Author: MKW Publishing

The Will To Work

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It’s taken much of my thought over the years, and has been mentioned here and there in articles but in mine notably Work ethic and employment. But it’s been mentioned by way of comment on social media, how after first-hand experience, there is a large portion of a generation not wanting or willing to do something that is necessary, instead looking for the artistic job, or happy environment perhaps, and feel certain work is ‘beneath them’. And from my experience, this really isn’t a new problem, but is one that has spread.

Some people are just lazy, you can’t get away from that. Some are confused and don’t know what they want to do, some do but either don’t have the skills or opportunity available, so do nothing. Like I said, they were always there, and you could choose to be like that, and be left behind. Or you could get out there, make opportunities for yourself, or try something else as a fill in. But as it has been observed, and I can’t deny it, the long-term opportunities aren’t there, or are being taken away. Back in the day, you had more job security, your pay would go a bit further, you might even be able to save up and buy a house, start your own business, go travelling or afford holidays. Well, that has been well and truly thrown in the bin, for lots of people didn’t entirely notice the squeeze of systems that started a good while ago now.

Credit card and loans. Back in the day, before credit cards and loans were handed out willy nilly, we are led to believe that people had to save up for things, normal things like holidays, appliances, anything above and beyond the living costs of having a roof over your head. Cars were expensive (although you could always get a second-hand banger since I’ve been around), TV’s weren’t in every house and VCR’s were pricey too. You didn’t have the money, you waited. Birthday and Christmas money were special, because they usually went towards things that were just a bit out of your range as a kid. Same for grown-ups it seems. Before the lottery (which has an article in progress, but crosses into this one) people used to play the pools, trying to get a little win that would be little boost to the household purse. These last couple of decades though has seen borrowing on a grand scale, from citizen and government alike, borrowing and spending, borrowing more, spending more. It’s relentless. All about now, quickly, more. On the glad and sorry they used to call it, glad you’ve got it, sorry you’ve got to pay it back.

But what are people working for or towards these days? Even people who are driven and motivated and finding it tough, last few years have thrown many off kilter, rearranged plans and dreams, changed the entire trajectory of some people’s lives. So, I can’t blame people for being distracted or from having their thoughts redirected to something more meaningful. I guess society just can’t afford for everyone to do it at once which is the concern if a whole generation do it. We’ll see, i suspected it was because they are going to roll out automation and want people working remotely, or not at all. Just consuming and integrating with the metaverse they want everyone to simulate life in, while they roll out restrictive ‘smart cities’ for everyone. Sounds horrifying to me, but if it’s painted as a quiet, pollution free, controlled utopia, where you can just relax all the time and chill on the bean bags, catch up with your mates, do a bit of creative work if you ‘feel like it’ you know, google office style. That’s the hook, so you hand yourself over and before you know it you’ve got Logans Run meets the Time Machine’s Eloi. It’s a super creepy idea, and probably completely far-fetched, and I want it to be. I hope I look back at some of the things I have suggested and laugh, because I certainly don’t want to see any of them come to pass. But if they do, I can’t help thinking the ones who are going to be part of that future, just walked right into it…

(c) K Wicks

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So Big They Don’t Notice

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When discussing some of the mainstream ‘conspiracy theories’ it comes up now and again about how could everybody be in on it when it comes to it being kept under wraps by so many. And it does seem like a big ask, to just think that millions of people are in on it, keeping this really big secret to themselves and actively making sure others don’t find out. There are ones who know, and ones who can’t know, but I see it as remarkably easy to get lots of people on board with an idea, and then run with it.

As the famous quote by Joseph Goebbels goes “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie.”

Example, I’ll use the flat earth/round earth theory/debate for this (discussed already slightly in my article Flat or Round? Keeping in mind this works for both scenarios of convincing of a flat or round surface, whichever you want to be the outcome, or indeed whatever the lie. At the start of the education system or involved industry being rolled out (curriculum, space agencies, security departments etc), you decide what to teach the top professor/ leader in their field. They then teach that to others, and so on. That’s how ‘normal’ things are put into the mainstream and a constant stream of regurgitation of the same information is had. Passed on for generations as truth and fact, as they have been taught it, until they decide to accept that new information is allowed. And equally if you wanted to disrupt or corrupt knowledge, you could do it using the same model.

