I use the term high impact – low noticability to depict a situation where change takes place almost unnoticed, but is very real nonetheless.
In terms of our physical experience of the world it is manifest in breathing, or gravity. They are so commonplace that we don’t notice them unless we stop and think about them.
But if they weren’t there (like, if we stopped breathing, or we saw something floating upwards) we’d notice very quickly. In the first case we’d panic because we’d think that we were going to die as we struggle for breath, in the second we’d wonder if there were poltergeists or other ethereal beings around.
The term has important applications in respect of our behaviour.
For example a totalitarian leader’s methods of controlling citizens has high impact – high noticability.
In other words, oppression and top-down control are obvious in laws, heavy-handed police presence, extravagant displays of power, pictures of the leader everywhere, and a kind of forced adulation.
People can see that they are not free and it is very obvious that they will be punished if they step out of line and/or try to change the prevailing order.
However, in our modern Western democracies, it is different. The influence of the corporate world is pervasive from conception to the grave, does enormous damage to our feelings of well-being and our environment, but is barely noticeable, so it can be considered to have high impact – low noticability.
In fact, more often than not, it has to be pointed out to us. It is very subtle and subliminal and works on our unconscious.
Yet, arguably, it is just as effective in getting us to do what we’re told as the totalitarian regime!