society

An Image of The Future

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I think they wanted us to imagine it would be the machines that rise up and ruin humanity, with the view of ‘how could they have known?’ and ‘they had the best intentions’. But as speculated in Is It Really the Machines We Should Fear? It would appear that it is very much other humans we should be fearing, and this is not a new revelation to me, but seems to be to others.

The propaganda and fad machine rolled out thick and heavy for the instilled vision of machines gone bad with such films as Terminator, iRobot, A Space Odyssey, Robocop, Transformers and all sorts of other sci-fi and fantasy films, as well Star Trek putting forward a weird hybrid version to bridge that gap of human and machine, giving us The Borg.

And we had another idea give to us many years ago now, where we were told to think a future of being held down and controlled in a way we could merely imagine at that time, looking at other countries and history to apparently avoid that. In fact, the opposite seems to have occurred, with the regime of control seeming more familiar than a healthy, prosperous future of people, ideas and a positive energy spreading through humanity.

I will share a quote from a film here, and is one I have shared before, but it is even more apt for this piece. From the film Tomorrowland, and Hugh Laurie delivers this piece rather well –

“Let’s imagine… if you glimpsed the future, you were frightened by what you saw, what would you do with that information? You would go to… the politicians, captains of industry? And how would you convince them? Data? Facts? Good luck! The only facts they won’t challenge are the ones that keep the wheels greased and the dollars rolling in. But what if… what if there was a way of skipping the middle man and putting the critical news directly into everyone’s head? The probability of wide-spread annihilation kept going up. The only way to stop it was to show it. To scare people straight. Because, what reasonable human being wouldn’t be galvanized by the potential destruction of everything they’ve ever known or loved? To save civilization, I would show its collapse. But, how do you think this vision was received? How do you think people responded to the prospect of imminent doom? They gobbled it up like a chocolate eclair! They didn’t fear their demise, they re-packaged it. It could be enjoyed as video-games, as TV shows, books, movies, the entire world wholeheartedly embraced the apocalypse and sprinted towards it with gleeful abandon. Meanwhile, your Earth was crumbling all around you. You’ve got simultaneous epidemics of obesity and starvation. Explain that one! Bees and butterflies start to disappear, the glaciers melt, algae blooms. All around you the coal mine canaries are dropping dead and you won’t take the hint! In every moment there’s the possibility of a better future, but you people won’t believe it. And because you won’t believe it you won’t do what is necessary to make it a reality. So, you dwell on this terrible future. You resign yourselves to it for one reason, because *that* future does not ask anything of you today. So yes, we saw the iceberg and warned the Titanic. But you all just steered for it anyway, full steam ahead. Why? Because you want to sink! You gave up! That’s not the monitor’s fault. That’s yours.”

And from these things, I take it that they know what people are like, with all the decades they’ve had, and the billions they have spent on working people out through various means, and then manipulating them thereafter highlighted in Consumerism, The First Fad and Nudge Nudge. But what happens next is where the films and speculations come in, because some of them are based on presumptions and results of animal experiments, discussed in The Beautiful Mice. And I believe they have run human experiments too that we don’t know about, in places in don’t have access to, on people who don’t know that is their purpose. As we could be too, one of my out there thoughts is to consider that we are the ones who have had our entire lives fabricated, like a buckled cross between The Truman Show and Dark City. But I have a feeling that is for another article. It’s the now we are part of that will pave the way for what comes, so is an important stage and step in the whole process, so make sure you know when now is…

(c) MKW Publishing

Ready For Doom

~ MKW Publishing ~ 2 Comments

I know why, but I can’t deny there seems to be a certain tone going around, of what is to come and the horrors that await us all in the future. As if Pinhead himself is holding the door to all of the torturous horror available, whispering “I have such sights to show you”, herding you in while issuing tickets at a rather costly price. It will only cost your soul.

It seems inevitable now apparently, that we are steered towards even big doom and disaster, primed, prepped and ready for it mentally. And some perhaps physically if we are to believe there is a generation of preppers out there. But why is that? I have already speculated on it in Prepped for Disaster, or Clever Programming? And it’s no secret that people have been pummelled with propaganda and ideals, of plans for the future by the corrupted institutions that have bought their way into people’s lives.

I can’t help thinking that the ‘ready for doom’ attitude really does help their cause, because then we may think there is no other path, or forget that we are capable of making new ones, on our own. We do not need it to be neatly laid out for us, and if it’s not yet clear, we don’t need a gardener to find it and uncover it. People are more useful than they realise sometimes, and don’t always understand their abilities and role in where we are. Instead sitting back and allowed the feeding tube to be put in, and the TV to be put on to keep their eyes busy, while the mind slowly dies, leaving the body and making it available for the Captains of Industry to harvest you. Imagine the couch potato vision we were given back in the day, fat, lazy people just doing the basic to get by, barely even walking to the fridge, just guzzling cheap food and watching cheap values on TV. To normal people, that would seem a waste of a life, limiting your health, imagination, body and soul. But to the controllers, that is where the money is – for them. Because while to us they do not do much and don’t really contribute to what we think society needs, they create an awfully large customer base for the marketers. Selling clothes, food, medications, fantasy and a future where you don’t need to think or do, you can just be. Well, that’s all gone horribly wrong now it seems.