There are also little things along the way to nudge it into place. Create maps to fit the picture you are painting, make the maths fit, as once you have your answer to start, you can work your way back for the formula. Start things being computerised, then you can program in whatever you want, as long as the people reading it see what they are meant to, or read them as they have been taught to. Everything can be put in place in give the illusion of a much more limited earth. ‘The world just got smaller’ they said. And maybe it did, because it was suddenly limited to us by way of an ‘Antarctic treaty’ where everyone just agreed to leave that bit and just do science on a really small, limited and restricted scale. Have to say I don’t believe that cover story at all.

With the crater earth theory, it is said to be both flat and round, as we are a flat surface within a crater – hence sea level, and the bigger planet we are part of is round, and vaster than we can imagine. With the other craters representing the other ‘planets’. So, when other life forms and aliens are discussed, they don’t mean from outer space. They mean from ‘over there’. Same with Mars missions and all the ‘space’ expenditure, it is said it’s used to try and get out of this crater, because although we say there are other craters, apparently, we are trapped in this one. I am still on the fence with that one, but interested all the same. But what if everybody knew there was more, and it was bigger, it would change the playing field a bit wouldn’t it?

It also seems to me that available maps are plentiful of what the other ‘bigger earth’ looks like, maths have been calculated and models made to predict movements of the sun and moon. Just as tidy as all the other information we have been given for the globe earth. Just lacking pictures to back it up, but I’m sure photoshop and CGI will catch up there. And for the images we have to prove the globe earth, one could speculate the use of a round lens, round telescopes, rounded glass etc, which can create the image being rounded, or fisheye as they dubbed it. Funny how they claim maps were just wrong from hundreds of years ago which shows water distribution being very different. Yet parts are extremely accurate, even to this day, but they got half wrong? Maybe there is more to see there. And anyone who raises questions can be discredited, or laughed at, or cancelled. Literally. And some people don’t want to admit they’ve been fooled or could be, so won’t entertain the thought that someone lied and they could be deceived. That would be preposterous, they may say to themselves, and shut down any further thought of it. But sometimes to get the answer which may end up being fantastical, you have to entertain the outrageous, or the preposterous. That doesn’t mean accept it or go with it, but at least don’t dismiss it unnecessarily.

I think it also suits a purpose for both flat or round to be believed/disbelieved and for people to be busy trying to argue for and against. While we take time to focus on out there, we maybe aren’t giving in here our full attention. So, all of it could be complete fantasy and just pie in the sky, we do have everything figured out, all the answers to where we are and such. Sounds conveniently wrapped up, no more thinking to be done there, right? Well, to people like me, there is…

(c) K Wicks

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Rainbows

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The image of the rainbow is one I have always loved, starting in childhood with the Care Bears stare, to watching Rainbow Brite, and the story Jason and his technicolour dream coat. The wonderful array of colours, it’s nice to see. And I will admit, I have been rather sick of it recently. Glancing away from it every time I see a police car painted as it, or zebra crossing, or fire engine. Seeing it purely as a waste of money and thinking rather sour thoughts when looking at it. And then associating it with other rainbow representations which seem to have taken to being put in our faces at every opportunity. And while internally whinging about the fire engine the other day, it suddenly struck me how negative I felt towards it, the rainbow. Something that has always been represented previously as positive, magical and bright, was now being used anywhere and everywhere, but in the wrong context, to me anyway.

And I wondered, if there really could be anything in it. That rainbows are a representation of light and good, but you have to be of a good heart to make it work (cue the care bears idea), so by making people feel negative towards it, it can create more negativity. This is a rather new thought and idea, which is still forming by the way, so may seem quite out there initially, but wanted to give thought to the different references towards rainbows.

