Month: November 2025

Flagging it Up

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Flags, we have a bit of an issue with them currently, and maybe we always have, but with the coverage and reach of media these days, means we get to be aware of what occurs. Partly. Because in some cases it only occurs because the media is present to capture and report it so becomes a perpetual cycle. Something that would have been a certain way or would have perhaps run a different course, is altered by the observation of it, as much is.

And while we watch the generally strange mentality unfold in society, flags are being worshipped and wielded as though they hold great power, and psychologically, they clearly do. Many people choosing to publicly show their allegiance to something by way of a representative banner, wanting people to see which side they align with and support. Sometimes making people wonder whether they genuinely feel for the cause, or they just want to be seen to be involved and are part of something. It’s not always as simple as because they are there, they believe in the same thing. And we have had a number of different flags over the recent decades to start the ball rolling on it, to help get people behind a banner and a cause that requires ‘people’ to move it along.

Gay Rainbow Flag – created in 1978 as a symbol of pride. Now, most of my life I have not had a problem with it in any way, thinking it was nice using bright colours, and showing it at events as a friendly, happy symbol to show inclusion and acceptance. Things have changed somewhat over the last few years, in my ideas and my attitude towards it, see my article Rainbows for thoughts on that.

Transgender Flag – on the face of it, seems quite a normal concept for a flag. Pale blue for boys and pale pink for girls, and white for the ones in the middle or intersex people. Not entirely sure why that requires a flag, or needing people to ‘see’ what and who you are, and is what probably got me thinking more about why we need to ‘flag’ everything for others to be aware of. Like people who used to joke about all sorts of things and say ‘you wouldn’t put a big neon sign over your head advertising it, now would you?’ Well, these are now the times where people do indeed want big neon signs over their head announcing their intentions, their wants and needs, their triumphs, dreams and failures to a faceless audience.

NHS Flag – used for purpose during the covid debacle, to get people to focus their attention and energy on an institution which behaved in a rather strange way for quite some time during what we were told was a ‘national medical emergency’. However, seeing hospitals barricaded to keep them shut off, empty ward corridors and doctors’ surgeries, and choreographed dancing nurse routines being shown, somehow the response didn’t fit the claim. But in order to keep people focused, we had pot clanging for them, clapping, set times advertised to show your support and be seen to be doing it. With their flag being used as a beacon, to protect the health service from helping in an emergency to protect the people that it apparently is there to save. What a switch around, suddenly we were here to save the NHS, they were no longer here to save people. It was so twisted. Even more so that many didn’t see it, and lined up to worship and sacrifice themselves to ‘save it’. That same institution that had a bailout in 2020, with its entire debt wiped of £15.4 billion, then was crying poor again with a couple of years, I think it’s either well and truly saved, or way past saving at this point. And the flag may have been a small part of that, but when you have the numbers who are willing to ‘fly the flag’ for something, then maybe that’s when you know you can pull something off, so do.

Palestine Flag / Israel Flag – both of these flags have been weaponised in a very ugly and sinister way in the last few years, being used to represent either side of an unnatural disturbance. And if you view the basic history of that area, you can see that like with much else, plans set in motion many decades ago reach a boiling point and are moved into the ‘next phase’ of whatever that plan is.

The Union Flag / Union Jack – apparently, it’s only called the Union Jack when at sea, which I wasn’t aware of for most of my life so always called it that. But is supposed to be a flag that shows this kingdom is a united one, although each country keeps its own flag and we have both.

St Georges Cross Flag – this is the one just for England, and used to be seen as a symbol of pride towards this country. However, as the system tries to force through change, we see an attack on this particular banner of allegiance which appears to have a more sinister undertone about it rather than just trying to piss people off.

Pirate Flag – obviously not a modern one or at all common these days other than in films, and one I always thought was a bit odd, to show you are the enemy up front, seems a bit stupid in my view, but what do I know. And occasionally in the film, they would show a different flag, then once within range would hoist the real one and then the plunder would be on. Because clearly if someone could see your flag ‘from a mile away’ then they can just sail the other way. But maybe it was just in the movies you saw that because the idea that you are able to see who is your enemy and ally based on a flag, seems rather against our true nature as humans. To be upfront and so forthcoming about your position and intentions, in advance and from a distance, not at all what we are really like. But when it comes to trade and business, you have to be forthcoming to a point, showing what you are selling and such. And we should remember, that a pirate will be on the lookout for a ‘flag’ to be showing of something they want, so they can steal it, or abuse it, or just piss all over it. So, be a bit more discerning about which flag you are flying for all to see, ‘showing your hand before you have seen theirs’ kind of thing.

