietly contemplating without input. Just thinking about things.

I would to challenge you to a little experiment. It is very simple and will cost nothing. For one full week do not watch television, do not go to a movie, do not listen to music, do not read anything from the mass media, do not use a computer, do not play one video game, do not read any book, just live. Get up, go to work, come home and think, then go to bed. People did it for hundreds of thousands of years, you can to, it is only a week.

Instead of taking in, create. Draw, write, think, cook, write or play music, exercise, anything. See what happens. Most people go through a withdrawal worse than drugs, they have lost the ability to create, they are sponges on the creativity of others. As a consequence, they give up their ability to truly choose as they do not know the options or what they can create.

To many people this sounds horrifying. We want to be entertained and do not wish to be challenged. We want to be cared for and not work. We want this to be Club Med. It can be; but, in exchange you must give up your free will. The problem is not television, books, video games or the radio. The problem is how little time we actually think about and analyze what we are being bombarded with. The problem is our willingness to be bombarded, it is laziness and it has a price.