a Reality Cracking Technique

Decreasing the level of "visionary noise" around oneself - remove the ad's at least where you are on the rudder...

    by SvD

    This essay starts a bit "dirty"... but think again.

    When you enter your toilet, and stand to piss there, what do you see? a calendar on the wall? a lovely view through the window? naah... Usually you see the label of the manufacturer of the urinal or the toilet bowl. And you see and read and reread that ten times every day... 3650 times per year..

    If I'm awaken at midnight and asked what's 5 times 15, or what's the name of my cousin, may be I'll think a little, but if I'm asked who's the manufacturer of the toilet bowl and plastics there, I'll name it IMMEDIATELY!

    When you go to brush your teeth (well, i hope you don't do it very frequently, and hope with very-small amount of toothpaste - they both destroy your teeth, but make some rich men richer), or wash your hands, or dishes or whatever, what do you see? The label of the manufacturer of the sink... assume 5-6 times per day... 2000 times per year..

    When your take a shower, are all the shampoos and soaps etc around there on some shell? Let's make an exercise. Can you now remember what is written there?
    (well, i remember this: it's pink, some picture of womans hair, and the words selected" "helena" "No1" "cusshions" "active" "repeat the ... and then rinse thoroughly"... "gillette")
    Now go there and check how many of them come from one thing... and where the rest come from.. In my case the first three are from my shampoo (i hate shampoos too:(, they make my hair worse day-by-day - as any detergent), 'cusshions' is from some soap that i NEVER use (where the hell it came from?) and "active" and the rest sentence is from another shampoo (not mine)... and "gillette" is the label of some razor that sits there since immemorial ages...
    Once/twice per day x 10-15 words ... 3650-10000 words per year...
    Now i remember that every time, while i take a shower, i am Reading unconsciously All the printed text on that shampoos...

    Your car? how many labels of some SUPER SPECIAL SYSTEMs are there? Your video? Audio systems (e.g. digital extra analogous loopback super, i.e. DEALS? Deals? with whom?) ? Washing machine? Computer? how many times per day you read that EPSON LQ-500 that stays on your desk? Does it make any sense after the very-first time (when you bought/install it)? or 233MHz stupid display (instead of putting something useful, like a cheap digital clock, they put this lustrous shit...)? What about the (audio/video) cassetes? CDs? Racks for them?
    ?
    How many times you have read (without meaning to) that Headline of that old newspaper lying on the cabinet? And howmany times you tried NOT to look at the ad's that are ("protruding") there?
    ?
    How many labels and ads are on your walls? Well, I'm sure you did not put most of them there intentionally, they came like 'extra' WITH something else - calendars, or painting, or book shelf, whatever...

    THE EYES of any human have extremely high bandwidth, and have about 120' degree visibility angle, but that is noncontrollable. Controllable angle is only around 35-45 degrees. All the rest is received, accepted, processed, and most of it REMEMBERED, by the subconsciousness. Regardless if you want it or not.

    Just sit down in your most famous chair/sofa and look around... and count. Hundreds of useless nagging labels... in YOUR home... they came without asking you... they enter your head without asking you... thousands and thousands times...
    I name this brainwashing. IN YOUR OWN HOME? By yourself?

    Every label, every picture, every sign you pass by, or your look pass by, is processed. Not all of it is remembered, of course (thanks brains humongous filtering capabilities), but the most contrast/differing things are "stored". Now look how many of the labels you have around are NOT "loud" and flashy... 1% or even less? (Those advertisement-izers are not greenhorns. All the psychology and phisiology is put into use, just to disturb you)
    And all this bullshit is poured over your poor subconsciousness Every day... Yes, the conscious part of the mind tries its best to ignore it... but it is not omnipotent. And, then you may have headache. Or enter some shop and buy something WITHOUT any conscious intention to do it... but realize that only some time LATER...
    Do you catch the idea? We can't escape (easily) from the nagging billboards, newspapers, blinking screens and flashy webpages, etc shit... But WE CAN chase out the bastards from home - your home is YOUR fortress!
    how? Pick them by the noses - and out.

    Some shampoos and other things has their labels simply glued/sticked - remove them! Others look painted but are not - they are printed on transparent film and that film is sticked over the packing... Remove it!
    Some nagging labels are just piece of plastic, glued to the computer/player/wheel/... Remove it!
    Wellll, some labels are REALLY nasty - no way to mechanicaly remove (without screwing up the whole thing). But they are even easier. Ha-ha. Take a single-colored (!) sticky tape, with a nearest possible color to the background color around the label you are going to eliminate, and PATCH IT! One patch - 3000 readings/labels per year/month/day less... of course, make it look GOOD and smooth - or your eyes will always focus immediately on it...
    Or take some paint or some nail-polish and SPREAD IT OVER... again, try to make the whole label INDISTINGUISHABLE in terms of the surrounding background (= invisible).
    After reading a newspaper/magazine, Hide it! Into some not easy visible place! Or cover it with some sheet of paper... Put a YOUR-choive cover to that phone directory, hide that ad's there!

    Okay, i do not pretend i have destroyed all the labels around me - some of them simply look fine, and even beautiful, and i let them live... But the rest shall die, sooner or later. Yes, I'm writing this, i know it should be this way, but even i myself can't escape from the habit... of being NOT PAID for reading advertisements ;)... and NOT to complain for that. Sharks, they "taught" or actualy tamed (enslaved) us - to do that for free...

    ---

    Ugly Example: some time ago, I entered some shop for some kind of furniture, and almost chose one piece, when i say some ugly nagging label attached to it. I said to the salesperson - "I'll buy it, if you remove this sign (well, i almost said 'crap' then;) from here". He said - "well, we should consult with the manufacturer, we'll call you back". (i left him the phone-number at work - otherwise will not escape the spam). And, after couple of days, he called me and said: okay, you could take that Without the label, and it will cost you ... 5% more.
    ? (!) ?
    You do not believe that?
    Your problem. Some sunny day you'll get that experience yourself. Just try to not to play by their Rules...

    SvD, Mar '1999
    P.S. Please don't take all this literally. Removing the labels from some pills or other medicals IS DANGEROUS.
    Please, ...simply THINK. ASK QUESTIONS. ANSWER THEM.