But it seems flags are used for purpose, they show when a place has been conquered or discovered, flag on the moon, flags in Antarctica showing show owns what, flags of nationality, a small piece of materials holding so much power it seems, that once it has been planted, no other can then do the same. Weirdly. I would have thought technically, you can just walk over, remove their flag and then put yours there, and now it’s yours. But it isn’t, is it? Because it wasn’t theirs in the first place, and that’s why people having a system of agreed upon Ownership is so important, so you can then take it off them and know they won’t try and take it back. Happening in many countries currently with various land grabs and indigenous people being used as the pawn in that, convincing them they have ‘rights’ to the land, so they can take it off whoever is there without a fight, and they in turn will have it taken off them. It really is just the same shit, different day…

(c) MKW Publishing

Holding It Back

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A revisit to the subject touched upon in my article Why do you want to scare people?, where I had given thought to the sharing of material, ideas and concepts that perhaps should be kept to oneself. Mostly to do with horror and things of a frightening nature within the entertainment industry. Of which I contribute myself, by way of watching and reading things, and then taking it a step further by writing my own horror books and creepy stories. But something didn’t sit well with me about it after years of it, and after writing a number of books and short stories, I veered off into articles. Sharing real and precise speculations about my perceptions of reality to do with certain subjects. Many of them being what we would consider unsavoury subjects, and although they stem from actual facts and reality, they are still somewhat uncomfortable.

Before I share anything, I have always tended to ‘give it a once over’ in my mind, to decide if it passes the quality check, or is fit for public consumption as you might put it. Many don’t seem to care about the impact of things on others, as long as they get their clicks and likes I guess, just quite casually throwing things out there knowing they have an effect, but only really focusing on the result for them. Conveniently ignoring the other results that unfold. Action and reactions, cause and effect. And since writing that original article, I have held back, mostly, with writing fiction anymore, deciding that just because I have stories and ideas, doesn’t mean I need to share them. Thinking grisly and strange thoughts is one thing, but putting them out there for others to ‘imagine’ when maybe they wouldn’t otherwise wouldn’t have, is quite another.

And the same can be said of social media, where I have discussed its purpose and issues in Social, But Not Really, and of society generally with media, propaganda and entertainment in Are You Not Entertained? Where we allow ourselves to be saturated with it and then willingly engage with it, share it, discuss it and ultimately become part of it, without knowing really what alternative purpose it has. Being naive and accepting it on face value, as ‘just a bit of fun’, like dress-up, or pretending like actors do perhaps like in Just Pretend or a Con? In jest and for jovial reasons, so it goes undetected as being anything of note. It is not just there to entertain you though it seems, it is to keep you busy and distracted, which we choose to do as discussed in Just The Ticket. So, while we do have a choice to take part, to feed from and feed into ‘the system’, we can take a bit of responsibility for what we consume, and what we put out there. Be mindful of what you create…

(c) MKW Publishing

Like the Dead

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They say that sleeping is something that is indistinguishable from death within our consciousness, where the subconscious can sometimes apparently roam as might happen with an NDE (Near Death Experience) or a mind-altering experience. Yet most people do not have an NDE on a regular basis, or so they think. In Dreamy, or Terrifying? I discuss a certain angle of sleep and its related ‘activities’. But when there is speculation of being able to ‘leave’ this physical plane while unconscious, and that we all need sleep, I thought of sayings we have for things related to sleeping and being dead –

Sleeping like the dead – I always believed this to be about the how deeply you are asleep, and if you are able to be woken easily or not.

Dead to the world – as with this one, so deeply asleep that you are completely cut off from the ‘real world’ while your mind is actually somewhere else.

Dead tired – when you are so tired you feel like you are dragging yourself around, and have become as weighty as a corpse perhaps. On the brink of sleep, where your body and mind start initiate the sleep phase, whether you are ready for it or in the right location or not.

Death warmed up – not usually attritibuted to sleep, but to a waking state and often one of illness. Where you feel so rotten and would benefit from sleep or at a minimum some rest, but have to keep going about your day as you normally would. The wording making me think you have checked out to that ‘sleep/death’ state, but your body has to keep going through the motions of an animated corpse. Hence, death warmed up.

Land of the living – often said as ‘back to the land of the living’, again usually around illness, a phase that sometimes is known to precede actual death, but is also one that more often than not, will require sleep and rest. But saying you have come back to somewhere, means in a way, you think you were somewhere else.

There is talk that death is just an altered state of our consciousness, and what we believe to be ‘life after death’, is in fact, just another dimension of existence we inhabit after our physical body and the material world is no longer of use. And one we have ended up calling The Other Side. But if consciousness does exist outside of the brain and body, it stands to reason that once the physical has expired, whatever existed within that, then just carries on existing somewhere else.

Imagine living two lifetimes every day, one that what we know as the waking day for two thirds of it, and a shorter portion allocated for the sleeping one, yet both existing as separate lifetimes running simultaneously, playing tag with each other. While you are awake here, you are asleep there, kind of thing, neither ceasing to exist just because the other ‘wakes up’. Like day and night, a perpetual hand over each day from dark to light and back again, but just as sometimes the moon isn’t always visible at night, and sometimes can be seen during the day, it’s not always as clear cut as we think. Asleep or awake? Dreaming or reality? Or even alive or dead? How does our consciousness understand the differences in those definitions I wonder, and realised that perhaps it doesn’t…

(c) MKW Publishing