The Greek Goddess Iris – she was the goddess of the rainbow, and the messenger of the Olympian Gods. But more specifically, was known as the personal messenger and handmaiden of Hera, the goddess of marriage, women and family. It seems there is great need for Hera at the moment, in many parts of the world.

Bifrost – If you have seen the Marvel films of Thor you will know this reference, but it actually is written into Norse mythology where most of the information comes from for Odin, Thor and Asgard. Frost giants, mystical lands and legends, and a rainbow bifrost, which connects the different lands of the realm.

A double rainbow appeared in London at a timely moment recently on the day the queen died, which showed in full over Buckingham Palace.

A photo/video circulating of a shadow of a plane on clouds, with a complete circle of rainbow around the shadow. Very cool, but a bit weird to look at.

It’s theorised that rainbows are in fact a reflection of the firmament dome that we are encased in, and that’s why it always appears as a dome or circular shaped to us, like a snow globe I guess.

Either way, and whatever it really represents, I still get excited when I see one in the sky and will try and make more effort to not be put off by them in other walks of life.

(c) K Wicks

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Remember now… (poetry)

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Remember now

In all the gloom

Within your mind

To make some room

So in the dark

No time to dwell

We must make haste

To break the spell

To not get caught

In all the fear

And have a focus

Something clear

A feeling maybe

Or thoughts of good

Some quiet time

To be calmly stood

And take a moment

From what you see

Get back to the point

Of just trying to be

~

Yourself

(c) K Wicks

Bobby M – The Wild Pet Mantis

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Repost: A trip to the garden centre bought a very special treat while living in Spain a few years ago. I purchase a bright and colourful gaillardia and a heliotrope in the hope of attracting some extra bees to our garden. My love of macro photography needed subjects to come to us, it was too hot in Spain during the summer to go very far on foot, and standing still trying to take photographs meant instant sweating on the spot. I needed them to come to me. Flowers purchased, we returned home and put them in the terraced yard on a table to keep them away from the floors, very hot tiles don’t help plant roots.

Later that day, I had re-potted the plants and given them some water and what do I find? A praying mantis, a cute small adorable little praying mantis! I couldn’t believe it.

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But, not only did we find one mantis – but shortly after on the same day, we spotted a second one, excited beyond belief at that point. This one was different though, the first find being a European Mantis, the second one appeared to be an Orchid Mantis or Conehead Mantis nymph, still not sure.

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We only had less than a month to enjoy the smaller of the two before nature took its course. They were not contained in any way yet chose to remain on the table in the yard with an array of colourful bright plants to have as their home. But had I known about their temperament, I would have given them separate areas. They are very territorial it turns out and will eat anything that moves, even their own kind. So, within a month we were down to one mantis, but that one was with us for months. We got to see him grow bigger, see him shed and turn into a fully grown mantis. He could have left at any time but didn’t, he stayed and every morning was exciting, to see if he was still there. Being relieved when he was. We had a great number of geckos living there too and at night they would crawl over the walls looking for tasty morsels, so we pulled the table away from the wall to give him a chance.

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The time came for us to move, we were heading up into the mountains as a change to coastal living, we were looking for a place to settle and wanted to try all options first. I could not bring myself to leave our little mantis there, it was a stark terrace without our plants and although there were lots of flowers in watered areas, the rest of the area was pretty dry – also being just at the end of a hot summer. So I decided he was coming with us, his adventure would continue in the mountains with a wild garden surrounding us and lots more flora and fauna. He seemed to take to it well, and remarkably stayed in the little mandarin tree I placed him in, safe from the geckos (up there we had more than before), and with lots of bees and flies coming and going for a food. But lets be fair, he had the whole of the outside, he didn’t really need my help.

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But there did come the day, about a month after we moved and the temperature was starting to drop, that he didn’t come out of his little tree to say hello. And no matter how hard I looked (in the tree it had become a bit of a Where’s Wally/Waldo game), one day he just wasn’t there. I knew it was coming but it was still harsh and took a bit of fun out of the morning for a while. I like to think he left to go mating and have the life of a mantis rather than anything else. It turns out up there was very habitable for mantises and we saw an array of different ones the following summer. I saw him eat plenty of insects so it’s not unreasonable to think nature took him too (or even another mantis) – and eventually time would have anyway as apparently they only live for around a year. Nature is cruel, but beautiful at the same time. This was a unique experience and one I cherish.

