Surrounded by trolls. Or as we know them these days, middlemen. You want to go over there? That’ll be a fee, please. You need some of that? That’ll be a fee, please. In the story of the three billy goats gruff, it’s a greedy troll stopping them from crossing the bridge to get to the lush meadow so they can eat. But he wants to eat them instead and had obviously worked out if you guard the access point to the food, then you become the gatekeeper – or the troll in this case.

And we see that many have understood the point and position of the gatekeeper, the advantage of being one, or of having them there to ‘protect’ the sought after item, information or status. We’ve now got so many to get through and appease just to live, it seems we have more doors these days than ever before, but they are closed and require access codes, approval, someone to authorise you. Then once you are through, you realise it’s only level 1, and there are more corridors, and doors, and codes. Computer says no. There is an extra layer of faceless gatekeeping now with the internet and digital access rolling its way through, and makes for an easier wall. People are prone to argue and fight back against people if frustration grows, but with technology it’s a little different. No less frustrating, but you know it literally does nothing, and yet still sometimes can’t help it. If something seems an unnecessary and obvious obstacle, I believe it is in our nature to try and find the easiest solution to get round it, or over it, or side-step it. Rational and logical thought. But it would appear that when the logical and natural route seems unavailable, we will react with emotion if needed, as that also facilitates an action usually, with the motivation still of removing the obstacle.

With technology where you know you can’t win, I think we are prone to hitting it, throwing it and smashing it. When it comes to people, I guess the same can be said in some cases, but often most will adopt the communication and negotiation route. As did the three billy goats, using a bit of cunning and playing on the weakness of the troll. Greed. It’s one of the deadly sins for a reason I suspect, because it has been witnessed in many a person who will act in a way most unbecoming of a living thing. If we witnessed a monkey hoarding all the bananas, and stopping other monkeys having any and let them die of starvation while letting the bananas rot, we would be fascinated. And probably then take to locking said monkey up, so we could study this startling display of ‘greed and selfishness’ that would appear detrimental to the species. But for humans, not so much. It’s accepted, encouraged and even applauded once you reach a certain level of hoarding. Once you have all the money, gold, food and land withheld from everyone else, then it seems you reach a whole different level in the weird structure of people and society.

It used to be about getting from A to B back in the day, but now as a famous company has implied, it’s A to Z. But what wasn’t made so obvious, was that there would be sub-headers. It’s not until you leave A, you suddenly encounter A.1, then A.2, then A.3 and so on, until they decide you can arrive at B. It makes for a rather convoluted process, as we well know. But really isn’t anything new, toll bridges, gates, fences, barriers, moats and all sorts of physical obstacles have been in our way for the longest time. What is new though, is watching it become much smaller before our eyes, with the bizarre roll out of 15-minute towns and cities. Putting up road blocks, cameras, penalties and strict rules to adhere to. More obstacles and sub-headers, leading to more time being taken from you, more frustration, less enjoyment of the ‘modern living’ they so heavily pushed on everyone for decades. Fines now for wood burners, after someone in the industry made a lot of money pushing wood burners as a better option, and of course after they decided to block up old fireplaces and only build modern crappy ones without them. Fines for the wrong car, for the wrong heating, for the wrong words, for the wrong attitude. Amazing isn’t it, that money and fines are the solution to everything? Well, it is to those who have turned into the monkey with the bananas. It’s never enough once obsession takes over. And it almost seems as though it stops being about them having more, but more about you having less. Because if you had as much as them, they wouldn’t be so important anymore. This is why equality was never on the cards, wealth was never intended to be distributed evenly, and why it often appears as though the deck is stacked. Because it is…

(c) K Wicks

For generations there have been expectations, from society and for society and for both men and women. But are quite different from each other in the actual experience, in real life, thoughts and expectations.

I saw a funny meme with a girl washing a car in a bikini from a number of decades ago with the caption “a 1980s go fund me”. And although it may appear quite amusing, it has always struck me how it was engineered to be that way. Women for the longest time either couldn’t work or were heavily restricted in earning potential. Still seen today, but they like to try and portray that it is being addressed. So, if you wanted any kind of decent life, or home, or future, it was known you had to ‘marry well’, or secure ‘a good partnership’. How very convenient for men, to have most women only able to take part properly in society if married. And even then, for quite some time, women still weren’t allowed to deal with the finances or anything deemed important or complicated. Held down and held back, unless they jumped through the social hoops provided and did what was expected.

