NOTICE ARCHIVE - 11/07/2021There was a time when we could laugh at Americans. You read that sticker on the lawn mower, for example - the one that says you should NOT DRINK the gasoline. Just to imagine the circumstances when an American, at some point, got to drink gasoline directly from the mower.Did he just tip it over his mouth? Or did he use a siphon? How much time did he have - because it is guaranteed to be a male - to drink, before it appeared to be a bad idea? And how much did he sue the lawnmower company for?
Once we could laugh. Now the World is taken over by giant companies and commissions. Bit by bit, regulation by regulation, algorithm by algorithm, we were all assumed to be the guy who drank from the lawnmower. Now we live in a common world full of safety instructions, disclaimers and delusions.
This is where consent comes in.
You cannot buy something, read a site, or joining a broadcast anymore, without agreeing to…
Yes, exactly what? Do you have any idea?
Of course not. You do what is required. Agree, agree, agree. No one ever reads the long texts. No one expects anyone to do that. But still the lyrics are written and still we press approve. Should someone forget to post a text that no one reads and everyone approves, it may be a violation of EU or US regulations and consumer laws.
It is as if we without thinking about it have ended up in a theocracy, a society based on sacred, magical rituals and those who do not perform the rituals are condemned to blasphemy. We must agree to the high and the low, seen and unseen in a ceremonial display of self-determination, which in fact is the exact opposite.
There is guaranteed an army of lawyers who can tell us why this is something extraordinarily good, but what do rituals of this kind do to us? Does nothing happen to us when we get used to unseen giving our consent to whatever strangers ask of us?
