Mindless Mindset

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(Warning, incoming, LONG rant)

Every day we are bombarded by media messages, images, sounds, small things we tend to overlook. Children grow up watching the most ridiculous shows with no real educational value. Core values have been altered, morphed into subliminal mental programming, and many people don't even realize they are being brainwashed against their will. Free thinking is discouraged, replaced by ads, corporations telling us who to be, when to eat, what to wear, were to go, what to listen to, and most importantly, where to put our money. Sure, everyone is aware of advertisement, that's what it is supposed to do, right? It's our choice if we listen to what they say, but it goes much deeper than that.
Corporations like to give us this illusion of free will while they employ the use of psychological triggers to mentally condition us even from a young age. Sure, we all know this, but do we all know just how it affects us? How much of it is really our choice? Do we only think our decisions are fully our own? Are we being dumbed down to be easier to control?
It sounds like the start of a conspiracy theory, doesn't it? Paranoia and over-analyzing which cause one to think the big money makers of the world are pulling invisible strings to make us dance the steps they want. Well, maybe it is but maybe, just maybe, there's a bit of truth to these thoughts.
For the purpose of copyright and sue-happy corporations, I will refrain from naming businesses in this writing, though I have no doubt many will know exactly what I am referring to when I hit on each ploy used to sway our choices. Let us begin, shall we?

-Color:
Yes, color holds much more sway than one would think. The color combination of one well known fast food chain is employed due to the effects it has on the mind. Red and Yellow. Red stimulates the adrenal gland and our minds associate it with basic needs for survival, it also tends to appear closer than it is due to the wavelength of the color, making it more noticeable. Yellow is known to stimulate hunger and is a color related to spontaneity and impulsiveness, when coupled with red it gives the mental impression of "Eat now!" and can actually spark our appetite even when we weren't hungry beforehand. Next time you are around a few fast food chains, note just how many of them use one or both of these colors. There's a reason for that.
Insurance companies often make use of blues and greens, along with other cooler colors. The reason for this is that cooler colors tend to be more associated with calm and stability in our minds. Blue is a loaded color in these types of advertising. Blue tends to trigger feeling of trust and security in the human mind, exactly how insurance companies want you to feel towards them. Blue has also been known to be associated with technology and, let us be honest, one would hope their insurance company was up to date on tech. This one color alone triggers all the emotional response these companies would want you to feel about them. Now to green, while not as loaded as blue green still does make an impact due to triggering association with fortune, money and envy. When these effects are coupled with those of blue, they spell a winning combination for insurance companies. Many banks and retail stores use these colors for the same reasons.
Retail stores, now they are the ones who really abuse the science of color. One rather well known electronics store uses a combination of blue and yellow, causing a trigger in the human mind that associates with, not only trust and stability due to blue, but also impulsiveness due to the yellow. It is subtle but these things work.
Why do they work? It's simple, we as human beings tend to not actively think about color and the associations our mind makes in regards to them. The effects are still very much there but we don't actively realize it so, we are likely to fall prey to this form of advertising. Of course that is what advertising is all about, isn't it? Making the sale and bringing the most money in for their business. I understand well the goals but, at the same time, I believe people should be a bit more aware of the use of color to influence their choices. Besides, the use of color is far from the sneakiest tactic used.

-Radio advertisements:
We all here them, most of us start changing stations when the ads come on but not everyone does. Those who do listen to the radio ads may notice something, excited voices, normally that of a kind sounding female, cheery and fast talking when it comes to their "exciting new product" or sale, tones that tend to make people share the emotion of the speaker, which is a natural human trait. The when it comes to more serious products, like some new, barely tested medication, the voice is normally that of an older sounding male (though is sometimes female) with a much more depressive, serious tone, naming off common "Symptoms" that everyone experiences at some point in their week or month to make people worry they may have this illness and that this medication may help them with it. Thus they create a subliminal paranoia no matter if we are aware of it or not.
The background noise of many of these ads are also composed of tones and rhythms which trigger association and emotional responses that will cause one to more seriously consider the product or service, all to grab someone hook, line and sinker.

