Thoughts

The Beautiful Mice

~ MKW Publishing ~ 19 Comments

An experiment with mice, of a carefully constructed area and set living conditions that couldn’t be changed by the mice, and they couldn’t escape. They were beholden to the experiment, and it ran its course as it was meant to. Repeatedly. And the results came back the same.

Universe 25 – The Behavioural Sink (wiki).

“Created a series of “rat utopias” – enclosed spaces in which rats were given unlimited access to food and water, enabling unfettered population growth”

There is much more to it, and I suggest you read through. And as you know I have written other articles about animal and people experiments, In A Maze, An Experiment But A Big One and Memory as well as the odd crazy idea or two like in Changing Into What Exactly?. But I was unaware of the behavioural sink experiments until only a few weeks ago, and clearly given what has occurred in society over the last three years, certain sections of certain societies definitely seem to be going through what appears to be very similar circumstances to those unfortunate mice. Fully engineered to be that way of course, as we see with the current human counterparts.

“In his most famous experiment in the series, “Universe 25″, population peaked at 2,200 mice and thereafter exhibited a variety of abnormal, often destructive, behaviours including refusal to engage in courtship, females abandoning their young, and homosexuality.”

Now, you can make of that what you will. But it does go some way to answer some of my questions about nature vs nurture, and of environmental causes being the root of certain social and behavioural changes, in people and animals. Unfortunately, I am unsure of when we were ever ‘normal’ (if we were) and to know when there was ever a Time people weren’t messing around with things and influencing the outcome somewhat. Tinkering and tailoring to requirement.

And at this point – I suddenly think of one of my favourite books as a child Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, and the film of it, The Secret of NIMH. Which of course is about a group of mice and rats who escape a lab and an experiment. Which upon looking it up again, it appears that it was written in reference to those very experiments that Calhoun was running, and I hadn’t even realised what NIMH even stood for (shaking head at my own stupidity here) – as it stands for National Institute of Mental Health. I guess it was interesting to read and see about what happened once the rats and mice escape, because it was nice to think that some do, giving very little thought to what went on in the lab other than what you were told. But we have had our own version along the way, just bigger ‘labs’ and more subjects and studies by the whitecoats.

Such as television programs like Big Brother and Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, make me think of strange short-term, human versions of this scenario. To observe how they react in close quarters with strangers, without enough food, and having to play whatever ‘game’ they come up with to entertain the viewers. But the purpose of that game is always much more than it appears. They will have also observed people within military and penal settings for this behaviour, knowing how much is enough, or too much and steering the mood and mentality where they want it to go. Anywhere where you deliberately crowd people and keep them restricted, whether it be by rules or barriers, a similar mindset develops. Boarding schools also spring to mind here, and tower blocks. Regimented, ordered and making sure you get limited privacy.

I used to wonder why they built houses so close together, why they planned them with windows facing each other, and in a way that made it appear to be about community and ease of services to each location, but it wasn’t really. Just as these 15-minute towns and cities aren’t, it appears to be about continuing to condition people to be mentally prepared to be physically herded into ‘safe zones’ and to only rely on a central point to advise you, guide you and look after you. But really, I now see society and all the new ideas being rolled out as an extension of Universe 25, but for people. That they know what happens when you put in too many, and just keep feeding them. They will either feed you to death, or then take it away and watch the mayhem ensue, which results in destruction either way. Turning instinct into a self-destructive force if it isn’t allowed to follow a natural course. We have ended up being In A Zoo either way, just currently it appears to be an open one. For now…

(c) K Wicks

What of the Future

~ MKW Publishing ~ 1 Comment

It’s come up a few times in conversation, about how the youth of today must be thinking or feeling towards the future. Their own and the collective one being steamrolled towards us. But I have now seen talk of it online too, meaning it’s not just me speculating, or wondering what they are making of it all. Obviously, we were all younger once. With hopes, dreams and fears for what our life would bring and how it would play out. But that was when we only really had ourselves, and immediate surroundings and people to worry about. Where it was your fears that would hold you back, not the whole of the societal infrastructure that has developed to make life harder to navigate than it ever was. Now making it seem that we are the animals In A Zoo, being caught, herded, tagged and processed for purpose.

But the reality of a restricted future is already upon us, and has been for decades, and I have written before on the housing market structure in What You See Here and how it was heading this way. Trying to tie people into debt via mortgage, making single living unsustainable, and pretty much unsustainable without two incomes, economically forcing people’s life decisions. And the whole time the government were there to offer you incentives to overlook this process. Handouts and benefits, top ups and schemes, to try and keep at bay what was quite obvious. They are pricing people out of being able to live by their own means. If you are not allowed to work and feed yourself, then what? You wait for the government to tell you what you can do, or are allowed. Employment and living arrangements have been orchestrated for quite some time in this country, A Working Strategy covered that a bit, and how they will keep Holding Us Back as necessary.

