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INFOTOXINS – THE POLLUTION OF THE MENTAL ENVIRONMENT
We are unfortunately all too familiar with the effects of chemicals
and pollutants in our air, lakes, streams, groundwater, soils. But how
many of us realize that our mental environment has become just
as polluted? Adbusters: Journal of the Mental Environment is
a magazine that is dedicated to examining the effect of runaway media
upon human health. In the 2004 issue “Systematically Distorted
Information,” Adbusters points out that the advertising is
a $450 billion worldwide industry which exposes the average American to
3,000 commercial messages a day.
All people, especially children, are hardwired to absorb crucial information
that arises from the grassroots. For example, messages about which foods
to eat and which to avoid, about specific routes to cross mountains or
deserts were passed on through songs, memes, rhymes. This information
has the ability to sweep across the continent in much the same way as
a children’s rhyme moves from coast to coast with no organization,
no advertisting, no newspapers, or television.
It is quite natural for us to absorb the information around us. This
is why it is not surprising that studies are showing most children in
the US cannot identify even five species of plants, but can recognize
hundreds of corporate logos!
what happens when the memes no longer rise from the bottom, but ooze
down from the top—from ad agencies and PR firms and the commercial
mass media? The mindscape is plunged into chaos. …cultural power
is dislocated, authenticity and spontaneity lost...Ideas spread not
when people interact, but when they switch on their TVs and computers.
(Adbusters, Vol.12, No. l).
It is possible that we are being bombarded with so much information,
most of it being completely irrelevant to our basic human needs, that
it resembles pollution more than it resembles information. This pollution
has recently been given a name: infotoxins. Our brains begin
to shut down as our mental pasture is overgrazed, and there is no room
left for us to receive messages critical to the sustainability of our
species. Infotoxins may be just as dangerous to human beings as water
or air pollution.
Here, again, is where the bodybased arts can serve us. Improvisational
art games require nothing except a few people gathered together, they
are fun to play, and they cost nothing. To find entertainment, can choose
not to seek out TVs or engage in other consumer activities which expose
us to seemingly endless streams of advertisements, and choose instead
to entertain ourselves. This frees up valuable “mental real estate”
creating much needed open spaces in our minds, leaving room for creative
thought instead of the prepackaged version. In practicing the participatory
arts, we are literally freeing our minds. And if we play enough, we can
cancel the gym membership, too!
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