-Images:
Though I am legally blind as I write this, I was not always unable to see these ads and I noticed many, many things that were off and plain sneaky about them.
Hospitals and legal service ads highly favor blue, again playing off of color triggers. They always show these very professional models who, much of the time, aren't even in the field being advertised only to gain attention. Birthing wards normally use the cutest children to make a lasting impression of the viewer, especially expectant mothers who will be much more reactive to the face of a happy baby due to her current hormonal levels. These are small things, but these impressions stick in our minds. It's good advertisement, which also means its skillful manipulation of the emotions of the ad viewers.
I won't even get into the make-up and beauty product ads with their photo manipulated models altered to lower women's self-esteem and make them feel as if they need those products to be beautiful when, in truth, those models normally need photo manipulation to look as good as they do.

-Children's television:
Here's the bombshell. Current media aimed at children has become so mindless that these poor kids will believe about anything if it comes out of an idiotic character's mouth. They play off of simple to understand concepts, things that require minimal thought to comprehend, perfect for getting our children interested in the characters, these characters are then used in advertisements for children and, due to interest in the character, these kids have an instant interest in the products.
As if this isn't bad enough, the damage goes much deeper. These cartoons with near no (and in many cases, absolutely no) educational value are so easy for children to follow that they become lazy thinkers. They expect everything to be so simple to understand, including school and life. They grow up expecting everything to be explained for them, for others to tell them exactly what they need to do, and the corporations just eat this up, gladly obliging our children as they grow older by simply, and with very little logical explanation, telling them what they should do and how they should act. They are purposely making the next generation dumber for their own gain. These are our children, the future of our world and they're growing up with their icons and heroes being poorly drawn/animated, disproportionate morons who only seem smart because the rest of the characters in the shows are about as smart as an egg timer. It's easy to make a stupid character seem intelligent when you surround it with brain dead groupies.
Think this is being paranoid? Let's look at the education system today. Kids don't even have to pass to go to the next grade anymore, they can breeze through school without ever understanding the material taught. No child left behind left all our children behind, and pretty much is telling kids it's okay to not use their heads anymore, that someone will walk them through it.

-Current education:
Yes, I started on this in the previous section, but it deserves its own attention and is highly linked to the media since it re-enforces the "lessons" media is teaching our kids. Media has invaded school more than one would think, most students now can quote all their favorite songs almost word for word but can't even understand basic social behavior even though they are surrounded by it! School has gotten easier, slowing down faster learners for the sake of those who learn slow. Yes, some people learn slow but can be rather intelligent, I get this, but to deny the faster students the chance to get the most out of their education due to the ones who are struggling is simply cruel. They don't get all the information they want or need and they discover that they don't really have to try to pass, the rest of the class is going slow anyways so why should they put forth the effort? This trains them into putting forth only what is needed (Which isn't much nowadays) to move through the grades, a habit that will stick with them into adulthood. I see the effects of the start of this horrid practice in my own generation. I was lucky enough to be out of school before this took full effect but in people only a couple years younger than myself, I can see the effects of this so-called education system. They're indecisive, show more interest in advertisement, and think they are better educated than they actually are because they were smarter than the rest in their class. It's easy to feel smart when you're surrounded by idiots. They are also so sheltered that it's no wonder many of them still live at home with their parents. We should go back to how education was in the mid-nineties, where if a kid failed, they failed, give them a reason to try harder instead of telling them it's okay to fail and dumbing down everything for them. The world does not move only as fast as the slowest person, schools shouldn't either. Go back to how things were in the nineties. Yes, it was a bit hard for the slower learners, but at least they learned. It's better to fall on your face a few times before finally succeeding than to never truly succeed.

