Supermarkets

It started with convenience, everything in one place, free parking, lots of choice. Moving into larger stores, more shops available, 24 hours shopping. Supermarkets gradually took over as the main source of the family weekly shop, with many citing it as the Death of High Street, but years later, many smaller shops still remained, although getting less and less. My article highlighted a particular issue I found with local shops, so supermarkets got my business instead. But times are changing again, with supermarkets now being a major player in trying to roll out digital and automation, using something extremely necessary for survival. Food. Written about in If you control the food, it’s become very obvious of late that there are moved to control, restrict and change what people are ‘allowed’ to eat, as well as wanting everyone to be monitored and controlled through I.D’s, apps and routine medical testing. To me supermarkets are a possible front line for this change to take place, and if people realise what part they are playing, and how important they are, maybe it will change how some people view this situation.

I’ll note the problems I have with some of the new things moving in, from things I have read and articles I have seen over the last few months.

  • Access via app stores only – where you won’t be allowed into the store unless you have a smart phone, which has the stores app on it, which you must sign up for, and scan in with. No app, no entry. Just like the good old days, if your names not down, your not coming in, kind of thing.
  • More self-service tills – many have differing views on this, some like the streamlined aspect of it, no human interaction, and all very ordered, or so it seems. Because often they have issues, and always there is a human presence to deal with said issues, or give guidance to the untrained person being expected to use the equipment. But the main gripe people who aren’t on board have is that it is an obvious move to cut down on staff, and to save/make more money for the company, while all the while the shopping environment becomes a more sterile atmosphere, but doesn’t seem to be as nice, or clean as before. So sterile in attitude, not in appearance or efficiency unfortunately.
  • Petrol pumps – it seems that some places, while it seemed easier to pay at the pump, a new rule, apparently introduced by the banks, is that they will reserve an amount of around £120.00 from your bank, and refund/return what you don’t spend within up to 60 minutes. Another seriously cheeky move in the game of money, transaction and charges. I have shared my views on Cash and the money they make from us having money, so this is just another move to have more say than they should about what is done with your money. Because once you hand it over to the bank, are you really in control of it anymore?

But supermarkets like I said, play a frontline role in this, because if enough people just blithely download these things, and allow others to be restricted or refused food because they didn’t download an app, or didn’t want to have a phone with them, then we are in real trouble. Which may be so, because given how recent events went, and many people without a seconds hesitation, actually wished people harm because they didn’t ‘do as they were told’. So, if someone is threatened with no access to food, what will they do? Will they refuse? Will they shout about it? Will they comply? I guess we will see where people will fall on that one, if the authorities and corporations are allowed to continue with their agendas and targets which seem set on decimating the food chain and normal food, farming and agricultural systems in place. So, it is Convenience, or dependence? because it seems awfully like we are being streamlined to fit around their corporate systems, targets and services. The consumer becomes the consumed…

(c) K Wicks

A Different Trajectory

So many lives have been interrupted, steered in a different direction, and in some cases, halted altogether. But at the beginning of this, I couldn’t help thinking of all the situations people would be missing out on. The implications of the decisions being imposed on a nation, being felt at a very individual level for so many all at once. Aside from the very sinister occurrences covered in It looked sinister, it was other things too that may seem quite ordinary or mundane to some, but those things shape your life, and you. Give you experiences which help to build your character and form your personality as you get older. Once lockdown started, I really felt for people. No socialising, casual shopping, get togethers, parties, hanging out, moving, getting married. Or meeting new people, dating, starting new jobs or travelling. So much either put on hold or has gone forever. Time does not wait though, it marched ever on as it does, and people’s lives were held in place, or tipped upside down.