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Bobby Mantis

(c) K Wicks

An Error, But A Big One

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There have been stirs in the world of psychiatry recently, as well as the extended branch of it which is where the issue has arisen, the pharmaceutical area. A rather damning article, referencing a rather damning paper of evidence, published only last month – The chemical imbalance theory of depression is dead detailing these findings. Yet change is not that swift in the real world of medicine, not by a long shot. As of today, it is still clearly noted on the NHS website “It’s thought that SSRIs work by increasing serotonin levels in the brain”.

The fall-out from this on the ground though is what is important, not whether they can agree or not. It’s real people who have been living with difficulties for quite some time in some cases, taking medication that they are now hearing, may in fact be useless. And these medications are not without risk, the side effects leaflets are really quite scary. And speaking as someone who has taken them, and suffered side effects, I can attest to that. They were enough to make me stop taking them, and try and assess what it was in my life that was making me feel so unbalanced, or unstable, or emotional. Taking into account everything, not just cherry picking the bits that seemed to fit at the time. I wanted to feel on an even keel, and I never did while taking pharmaceutical medications. And also coming to learn with age, that many of those feelings were actually perfectly normal for the situation at hand, or the time of life I found myself in.

But it seems there is much being revealed of late about what the effects of all these drugs really are, aside from the actual known side effects. I have written about it slightly in my article Memory, covering painkillers, and have given thought over the years to it anyway. And it seems an odd thing, and has for a while, that you would expect your body to regulate and balance itself, while taking something that is fundamentally intefering with that, on an enhanced specialised chemical level no less.

Thoughts, thought processes and emotional impulses are all working together, most the time for most people anyway, and if you encounter an overload it can tip the balance and destabilise the system. I guess they believe by shutting down or dampening one of these systems, it can relieve the pressure as it were. And I get it, in theory the idea is sound. But it’s on the premise that we are all wired mentally the same, and we are all capable of dealing with said chemical changes, hence the prescriptions seems to be at an alarming rate these days. That is not the case, as we well know, with awful suicide rates and more mental illness being identified or labelled to deal with what they say is the rise in mental illness. And I don’t deny there is a problem, we have a weird, shitty, soulless world being constructed around us, with constant manipulation and mental intrusion. I would be worried if people weren’t dissatisfied with that and showing signs of struggling. Instead of coping mechanisms though, and assessing if people are meant to be treated this way, it seems ever important to blame people themselves, and demand they adapt to the ‘new world order’ that creeps its way into our psyche. As anyone would do who is trying to make them the centre feature of your life, trying to take all your attention, telling you you’ll never survive without them, trying to turn you against your friends and family. Sounds like a terribly abusive scenario doesn’t it? And what I have learnt along the way is that people don’t always recognise they are in it, because it makes it a bit easier to make excuses or just shy away from a painful truth. Imagine how much easier it would be for that abusive person if they were also able to convince you that you were mentally dysfunctional, and needing medicating. It would serve a purpose for them in the end, making people think they are in need of extra assistance that only one can give, to dismiss others who would ‘invalidate’ their condition.

We all have hard times in our lives, and I will never deny that things can happen that will take the rug from under you and change your whole life, traumatic things, hurtful things, shocking things. But these things will happen, to you, or to those you know. And imagine a world where there isn’t a doctor to just write a prescription, or a pharmacy to just cash it, what would you do? Grief, despair and heartache. Sadness, loss and fear. They are all feelings, and ones of life despite what they represent. You wouldn’t want to take something to stop you feeling happy and joyful, would you? We embrace certain feelings in life, and seem to shy away from or try to eliminate others, but they are necessary and character building as they say. And maybe it has been too much time now and too many people switched off those feeling for too long, and don’t know how to feel properly anymore. Maybe that was the point of all the drugs after all. Who can say for sure, but I will keep giving it thought.

(c) K Wicks

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