page 5

 

 

— A society of seven year olds

Well, here’s your avid
reporter back on the job.
Sorry. for not getting in last
issue, but I’m back bigger
than life this time. What’s
my beef today? It’s a plot |

¢
¢

RiphteAngles
ps
Doug, ‘Parsons

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recently uncovered through
my Psychology 100 class. In
it | learned about a stage of
human development called
the pre-operational stage.
This stage is where children
between the ages of 2 and 7
are unable to comprehend
continuity in liquids, solids,
and mass. This means that
if you present a child with
two identical balls of play-
dough and ask which is
bigger, the child will say
that they are both the same.
But if you then proceed to
flatten one of the balls so it
appears wider but flatter,
then ask which is bigger,
the child will say the flat-
-tened one is bigger, even
though the child watched
you flatten it. Similarly, if
you have two water contain-
ers of equal volume and
pour one of them into a
thiner, yet taller container,
the child will say that this
one now -contains more
water. ;

Well, great, you say. This
was all determined by a
psychologist named Piaget
quite a while ago. He spent
his whole lifetime finding
this all out by playing with
kids. This stage of develop-
ment is supposed to occur
between the ages of 2 and 7,
when the child then learns
the consistencies rule. At
least, we’re supposed to
leave that stage when we’re
7. This has been determined

 

 

 

 

 

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over and over again for a
hundred years.

But I’m beginning to seri-
ously doubt it. It seems to
me that the people in the

packaging dept. of food and .

products for retail sales are
banking on our inability to
see the real thing.

Take for instance, the
7-11’s ‘‘BIG GULP’’. Sure,
they tell you you’re getting
52 oz. of your favorite soft
drink, but it comes in a --
oz. cup. If you emptied out
all the ice in one of those,
you’d see that your favorite
soft drink only fills about
1/2 the cup?! McDonald’s
McLarge McDrink pulls ‘the
same ploy. In fact, liquid
products are the prime tar-
gets for packaging tricks.
Almost all 10 oz. bottles of
pop come in a tapered con-
tainer. Why, do you think,
this is so? | think it’s exactly
the same as my_ original
example of the thinner, tal-

 

 

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ler container, that we're
supposed to figure out at 7
years of age! If this was so,
chances are the products on
the | supermarket shelf
wouldn’t be so deceiving.
Another example of this
deception is easily found in
candy bars. You’ve probably
seen the new chocolate bar
Mirage. But how many of
you realize that Mirage is
made by Rowntree, the
same company that makes
Aero. The two bars weigh
the same, contain the same
ingredients in the same or-
der, are the same length,
and are made with the same
process. The only difference
is the shape. Mirage is
higher and squarer and
Aero is wider and thinner.
Besides those differences,
the two bars are exactly the
same! | think the best word
they’re looking for for the
Mirage ad is ‘‘Redundant’’.
In fact, food geared to the

 

 

 

 

 

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younger generation usually
has the most examples of
deception, but there are
plenty of examples for the
older, ‘wiser’ (less easily
deceived...!) generation.
What about the conver-
sion from standard English
units of measure to Metric?
It seems like every company
is exploiting our inability to
decipher grams and litres.
The price of gas was around
95 cents a gallon. That
caused a few problems at

Coalition of
Concerned Students

from page 2

We achieved the goal of
bringing our concerns once
more to public attention,
although the details of the
issues were not reported in
the media. Through remain-
ing non-violent and non-des-
tructive, we gave the So-
creds no excuse for evicting
us. We reached out to many
people and built up a soli-
darity among _ ourselves
which will be invaluable in
continuing the struggle. We
have formed a coalition of
concerned students (and
others) who are interested in
developing other civil diso-
bedience actions in the near
future. We even had some
fun.

We have learned a_ lot
from this action, and we are

much emboldened by _ its

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the time, but people soon
got used to the relatively
cheap price. When the in-
creases gradually started
coming in, people lost count
of the converted increases,
and now, with the price at
49.9 cents a litre, people
don’t realize the converted
price is...get this...$2.27 a
gallon!We’ve become so ac-
customed to the relatively
cheap 50 cents/litre, it’s
easy to forget the actual old
price.

 

success. We appeal to any-
one who is worried about
the future of this province to
attend the next Free Univer-
sity or Free College. And
the next.

The initial occupation was
planned by students from
UBC, Langara and Univer-
sity Hill; there was partici-
pation from SFU, Kwantlen,
Douglas, Capilano, Emily
Carr, Lord Byng, Ideal
School, Cariboo, The Cana-
dian Federation of Students
and many other groups and
individuals. We are building
a movement to oppose the
Socred attack on education.
If you want to help in this
struggle, talk to me at 873-
6662.

John Black
Coalition of Concerned Stu-
dents