I'm a pretty savvy guy when it comes to influences on my life. I can figure out when I'm being sold a bill and not fall prey, or so I thought. In the past week or so I have come to understand just how mind changing propaganda is to a person raised in an advertising culture. At Fort Jackson, a place so forlorn that it would make the Democrats want to pull out of South Carolina, there was a hydration chart above every urinal with different colored boxes so you could check your state of hydration in situ. The white box, indicating the highest level of hydration, was labeled "Possibly well hydrated." Hydration is the Army's religion, and Drill Instructors are its prophets. They regularly preach hell, fire, and brimstone if you are not well in the "Possibly well hydrated" color zone, and based on the "possibly" your salvation was not even assured.
So recently, I have noticed that a) I drink a lot of water making trips to the port-a-john the most common activity of my day, b) the frequent trips demanded to achieve the white box make the hydration chart a harsh task master, and c) on every trip I measure myself by the Ft. Jackson standard or righteousness. Guess I'm not so savvy as I thought.
BTW, here is a link to a website that talks about what I'm doing. I don't like discussing my job on this blog lest I cross a classification line, but this article at least uses some of the right vocabulary:
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htecm/articles/20070418.aspx