Because alongside that, ran other pressures, worries and concerns. A campaign of propaganda, coercion, fear and a relentless drive to change people’s way of thinking. A lot of strain and pressure has been put upon people, by the government, local vicinity, and in many cases, their own friends, family and colleagues. And there we really got to see ‘peer pressure’ in action. In fact, they encouraged and facilitated it, allowed bullying and cajoling of people, as part of the plan to wear people down and in some cases break them. My article Nudge, Nudge goes into that a bit more as well as The three d’s of conversion under coercion. But really what many seem to overlook now, is their own behaviour during that and how they are now viewed. It really has revealed a starkly uncaring and nasty streak in many, where under other circumstances may not have had a chance to be exposed, but once you know, you know. And it really does (or at least should), change the way you look at someone. Knowing they wanted to throw you to the wolves, just to make themselves ‘feel better’. Not to actually save them, or help them in any physical way, just to feel better about being duped themselves, because that in some cases is what it highlights. That they were easily fooled, just followed orders and didn’t actually use their brain. Now, that can’t be said of all, some who indulged the new experimental drug did actually think it through with what they thought they knew, and genuinely thought they were making the right decision, because they listened to people who cared not one jot about them. Overriding their own concerns, or ignoring the concerns of others, blind trust I guess. Even people close to you can lie and take advantage of you, so why it wouldn’t be considered for complete strangers and ones who stand to profit financially from your decision, is beyond me.

So, people are now on a different trajectory from before, things have been redirected and rearranged. Lives, destinies and paths have been altered and are being steered somewhere new. That doesn’t mean you can’t take control of the situation, and take back some of that, but if you continue to drift along with no purpose or aim, you will get pulled along with the prevailing current, or worse, sucked under. It can’t go back to how it was before, too much has changed, too much damage has been done for forgive and forget, I can see that. The toll it has taken on people from all sorts of angles is clear, and still goes on, so there hasn’t been time to try and work through it, move on from it or work out how to move on from it. I believe that’s part of the overriding plan to reshape society, throwing constant changes and variables at people, meaning you can’t find your feet and stabilise, to regroup as you might call it. Because if we did regroup, we would be stronger and more of a threat. That’s why it serves a purpose for everyone to be at odds with each other, about everything we could be – colour, height, weight, gender, education, politics, vaccines, music, religion, media, etc. Personal preference is now used as a basis for throwing insults, excluding people and trying to show them up, a classic example of that being “I really like apples. Oh, so you hate oranges then?” It’s an odd thing, to be expected to defend yourself against that which you have no issue. Which is the issue to people who want division. It’s not enough to like something, they need you to hate something too it would seem, And all it has done in many cases, is make people stay quiet about what they like, so they don’t get accused of hating something else. And others, well, they are all too vocal with what they hate, constantly needing others to be aware of it. I guess it makes me wonder, what is it they actually like? Do they know? Do they understand the concept of like, and acceptance, and tolerance? Not so sure, yet that is what is it is claimed to be. There seems to be a lot of redefining of terms these days, but that doesn’t make the change so, it just writes down what someone thinks it should be. We are in a murky world of definitions at the moment, and maybe we always were, where they invent and define terminology to control, dictate, bamboozle and ultimately gain an advantage. Then they re-invent them, when the mood changes, or the narrative needs a shift, swaying the collective mindset of society in the direction that gives them the upper hand.

And what of that upper hand, previously it seemed to be for the benefit of just Consumerism, or to push people’s ideals and wants in a certain direction. But now it has taken a rather insidious turn, and no longer seems to be about spending and industry, it seems to be about domination and control of peoples bodies, actions, thoughts and feelings. Slightly different approach from “Hey, buy this”, it’s turned a bit into “Hey, we own you, do what we say”. Where they would like us to understand we are no longer the consumer, we are now the product, which therefore makes us, the consumed. So, what it is they are consuming of ours? Data, money, time, energy, thoughts, ideas, etc. We are being harvested, emotionally, financially and mentally, with a final purpose of our actual bodily parts then get re-used for someone else. So, to me it’s a bit more in depth and complex than just “they want your data”, or they are just trying to take everyone’s assets, because while they are, it’s a much bigger sinister picture unfolding around us.

