Saturday, May 11, 2013
Synchronicity
Somewhat off-topic but, oh well. I was going through some old papers recently and found this little gem (the photos below).
I've always loved the concept of "synchronicity" as defined by Swiss psychologist, Carl Jung. Most people are somewhat familiar with the concept as an expression of "meaningful coincidence." Some coincidences/synchronicities are rather mundane and relatively unimpressive. Some are utterly bizarre, amazing, or shocking. I've read several books on the subject as well as Jung's comments on it. I don't find it particularly mystical or "magical" but I do find it very intriguing. I've seen some good ones. One of them is the one below.
To my knowledge no one has commented on this. Surely someone had to have noticed it. A couple of years after 9/11 (the 9/11) I was leafing through some random magazines at work and saw this. As you can see from the date of the magazine (at the bottom right of the page after the Manhattan photo), it was the edition which came out the month before the terrorist attack. In addition, such an ad obviously would have been planned and laid out earlier than the August magazine publication date.
It's fairly self-explanatory; a Yahoo ad that plays on the concept of being "left out" by suggesting you use a product to feel "left in." Their mildly witty symbol is an old photo of New York's financial district skyline with a very obvious modern feature that one was used to seeing, -- the World Trade Center buildings -- "left out."
As with all synchronicities, one can write it off as "mere coincidence" or micro-analyze it enough to explain it away as being nothing out of the ordinary.
...but, I like synchronicities so I'm going to say this is a valid one and it's just plain weird.
I'm sure some conspiratorial types would like to read something beyond a synchronicity or coincidence into it.
Appraise at will and draw your own conclusions.