America was the blueprint it would seem, ruin the population and create vast amounts of hatred, then systematically cripple the economy, but small pockets at a time so they don’t really notice. Taxes here, regulations there, different rules for different states so that each one falls in line with the locking down of people’s lives. Blue and red, black and white, left and right. Having people so divided and wanting to ‘win’, they lose sight of what it is they are supposed to be winning, instead preferring to tear down their opponent and then ride the waves of ego that seem to follow. My dad’s bigger than your dad has raged quite out of control, hasn’t it?

With various mechanisms of control, the illusion of modern society and democracy held up for a while, but is quickly souring. Dysfunction and corruption are firmly leading the way now, yet it is being portrayed as an innovation for the future, but seems more like a fantasy dystopian storyboard on the surface. Sort of reminding me of the series Lost, where it seems to have so much promise at first, a great idea executed well, then as time went on it started to become haphazard and somewhat fall apart, losing itself in it’s own ridiculousness. And that’s why it seems to me, that although it would appear the vast net to capture the world is in place, I suspect that it is only how it appears and great effort is put in to maintain that appearance. Same with the doom and gloom mantra, worse is coming, expect more carnage, disaster is round the corner etc, that constant stream of foreboding conditioning being repeated, recycled and reused depending on their next project. And the people are very good at grabbing onto that and running with it, amplifying it, almost as if we have become so good at playing their game, we have learnt to condition ourselves for them…

(c) K Wicks

It Slipped So Easily

~ MKW Publishing ~ 1 Comment

It slipped so easily into our consciousness. Can we even remember a time before it was there. Of being told what is and what was, diligently listening, learning, repeating and continuing the cycle of information and conditioning. We have been shaped and primed for what we see before us, quite possibly for all the reactions that have come about. The ones For and Against, the traitors, the resistance, the villains. All laid out with plots and players, lead characters and the obligatory NPC’s on the side to bulk it out and give it a bit of credibility.

And many have likened how it is in society now, to many a movie storyline, myself included in Films, real life twisted or just fantasy, and Prepped for disaster, or clever programming? So, again I am drawn to the possible conclusion that we are the ones creating this reality based on what we have been fed and programmed to react to and respond with. Our normal go to is to find the familiar, to search out something that makes us feel comfortable and safe. What else could be more familiar than feeling you have done this before, or seen it before. Instilling a strange new type of Deja-vu in people, but a digital overlayed version. If you have ever had actual Deja-vu, you will know it is not always a good feeling, and in fact can be very unsettling seeing or doing something you know for a fact you haven’t done before. Yet the memory is present from it, clear as day. That’s quite a different feeling from a scenario or idea being somewhat familiar, as it has been portrayed in a different setting by chosen people, yet is meant to evoke the feeling of having ‘seen it before’.

A neatly written and played out game of society taking place within a construct. A sinister game of Monopoly, where like the board game version, they only see the banker, the owners of property and the money. People, their lives and feelings are a small side part to them, and quite an annoyance to them it would seem unless there is a monetary value and profit to be had. But as we are here and so far have been necessary in some capacity for their industrial revolution, they need to factor us in to current and future plans. Whether that be controlling us, reducing us or just incorporating us into a technological landscape, who knows for sure, but all seem to be a possibility because that is how it is made to be. Focusing people’s thoughts towards a narrow channel, steering the ideas and outcome with predictability and influence, just as has been done for more than an age. Shaping society for the present and the future, by erasing or rewriting the past, confusing people and changing the goalposts of life to maintain a strange half-life of sorts. Letting us have a bit of free range now and again, or giving us a few extra incentives or rewards to make it seem as though we are getting somewhere, or moving forward as a collective human race. Part of the blag. Because inevitably the rewards and pats on the head, get followed by punishments and new rules to fit into their plan and set up, and maybe that’s why sometimes it feels like we have been here before. Because we have…

(c) MKW Publishing

Are You Not Entertained?