(c) K Wicks

Ghost Cities

This isn’t about haunted cities, despite the title. And a wonderful film, Spirited Away, would be one to watch if you like ghost cities in the paranormal context. But this is about real cities. Well, I say real cities, because that’s what they look like on the face of it. My starting point for this was finding about huge uninhabited cities that were built in China, and never used. Seeing vast towns and cities across places like Russia, Japan, and the Middle East. They looked like the future, all of those places.

And when you look around the world, there is a lot of abandoned ones. For various reasons apparently, financial collapses, disasters, a change in times and fortunes. Ancient and modern alike, apparently we are prone to the same predisposition for grandeur, opulence and wastefulness. But of these cities dotted around the world, I sometimes thought they looked like they might have been used as movie sets, and thought no more about it. Until certain propaganda videos started making their way over from China at the start of the pandemic. I grew up not knowing much about that place, understanding it was shut off from the rest of the world for hundreds of years from 1434, apparently opening back up in 1979. Although if you start to look at ‘history’ it can be confusing, as the silk road carried on until 1453, and there were a couple of ‘opium wars’ in between as well. So, although shut off, kind of still trading and doing business here and there when it suits, so just the population in general shut off then?

Back to the propaganda videos, the start of which was people just ‘dropping like flies’ in the streets. Used by the media over here to whip people into a terrified frenzy as best they could. To enforce the idea that there is something in the air that you can’t see, that could kill you. The air, something that you have to have, and is all around you. Very clever I thought, having given much though already to fear, its uses and why people would want to use it against someone or for an advantage. Taking something routine and everyday you can’t avoid and putting fear around it, as I talked about in my article Don’t fall asleep.

But the idea of cities with no people, sat around just waiting for a purpose didn’t go away. Then I thought about how easy it would be to have that city full when needed, of either actors, or unsuspecting people who think it’s a normal city like any other, because they know no other. Truman Show esque style. It is not out of the realm of possibility that they would have that type of thing at their disposal, public opinion and Consumerism seems to be extremely important to them, and having control over it them. And through the means of psychology (the depth approach), technology and marketing and propaganda, they have worked out exactly what they need to do, to get the desired results. And if it looks like they won’t get them with everyone, they will cheat, and make it ‘look like’ they did. Even now, we have well placed, strategic ‘leaked’ videos, showing what they want you to see. Every. Damn. Time. And even some of what have been deemed as false flag events, these get confused by some thinking they are faked events, whereas my understanding is that are not faked at all. They are orchestrated, and appear as a massacre by a lone individual or small group on a mission, or with such a deep cause within them it compels them to act. So, often the casualties would have to be real, the location real, the perpetrator real. But you can switch any of those for one to be conveniently placed, or faked, or manipulated to carry out such acts or react to them. They can fake entire lives on the screen, so if you haven’t met these people, you will never know for sure. And there used to be a time where it would be said, don’t believe what they say, believe what you see.

Well, that isn’t quite as it used to be anymore with technology, graphics, drones, CGI, robotics and animatronics, so much can be manipulated. The patents held for other intrusive technologies are also concerning, and ones they delight over. Of being able to ‘get inside your head’ and further down the lines, they want to put chips directly into your brain system, so they can literally be in your thoughts. Studying them, scanning them, deciding them ultimately. Sounds more than creepy doesn’t it, and it is. Like an obsessed entity that cannot deal with individualism, that wants to assimilate you into their central processing centre, so you can be a drone for them, feeding them your subconscious thoughts, while they feed you whatever they want to. And then it becomes a self-sustaining cycle, a co-dependency of sorts, but not a healthy one. Makes me think of The Borg in Star Trek, and of The Strangers in Dark City, covered a bit in my article The Hive. We are a visual creature, and although attached to an animal, we use a saying for humans as well, ‘Monkey see, monkey do’, and it’s not hard to see the route of it.

