Thursday, October 8, 2009

mind control in modern society...

Humans have an electric charge - this is not news. And we are affected by all kinds of things in the natural world because of it like the sun and the moon, the way other people smell and feel, plus all the chemicals and electrical junk inside our own minds.

During the cold war, the US and our friends the Soviets found out that we are also affected by external sources of electric influences. And once we realized we were all brainwashing each other, it became clear that the tiny batteries inside our skulls which are spent doing very little (besides deciding what to eat or who to fuck) can be greatly influenced by things such as light, color, shape (or form), along with more complicated influences like sonic frequency, magnetic forcefields, and other things that sound like something out of the movie Weird Science.

Having grown up in a planned community where much of the city's electrical infrastructure is underground, I became very interested once I left in what seemed to me like an elevated skeletal structure in bigger cities. When I eventually moved back to Los Angeles, where I was born and my family lives, and when I started traveling somewhat locally, I was able to observe the way the electricity and it's support structures connected cities and states to one another. Even in the small suburban city where I grew up, I was able to see, in retrospect, evidence of a society saturated in light, color and shape in it's lamp posts, traffic signals, and in the simplest forms like stop signs.

And it all made me wonder, who designed all this? Who was the architect/engineer in charge of the very first street lamp? Who decided that traffic signals would flash red green and yellow lights? If we know that certain colors have specific effects on people in fast food restaurants, and we know that flashing colored lights have either helpful influences on children with ADD (phototherapy) or negative effects on epileptics, who's to say that the flashing red light signaling an approaching train has no effect on drivers? How do we know that the red octagon with the white letters "STOP" doesn't somehow limit us - isn't part of the reason that humans use a supposed 7% of their brain, or some equally embarrassing statistic? How do we know that the white street signs in Beverly Hills vs the blue street signs in Los Angeles don't cause different emotions towards these different cities or their authorities? (Yes, I realize the obvious hole in my hypothesis being location - if I were right - people in remote locations with no electricity or semiotic influence would be geniuses, but just for the sake of argument, let's just pretend...)

Obviously, I'm just posing questions which have probably been brought up and left unanswered by countless nuts before. However, before I get to my photo-point, I just want to note that the Japanese are on to this too, despite their passive approach:
http://www.seihin-world.com/s/2005/09/29_0119.php
Also, it's not an accident that Hello Kitty has no mouth. The fact that she says nothing or has nothing to say was a very careful DESIGN decision. If Hello Kitty had even a line for a mouth, Japanese girls would grow up thinking they could do something besides just pose pretty for pictures and would run their mouths like us American women. See? Mind control through form.

Now on to my point. When CVS took over Longs Drugs, as soon as I saw this new CVS sign, all I could think about was the sign it reminded me of: Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. I've spent about two months wondering how similar they were since there isn't a Krispy Kreme THAT close to me and I really didn't feel like looking the logo up online or searching out Krispy Kremes in a store - I just don't care that much. I even had a dream that my brother made us all (the sister, his wife, and I) stop at the Albertson's nearby to purchase some because they used to sell them there. Today, I finally was near a Krispy Kreme and got both a doughnut and a photo. Not as close as I remember but it still makes me question a) what company made these signs? Was it the same company? Is there a trend in polygonal shaped signs these days? and b) was it simply my hungry-little-mind that made the connection or was this really a case of subliminal mind control achieved through similar shape choice by the same sign-design company? I know... it ALMOST seems like a completely useless quandary but what if I'm... right...?



1 comment:

Georgia Hardstark said...

This reminds me of the "open" "closed" neon signs in San Francisco and how EVERY SINGLE store has the same one. I thought it was a conspiracy or monopoly or something until I realized that they're sold at Costco for super cheap. Still, I'd like to see a little more diversity in neon signs, ya know?
Also, good post.