Negative Thinking

Today, on the platform at Finsbury Park, I counted six separate announcements, from Baggage Accompaniment to Oyster Touching, Good Service reports to a message that appeared to inform me I was at Finsbury Park repeatedly. There was even one telling people to stand behind the yellow line, I'm surprised they didn't mention which side. Not only that, these messages were cycled four or five times in the nine minutes I waited for the train; one every seven seconds or so. Now maybe they think they're trying to help us out here, maybe there are people, lacking the ability to read, consistently forgetting where they are, but the more I wait, the more I think there is something a little more sinister going on. These aural interruptions make it next to impossible to string a line of thoughts together, they break up conversations and force page-turners from their books. It is an almost intentional attempt to destroy any sense of peace and quiet, it is static in our minds, white noise in our heads, it is an act of cognitive terrorism, disturb, disrupt and destroy. And so everyone becomes slightly nervous and jumpy, grown men twitch, young boys bitch, a minor delay turns to major dismay; a whole cross-section of society destabilised and sent off to the nine to five.