A couple of months ago I thought of starting a sort of hoax political party aiming at hijacking people’s consciousness by using mindfuck tactics, guerilla ontology, weird images, sourcery, chapel perilous, etc, etc. Primarily the aim would be to change consciousness, destroy reality tunnels, maybe a little bit of cognitive dissociation here and there.

This was the start of a conversation the other day, now this is a tad difficult to explain, so bear with me, and try to identify similar symptoms, if you will, in your own surrounding area.

When last have you, or anyone, tried to acquire entirely new knowledge that is of no profitable use to you/them?
Man is, by nature, a social creature as I’m sure is obvious, and yet this essence of us is exploited to such a degree that it is at once both blindingly obvious and deviously subtle. Walk down a street. Any street will do. Now comes the hard part, is there anything in that street that does not scream buy me? We’re manipulated from birth to identify certain (expensive) objects as things that give status and class, the cool factor, a sense of achievement etc.. For example, that newest phone that everyone has (so they want you to believe) except you. The new car that seems to pick up all the girls. The impressive house that says “you’ve arrived”

The trouble is, you can’t escape the marketing machine. It is an integral part of every day life. We have a connective ability that can match two apparently dissimilar items, and come up with the right answer.

1 + 1 != 2

Life isn’t as simple as math. Instead it can follow along the lines of:
Red and Yellow M logo + Money = Food
Red and Yellow M logo + No Money = No Food

Taking advantage of our ability to associate pictures and colours with basic human needs, companies have made billions by installing their corporate logo into our image repository.

Just realised I’m rambling and fading out.

Back to my original subject.
The age old saying goes don’t believe everything you read, correct?
Simple piece of wisdom, near impossible to follow. We’re taught to believe.
Newspapers are held as truth, yet it is just the truth of the day. Far too few people (I include myself in this) actually investigate articles of interest, instead relying on second or third hand wording.
Open your mind to the fact that you are being manipulated.
Realise that your hand is being forcibly pushed towards your wallet.
Understand that you “can” buy happiness. But it is the artificial happiness of having stuff.
True happiness can never be bought, but we have to push through a flood of advertising to find it, only to realise it is like trying to hold water in a sieve. You can free your mind from possessions and marketing strategies, but then you still have to deal with the most insidious of advertising fields.
Love.
You can be the most charming, loving, caring guy in the world.
But prove it. If you refuse to take part in the great god of marketing’s game,
You will probably not find someone to love, and this is exactly what they want you to think too.
You will not be able to buy the dinner on the first date,
You will not be able to do all the things that couples do, because they cost money,
You will not be able to buy the ring that would bind you to the one you love,
No wedding, No honeymoon etc etc the results are endless.

You can never escape the machine.
You need only know that the machine is there.

What is hyperreality?

Hyperreality is an inability to distinguish between what is real and what is not. Hyperreality can be described as enhanced reality. Some people become more engaged with the hyperreal world than with the real world.
Hyperreality is thought to be a consequence of the age that we live in. Hyperrealism is a postmodern philosophy that deals in part with semiotics, or the study of the signs that surround us in everyday life and what they actually mean. For example, a king may wear a crown that symbolizes his title and power. The crown itself is meaningless, but it has come to take on the meaning that society has given it. The reality of the crown and the hyperreality of what it stands for are interwoven.

A popular way of understanding hyperreality is through celebrity culture. Celebrities who reach a point at which every aspect of their lives is taken care of by someone else are said to live in a hyperreal world. They lose the ability to interact with people on a normal level and are cocooned in hyperreality.

Hyperreality can also take the form of reality by proxy, in which a person takes someone else’s version of reality on board as his or her own. Some people who watch soap operas for a long time develop a view of interpersonal relationships that is determined by the writers of the soap. The extreme dramatic relationships in soaps are a heightened form of reality that some people relate to as being real. Such people begin to judge social relationships and situations by this heightened reality. They can no longer see the reality of a social situation without relating it to the soap.

More and more people in today’s culture are thought to exist in a state of hyperreality. Media images, the Internet, computer games and virtual worlds are taking people out of the real world more often and for longer periods of time than ever before. Some people may believe that they can be rock stars or celebrities just by acting as if they are.
Hyperreality is exploited in advertising for almost everything. Advertising uses a fake world to define in each person a character that he or she wishes to be. Advertising sells the public an image in the hope that they will buy into their version of a lifestyle that they ultimately desire. Want to be seen as a sex icon? Buy the most expensive jeans as worn or designed by your favorite celebrity.

Every time we enter a large shopping area with a certain theme, we are entering a hyperreal world. Theme parks such as Disneyworld or the casinos in Las Vegas are hyperrealities in which the public can get lost for as long as their money holds out. Hyperreality no longer exists just in our heads; it is being force-fed to us nearly every time we leave our homes.