I did start to wonder why it was decided women should be allowed to work, was it really just for more taxes? Was it to help destabilise the family unit and home? Was it to allow ‘equality’ in word only, as it never really materialised, and now seems to be doing a rather swift backwards move. Encouraging women to marry well, then calling them gold diggers. Encourage them to work, then say they are abandoning their family. Encourage confidence, then call it a complex. Encourage embracing being a woman, then try and redefine the word and meaning to include men. It hasn’t gone unnoticed, because it’s a game that’s been going on for a long time.

Men also seem to be now getting some of it. Encouraging manliness, then calling it toxic. Encouraging being a family man, then insinuating that makes you weak. And it works its way round everyone in the end, everything that is presented as social order and etiquette by the behaviourists who study us. Like with the soap operas they have on a never-ending conveyor trying to tell you, show you, how life is and how you are supposed to be. But they aren’t real life (despite how some people view them), they are closer to a Greek tragedy. An exaggerated hyper fixated version of someone else’s view of life events and experiences. Condensed and orchestrated for effect, and for purpose.

But as with each new generation and time, expectations change and new ones roll out. What society demands of us, and what we demand of society. Standards and ethics change, ideals and agendas help to keep it all at a steady moving pace. So even if you do manage to work out what is required, given a little time that often changes, and if you don’t keep up, you get left behind…

(c) K Wicks

We split things into categories so easily. But black and white is a bold and never-ending one it seems, as if the pieces of society have been set up to mimic a chessboard, the opposite spectrums of light using stratgety to overthrow their opponent. Using Pawns, Bishops, Knights and Castles to save the monarchy via tactics and planning. No similarities to real life there at all eh? People have noticed we appear to be those pieces on the chessboard, most of us general folk being the pawns, but while also being able to recognise the other ‘players and pieces’ involved.

And while it may be a basic analogy likening real life to a game, it’s far more complex than that. I briefly touched upon chess being a good way to understand the pre thought that goes into some things being played out in my article Opposition. While they want everyone to be opposed to each other, and not agreeing, it achieves division for things and people are more prone to not stand together on anything. Did you ever meet someone who seemed to argue or disagree just for the sake of it, because they like irritating people? If you haven’t, great, but they are out there, and being encouraged more and more. Trying to show that it makes you an individual if you ‘go against the grain’, but sometimes good to note, the grain goes a certain way for a reason.

And what comes of all that division, of pitting light against dark, black against white, up against down? Well, ironically, it leads to a strange outcome. Unity. But what kind of unity is an important one. There are two in my view, the type of unity where everyone is forced to get along for the ‘greater good’, and it happens by way of regulations, controls and conversion to their way of thinking, totalitarianism. Or, there is the type of unity where the people focus their attention on the ones instituting the ideals and systems which facilitate division, where the only common purpose is to take out your opponent, not go to war for them or help them as we have been forced to for generations, but to actually see them for what they are.

Because behind the well-lit black and white board, and the carefully set pieces that have to run to rules and have a set goal, there is a murky grey area. We get to see the main set up once the pieces are laid out, and be on the board running through our moves until removed or ‘taken out’. But who set the board? The ones who sit behind the chess board deciding how long each move will take, hitting the timer and the next move is then taken by the other side. Back and forth, in a controlled, strategic and agreed manner, but with the ultimate goal of beating your opponent and winning, with the pawns and pieces being used as necessary to achieve that goal. You wouldn’t be able to play chess with someone if they didn’t know the rules or moves, or if they flipped the board every time they lost a piece, you just wouldn’t engage with them anymore. So, before you play chess with someone, you find out if they can play, how good they are and whether it will be worth your time to play a game with them. I suspect that’s why the ones who control the board, appear to play so well with each other, because there is an accord going on, of skill and purpose.

Back to the murky bit though. The area they don’t really want you to focus on, we’ll call it ‘The grey matter’, just like the term they have given to the unknown bits of our brains. We also use that colour to convey that something is a bit of an unknown, a ‘grey area’ we would say. And strangely we have named a certain type of ‘alien’ as the greys, giving shape, name and form to a mysterious group, but by making them out to be alien, gives us a view of them as they would like, as if they were easily identifiable by look alone.

But maybe we have that to be a comedy front, for the real shadowy greys that create the black and white landscape, the one that creates shadows for them to hide in. The shadows of fear, uncertainty and hopelessness. It’s where they live and thrive, and can only have those conditions if the ones who are thrust upon the board keep playing. And when I talk of black and white, I do not mean the colour of people’s skin, I mean the intention in their heart and what dwells within them. There are those who can create lightness, and those who can create darkness, so being able to manipulate or amplify either one of those, must be an advantage in the game of shadows. Not just for the ones doing it, but for those who end up being their keepers or who benefit from their uses, they can become an important tool and weapon. So, maybe once in a while, leave the board and the set pieces too it, and wander off to find a bit of colour…

(c) K Wicks