We learn well by observing others, usually. Picking up useful things throughout our life, watching to see how it’s done, then trying it ourselves. Which has served us well, but it’s quite possible that it is now being used against us for purposes of control. We are shown what is ‘happening to people’ if they disobey, or step out of line, just as they did here too during the propaganda drive. Showing you people being excessively fined, or in distress in the hospitals, being stopped from doing normal things and living. And in my mind that achieved two things at once, killing two birds with one stone as they saying goes. It instantly causes a divide, because some people would have taken the instant fear route, and wanted to avoid any scrutiny and indeed the threatened ‘punishment’, while others realised the stupidity of it and the dangerous slippery slope it would lead to, also knowing the ‘punishments’ were just the old carrot and stick methods. I’ll try and bribe you with carrot, then hit you with the stick kind of thing. Psychological warfare with an overtone of brutality, which is exactly what they have created with the strategic timing of video ‘leaks’, articles, daily press conferences, death stats and all sorts of other continuous tactics they used. Nudge, Nudge and The three d’s of conversion under coercion covered those too. They have thrown everything at this, they really have. Which is why I do think it’s not too outrageous to believe that there could be towns and cities, built for purpose and used as such, just not the purpose we might have thought they were for…

(c) K Wicks

And a reading of the article too, if you would prefer to listen instead…

Unrealised Youth

For some, it may well be an unrealised youth, you hear the phrase ‘living through their kids’, to imply that someone missed the boat, and gets a second chance through their kids. A worrying concept. It could also be the case though, that they did realise their youth, and it was just fine, but the opportunity to ‘do it over’ sort of presents itself with your offspring, or just with time. We hear of people having a mid-life crisis and wanting to do impetuous things associated with youthfulness, but unfortunately many aren’t able to fund those ideas at the age we might want to do them. So, I can see why when you get to an age when you can, or maybe of a certain mindset, it can seem like a mid-life crisis, but maybe it’s just a normal life thing to happen. For some. But trying to have a life through others, is a dangerous game to play. There are various scenarios where it can manifest, not just with parents and children of course, partners, friends, colleagues, and even in the weirdest set-ups, strangers. Whether it is because they cannot form a proper life on their own, or they are dependent on others energy and attention I’m not sure, each case would be different.

In the worst-case scenarios those, we have Munchausen-by-proxy, and a well-known case of it here in the UK, where a nurse killed children, to get off on the drama and attention that then surrounded that child needing help. And there have been many cases, but on an individual level, where it’s just one mother and child, and a ‘mystery illness’, lots of attention through the other person. And perhaps there are men who do it too, but no stories spring to mind, so far I have only read about it being women, and that being said, only the ones that got caught.

With other relationships, it can be just as unhealthy, any kind of dependency on others like that. For attention, energy, validation, continuous emotional support and other things that, in the right dose, would be fine, and normal. But when it becomes a want for those things, or a craving that extends beyond normal human interaction, that’s when it gets weird. And not always as noticeable as you might think, because the person on the receiving end needs to able to firstly, spot what is going on, and secondly, have the strength of character to deal with it. Nipping it in the bud they call it, halting something dead in its tracks before it can go any further and mutate into a weirder version of itself. Knowing when someone is being entirely self-serving may seem like an obvious spot, but sadly, it’s not always so. And worse than that, are some who in some strange way, convince themselves that they are trying to help the person – on both sides. Desperately so in some cases, because it would appear they develop a severe attachment and dependency disorder, and then require the subject of their fixation, ideally, to return that dependency. For both sides, it gives them a sense of control, albeit a temporary and superficial one, and possibly even alleys some of the more outlandish behaviour that would reveals the instability in all it’s crazy glory. And perhaps, that is why some people on the receiving end, indulge that behaviour, or go along with it as best they can, for those seemingly calmer, more stable moments and to avoid ‘the drama’ or ‘the tantrum’. And sometimes it needs to be called out, and exposed for what it is, because in the face of scrutiny, often does not hold up as valid, and they know that, so will try to avoid having anyone else be able to speak against it or question it.