-Censorship:
Oh no that's too violent. That character is too mean so we'll make it nicer. Such an offensive word! . . . Give me a fricking break! The world's not a nice place, face it! Censorship has gone way too far. We're shielded from all these so-called "Offensive" words and scenes, taught not to fight, taught that we should trust everyone, told to respect when it isn't earned. It's sickening. Our society has become so pacifistic that I wonder how half the people today are still alive! They don't know how to act in the face of violence so they easily become victims due to freezing up, their minds not knowing how to react to something they've never had exposure to. We are told that our instincts are wrong and told how to react to someone attacking us. Sorry but I don't think the guy trying to mug you is gonna wait for you to pull out your phone, dial 911 and wait for the cops to show up, he's gonna attack you, take what he wants and leave you laying in an alley. We've been told so many times that fighting is bad that we're unwilling to fight back. We respect so easy that we get used and then wonder why someone so respectable would do that. We're told not to question authority and then wonder why we feel like our rights are being exploited. It starts from such a young age that most of us never even realize it's happening. You can argue all you want about "Fighting is bad" and "You should never hit another person" I'm sorry but, if someone is a threat to me, I don't care if I'm legally blind, I still intend to lay a load of whoop ass down on them and hopefully break something on them while I'm at it. There are times when it is alright to beat someone to a pulp, rapists, violent attackers and would be murderers are on the top of my list of "Who I would aim to kill" if faced with one. No, don't go out looking for a fight but if one is brought to you, don't just let them do what they please with you, there's a chance you may not survive anyways so why not go out swinging? We are told to be assertive, yet society preaches pacifism. Sorry but something seems a bit off to me here.
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Allow us to face it, over the years we have become a weak people. Most refuse to look at these occurrences and call others who do paranoid and, you know what? Maybe I am paranoid, but it's kept me alive this long even after being abused and living two years of my life on the streets so there must be something to it! My goal here is, honestly, just to try to make people think. Look at the world around you, ask yourself how much of it influences you. Don't let your own pride blind you, everyone, even someone as aware of these issues as myself, is affected in some way by these practices. No one is immune to it and being too proud to admit it only makes you more susceptible to these mentality altering practices.
I'm not telling you to just believe what I am saying, I'm not linking you to references because I know references can be bias. Do your own research, open your eyes and look at the world you live in (Unless you're sight impaired like I am, in which case, listen to the world around you), you'll see it and you may well see more than I am pointing out here. It is everyplace. These things seem small and unrelated at first but, if you think enough about it, you'll see how all these factors come together to pain the big picture. It's easy to deny it but, it's really not hard to see it.

Just think. How much of who you are and what you do is really you, and how much is influenced by what the world around you wants of you?


This has been a product of me being rather bored and my mind going off on a tangent. . .just happens to be a tangent that's annoyed me for a while.


(Pardon typos, screen reading software has proven to be annoying when you're proof reading)

© 2012 - 2024 CatalystSpark
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CrescentNubila's avatar
:iconleathurkatt-tftiggy: told me about this journal since we were discussing the same/similar topics.

Brainwashed, a large, growing number of the population is effectively and thoroughly brainwashed. You're absolutely right. They start in childhood, then schooling, and move on from there. Corporations, gov., and media.

(This article also explains how it's done: [link])

They also toy with wedge issues to divide us so we're easier to control.

Today's society makes me really think of a LARGE herd of sheep. Sheeple as I call them.

This is also very true in politics. All I see whenever an election of some sort comes about is a pattern. Candidates give pretty false speeches, people buy them, people elect their fave talking head, problems don't change/get worse, repeat process next election.

All of these different political views and ideologies, and nothing gets solved because they're all arguing with each other. *shakes head*

I honestly believe that the voting process for the general public no longer has much effect. Whoever has the most money/ties with special interest groups gets elected.

No government official gives much a hoot about the "peasants".

It's all according to plan I believe. Governments are very fond of suppressing information and knowledge. People have found things that could've made history and the gov. confiscated the research.

No, we're not free. Not with so many strings attached.