Month: April 2024

Not So Common

~ MKW Publishing ~ 2 Comments

A word, to denote the lower orders and those of ‘common’ living standard, ideas or ambition, as would say those who created the divide of class we have in this country. But I thought of where it gets used in a practical sense, as that is where it seems awfully applicable sometimes as a useful word.

Common Sense – something we thought was prevalent in society, but alas, it really does seem as though sense is something that really isn’t very common after all in that context.

Common Ground – to find the middle ground and a starting or joining point for an idea or way forward. Lending it to something logical, or a compromise to whatever the point of issue that can be resolved somewhat or an agreement reached.

Common Enemy – where you learn to understand that certain differences are to be put aside to observe a common threat to your territory or way of life. If you have ever given thought to or read about wars and skirmishes, and the changing of borders, it is often you will find temporary alliances are formed to combat that common enemy at the time. Thereafter often those alliances fall away and are replaced by new conflicts, and without a bigger enemy, it seems people find ways to destablise themselves with smaller matters.

A Common – piece of land designated as common land, for grazing and walking and cannot be restricted they say. But as with much, it has changed because the areas of common land in the UK used to be bigger and gradually it has been changed, bordered, gated, fenced and no longer affords the rights it once did.

Common Law – “a system of laws based on customs and court decisions rather than on written laws made by a parliament.” Not really much I can add to that, we have seen of late how the law ‘works’ so it may be common in name, but not serve any of those that may think it is there for a lawful society.

Common Good – ideally where the people falling under the banner of that ‘good’ are the ones to decide it. Otherwise, it gets used as a weapon for an individual to enact a more personal or deviant agenda, as we well know.

Lowest Common Denominator – in mathematics, yes, but also as an insult. To insinuate someone is stupid it is said, or a particular audience may be of the ‘lowest common denominator’.

I find it interesting to give thought to words and their place in our understanding. How they came to be used as such, because they, like many things they are twisted and used for purpose. In education, communication, language, propaganda, psychology, and general thought. So it’s good to know how others might be using them, to make sure you are at least all reading from the same page…

(c) K Wicks

Playing Chicken

~ MKW Publishing ~ 4 Comments

Some of you might have played that game in your childhood. The skill-based danger game of dodging traffic. The point is to get to the other side unharmed, and ideally not cause a crash or issue other than to show off to your mates. Or prove something to them and yourself.

But lately it feels like a big weird game of chicken going on, with higher stakes, more showing off, not so much care for not causing harm to others, and strangely, actual chickens are now involved. We know there are extra regulations trying to muscle their way into food production, farming and agriculture generally. Herd culls, rewilding, printed ‘meat’, raw milk, numbers, stats and targets from models and ideas of control. All of it neatly leading to a major disruption in the well laid systems there for food sustainability. Almost as if they think people have lost the ability to think ahead or imagine consequences. And if you understand that the ones playing chicken want those consequences, well, like I said, it ups the stakes and changes the ‘game’ somewhat.

Birds – there has been various attempts on the bird population along the way, or it could have just simply been a benign way to familiarise people with the programming to come. To believe the news when they talk of a virus, to accept what scientists say about it, to have fear about what it could become. And then the inevitable effect it has on the farm, or area they designate as being ‘infected’. Then other species become the target, and nobody notices because its small and one farm at a time, one sanctuary, one factory, one industry at a time. Slowly cutting it all back.

Chickens – like I said, chickens and birds have been used before for purpose of whipping up a frenzy and used as a handy tool. Currently a rule is attempting to come into force in October in the UK, to force anyone who keeps domestic birds or chickens to register them. Just like previous times which has morphed into The Digital Doomsday Database, this is adding to that upgrade.

Because chickens are rather awesome, they provide a consistent food source which is highly nutritious for us, and potentially many other benefits. They are great at dealing with food scraps, eat insects and vermin, therefore are natural pest control, and are an extra food source if needed.

Food chain – I think of the overall importance of each farm animal that gets targeted the most, and clearly cows and chickens are top of the list. And for cows, they also provide consistently, have extra purpose and uses, are food and help to keep the land in check. But, I also realised that the raw milk aspect might be linked to the amazing discovery of curing smallpox, as when that was prevalent, it was milk maids they say who didn’t get infected. Leading me to wonder if certain animals are there to protect us in a way, through that process of eating. Strange I know, but when everything seems so perfectly placed and developed for our consumption, I wonder if it is necessary.

I’ve already speculated on eating soulless and dead food that has never had ‘life’ in You Are What You Eat, and is the opposite view I guess to the vegetarian or vegan thought process behind it. That we need certain things to remain part of what we have come to know as the natural world, like in Spirited Away when the supernatural food is eaten, they become part of the weird and unnatural landscape. And it really is starting to feel as though a very weird and unnatural landscape is trying to be created, attempting to deceive your senses and replace your instinct. But deep down, we know, or at least many do, that this is not the way it is meant to be…

(c) K Wicks

Big, Yet Small

~ MKW Publishing ~ 1 Comment

I have already written articles about Giants, and their smaller counterpart covered in Little People, but this one was of thinking of how we have represented the smaller version in stories and films. Wondering again if there is some kind of smaller world we aren’t entirely aware of, or that we are the smaller ones and world already.

Alice in Wonderland – and that first strange room she needed to get through. With the eat me and drink me potions to make her big and small to fit through the door. But because everything was quite off there, it was difficult to discern thereafter, how big or small anything was as there was no starting point. Alice herself would have been the starting point had she remained the same size as in the ‘real world’, but as she didn’t, you weren’t able to tell unless they hinted at a large difference, i.e. walking through the ‘oversized’ flowers, making us think again that Alice was small and the flowers were what we would think of as normal size.

Honey I shrunk the kids – this shouldn’t really need any further explanation, even if you haven’t seen it, the title really does tell it like it is. The perils of being small in a big world, although comedy, was still a good idea to convey the sudden differences faced when you are a very small fish in a big pond.

Inner Space – a film about shrinking down someone to be put into the bloodstream of a human body. Seemed like just a bit of fun back then, these days, not so much once you know what scientists appear to be getting up to.

Downsizing – one I haven’t seen other than a clip for the trailer, of people wanting to shrink down to a smaller size to they can have more and be less of a drain on the normal size world. Creating a miniature functioning society, where the old world becomes full of giants and rather large structures, and the new small world gets on or something like that. Maybe what we think of as giants of the past, were just normal, and we were the shrunken weirdos?

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Mike TV, the annoying kid who gets transported into the television, but shrunk down as was the chocolate bar, to be fully formed, just smaller, or indeed, larger.

It’s a fascinating and crazy idea when you think of either supersizing, or minimising something which then remains intact and as it was just with a new size. And given all the things we have in the world which show where things were indeed much larger, and we have all been scaled down through temperature, climate and atmosphere over time. Imagine if that change was more instantaneous and could be caused by those things, it might be of interest to then create something that could harness that potential. Creating large and small as needed rather than waiting for nature to mosey along on its own timescale, people are impatient and mortal, so I can see why we find it hard to ‘wait and see’. But all that tinkering and experimenting comes at a price, and one I am not sure we are yet aware of…

(c) K Wicks