Being able to understand where people are coming from is incredibly important, to be able to grasp their motive and intention towards you, and understanding yours towards them equally so. It can help greatly, but between people hiding their true intentions, and people not always being confident enough to ask question, or fully interpret the answers, we are often left with confusing interactions and experiences. That isn’t anything new though, and why people talk about body language as a source of information to know what’s really going on with someone. Unfortunately, there is no hard and fast manual for it through, each person will have a slightly different version of a ‘tell’ or ‘giveaway behaviours’, which to people who have the gift, can see it straight away. Others need coaching, and some will never see it, despite trying. And just as there are varying degrees of being able to work people out for good or to help them, there are those who use it for nefarious purposes and to hold people back. To detect the fears and vulnerabilities in people, the easily led and the ones they can take advantage of, and use those fears against them. Mostly for their own gain, but sometimes just for the meanness of it, because they can. The spiteful type, you know the ones, who carry around so much bitterness and hatred, it seems to ooze out of them and spill over into normal life. There is so much to do, and think about, that there really doesn’t seem time to be hateful towards others. If they have done wrong, swift justice, no more thought. If they are awful, cut them out of your life, no more thought. Do you see a pattern there? Not only do some people waste a big portion of their lives doing something they hate, or being around people they don’t like, that when they do stop being around that, they forget to enjoy things, and keep that hateful attitude. So, they waste more time talking and thinking about something that has passed, and is gone, and is only being kept alive by their want to keep it so. Maybe it becomes so familiar, they don’t know how to leave it behind. Give time and thought to that which deserves it, and take action on that which needs it, and when it comes to interactions with others, work out whether it is you who is giving your time, or if it is someone or something taking it…

(c) K Wicks

It’s really strange… (poetry)

It’s really strange

That some don’t see

Cause for concern

With died suddenly

Why so many people

Are now getting sick

But seemed to be fine

Through the ‘pandemic’

The healthy and young

And not of old age

Are now being used

To layer the stage

For further control

And they won’t relent

For their dreams of one

World government

But it truly is madness

And one they pursue

It’s more than your life

They are trying to screw

It’s time and the future

They are trying to steal

Deciding your thoughts

And what you should feel

But there comes a time

When deep in your soul

The alarm bell goes off

And you take back control

~

Of where this all goes

(c) MKW Publishing

A Cube

Just a random article about cubes. The films I have listed below for reference, all have a cube as a heavy feature in the storyline. They make me think of other well-ordered geometrical things, like grids and systems, which run off of a power source. I will explain after each one.

Hellraiser (1987) – a puzzle of sorts, a box to be opened and tempt you into hell. But it is a cube with a dark secret, which feeds on human desire, curiosity and deviance, which activate it. So, that is its power source.

Star Trek First Contact (1996), The Borg – their ship is a cube, they search out and assimilate knowledge and other species. And this one runs on a very clear system, with the power source being the Borg themselves integrated with the technology.

The Cube (1997) – a strange film without a backstory given or answer of how or why. But a maze in a cube for unsuspecting occupants, more like a prison with boobytraps and mechanisms, yet still a system and design that serves a purpose.

Transformers – the allspark which was a great power source. Shaped like a cube, and part of the machine world, but still seems relevant here.

Tesseract – in the marvel films, a recurring item throughout the films, is again a cube, this one being an unlimited power source.

We always seem to be looking for the ultimate energy source, and therefore power. I guess it’s no coincidence that the word power is used for batteries, as well as for ruling. Maybe their power comes from us, literally. And when they showed us a field of human battery pods in The Matrix, maybe they weren’t far from the truth. But a cube is an easy shape to imagine, a box. And it’s easy to get stuck in one, mentally perhaps, ‘think outside the box’ they say. Maybe that’s also more than just a metaphor, but to think it’s only in mind keeps you trapped thus so, and is a self-perpetuating loop. Perhaps.

But we are definitely being viewed and treated more as a commodity rather than a consumer, so it makes me wonder if we are the ones now being consumed. Just as we have done with resources, for the system trying to unfold, it switches. We become the resource. And like with all the films mentioned above, there is someone or something behind those cubes, and a need…

(c) K Wicks