~ MKW Publishing ~ 5 Comments

What it is about entertainment that keeps us enthralled? Hooked and distracted by carefully crafted forms and expressions of what we call ‘entertainment’. Put there initially to entertain, but seems to be a consuming conveyor of industry now. Once you are in the corporate fold for it, seems you are no longer you. Similar maybe to how we get treated once we are born, as part of the societal cog we are brought up to believe we are so important to. But just as in that structure you would have workers, soldiers, royalty etc, there is another layer that gets overlooked as important. Look at the film Antz for a basic on what I mean, it’s a good watch, but is about society, being an individual as well part of the collective, and saving society from a nefarious eugenicist plan by the head of the military. But they keep the structure basic as i mentioned, wanting us to liken ourselves to ants and other hive creatures, busying ourselves for our purpose, so the queen can flourish and then repeat the cycle.

Yet there is layer that is always there, in different forms. I’ll start from when I think of them being portrayed as an important part of life.

Greek Tragedies – theatre performed by actors portraying human nature, myths and traditions, apparently as early as 5BC.

Jesters, those medieval tricksters that heavily feature in Nephilim stories and appear in the royal courts, to keep the king or queen amused they say. While on the streets of the average folk having a scaled down puppeteered version in Punch and Judy. And another custom which is interesting, mostly relevant, but a bit of a tangent here.

Plays also became a big thing around the mid 1300’s, with theatre performances being encouraged by the church they say, telling bible stories and the lives of the saints. Maybe then it was realised that visual propaganda can be a powerful tool.

Mop Fairs – we still have some around today, but they are known more as funfairs these days. But back in the day, they were created to match workers with employers, so a job drive really. But off the back of the black death (and before the Statute of Cambridge in 1388 – covered in my article A Working Strategy) it seems they already found a way to limit and control people. Holding local events, to create a contract between employer and employee, making the skilled person show their trade by way of a symbol on their persons (straw for farmer, wool for shepherd, and a mop for an unskilled person). Once you had come to an agreement and your employment secured for a year, you were given a ‘token’ of a shilling, and a ribbon to signify you were taken. Sounds all very organised doesn’t it? If not a little weird and controlling. And as a bonus, they started to put on stalls for games, drinking and for them to be able to spend that token as fast they got it. It is said – “The whole event became a major festival and eventually was condemned for the drunkenness and immorality they encouraged”. But still falls into the category of entertainment, to a point, making a very public spectacle of people’s skills and ability to pay their own way. I’m sure someone found that very entertaining, as well as humiliating and quite demoralising for the people going through it perhaps.

But back to forms of keeping people enthralled. I can’t imagine it really got to take hold until the advent of cameras and moving film, following on from literature in the form of fiction. But again, we are led to believe that most average people were illiterate and couldn’t read, only the wealthy, and those who had time to partake of fanciful thoughts and ideas. Same with theatre, as time has gone on, we have had a pricing system which determines usually who gets to go, and different types of presentations for those who may have different tastes. Like opera and live music generally, there are many different styles and tastes and would have been a great source of amusement and enjoyment over the centuries. But again, until technology has allowed us to record and repeat music and songs, it would have been a small number at any one time being exposed to it.

I will skip to modern times now, with a perfected mechanism of exposure really between all the devices and forms of entertainment. The First Fad covered the psychology behind the basics of it back in the 50’s, but we can easily see the product of it all around us. Music, games, TV, film, news and all forms of entertainment condensed and contained to be dipped into when you so wish. No longer having to wait like the good old days, or even stop being entertained by it all if you want it to go on for days. Choosing to immerse yourself in another world, written and constructed with distraction in mind, and most people know this. They want this and rightly so, sometimes life can be a bit draining and you do want to ‘switch off’ for a bit. But do many people give any thought to what it is they are wanting to escape from? Or do they spend time watching to be inspired? It’s one thing to have something to compliment reality, but it can also be used to escape reality, so it’s the individual that needs to decide which one it is.

So, in all that, what is the purpose it really serves. What help is it to anyone if you are distracted from your life? Not really noticing real things change, because you are so used to watching things being the same. And some of those things you watch, repeat the things they want you to believe, and want you to think you know. Nothing becomes a billion dollar enterprise by accident, and certainly not without purpose, so the whole ‘entertainment’ industry is part of the hydra, multiple heads of the same beast. Creating a strange ‘reality’ for people to be in. I used to wonder about people who want to be actors, who seem to find it so easy to pretend to be someone else, to essentially lie for a living, and the more convincing you are, the more you are applauded. How do they ever know who they are? If they are any good of course. But creating a persona to cope or deal with the outside world is possibly a natural thing, or a consequence of our own reaction to how we have become. We may have been different before daily news programs, newspapers being made a thing for people and being notified of things whether you are interested or not. Would people have just been concerned with getting on and living? I’ll never know, and sometimes think entertainment is a good thing, as it spawns ideas and creativity, indulging an output we apparently never had the chance for before. But as with lots of things that start with good intentions or have a plus side, there is usually someone or something that will try to take advantage of that…

Pic from film – Gladiator

(c) K Wicks