But those are articles looking at the past, and how we got here rather than really taking into account what people are going through. Grieving for a life that won’t be, and for lives that are no more. A Different Trajectory touched on it, about how people are now going in a completely different direction through circumstance, not choice. And many have faced that in their life, being steered a certain way, or of having rules imposed for life decisions – some of them we don’t even notice anymore as they have been with us for so long. Yet they dictate how, what, where and who usually. Your age, height, colour, sex, aptitude, and all the other differences we have between people, have been cause for categorisation and limitations, rather than for anything genuinely positive.

People often have a propensity of mulling over what has come before, and equally to try and work out what is to come. Wondering what if, or maybe, or perhaps. I don’t doubt that now would be any different, but there are a few more what ifs, new thoughts and fears introduced and the stakes seem so much higher than they did before. It changes the way people think, and will in turn change the way they act, conditioning us for a new phase of society, and for that to work, the old must go. Old ways, thoughts, ideas, systems, structure and ideals, being replaced with new ones. And as I have said with cash, it is with a strange irony we fight to keep things which were part of the first phases of enslavement, but I understand we know no different. For hundreds of years now we have been involved in the game, and now they want to change the rules, it seems people want to keep playing the old game. But imagine if you can, a world without being part of any game, not being a pawn or commodity, of just being able to actually live and think normally and be responsible for you and yours. I wonder what that would be like…

(c) K Wicks

In A Zoo

~ MKW Publishing ~ 6 Comments

We are all too aware of what happens to animals in captivity, and there has been a debate my whole life about whether it should be allowed. To contain thousands of animals and place them in specially designed and created areas, mostly suited to their basic needs for existence and purpose of being showpieces. Not for survival, or real living, just existing. Although, there are conservation areas and game reserves where they allow a certain amount of extra freedom, but still contained and controlled.

Now apply that to us. I have previously compared us to being treated like animals and the parallels I see in my articles Farming, but not as you might think, and In a Maze. But as the talk of 15-minute towns and cities continues, I start to see it as a zoo set up rather than a simple prison as some are calling it, although seems a bizarre blend of the two. And not the first time really I guess, as we have had walled and gated towns and cities before in this country, where you are owned and controlled. My piece A Working Strategy highlights how after the plague, rules and laws were put in place to stop skilled labourers from working where they wanted and a cap on wages and movement was introduced. Forcing the economic structure and limiting people’s ability to make their own choices, a good living and dictate their own future. As I have said before, we haven’t been ‘free’ for quite some time.

And in full captivity, they can’t survive once the walls are up and the gates are locked. Seems rather like what the future sounds like really with talk of restrictions, limitations on everything and rationing your life back to you. One social credit score at a time, where you no longer work for just money to then exchange for ‘freedom’. Instead, you earn points, and trade those for luxuries, niceties and that social standing and acceptance people have been bred to covet. This is an upgrade of what we already have, not just a replacement or simple change as people think.

We’re being moved from the conservation area into the open zoo, followed by closed zoo it would seem. The countryside is owned, people pushed to towns and then cities. And it’s those open zoos that are trying to close their gates essentially. Or at least charge you if you want any access rights or freedom of movement as we have previously known.

They want children to scan into school, people to scan into shops and wherever they go. Just like clocking in and out, imagine taking a little card with you everywhere you went. And every establishment you went in you had to punch your card, and out again. Everything you bought, card punch. Everyone you spoke to, card punch. And when you get home, your card is already tallied up because it’s connected to a central computer. You overspent your credits, visited too many shops, weren’t allowed the sugary snack you bought, and said the wrong thing to the person you spoke to. All access rights denied for one week, 50 credits deducted and strict diet now imposed on card holder. Or something like that. Seems obsessive and stalky to me, but some average people seem to think it’s a good thing, I’m not sure who they are, but apparently, they are out there.

We all know however, the ones who are pushing for it, and that they mainly stand to profit heavily from said systems and procedures attached to the implementation of various things. And for the people who will be at the whim of these systems? It will be a restricted, controlled and profitable utopia for them, and a buckled, depressing dystopia for us. But no fear, they’ll have medication all lined up to ‘cure’ you of being a fully functioning, healthy human. No place for those in their zootopia…

(c) K Wicks