Ben Westwood
Overcoming the dark arts of division and supporting the strikers.
'Forgive yourself if you've been fooled'
Let's face it, for a lot of us the fight for fairness, equality and the humane in our society has been brewing for a while. Those having felt somewhat comfortable with their lives for many years might not always understand it, but despite what the constant tittle-tattle arguments on Twitter might have you believe, is it possible to agree that it can be somewhat understandable for some?
Not that some of those within our media and living in million-pound houses don't know full well the levels of exploitation and total lack of regard for human wellbeing that is happening. Like many though, simply by watching some of the House of Commons Q&A's lately I just can't help but see an unearthly venom within todays government.
Unlike many other political movements in recent decades this one has affected the everyday person, and due to some practical everyday issues such as getting to work, in one of my last jobs during work breaks it became immediately obvious that the strikers hadn't yet managed at the time to get everybody on their side.
"It's needs to happen though, or it's just going to get even worse" myself and many thousands of others respond across the country in similar conversations.
It can feel frustrating when people are angry and don't always seem to want to think outside of their own immediate reach, but perhaps if we take a breath and just step outside all of the fuzz, divisiveness and noise for a second, we see things for what they really are. Especially when the dark arts of the narcissist can come into play.
In todays ever-more interconnected world, of course such people will band together becoming a phenomenon that can grow to a grand scale.
It's easy to get emotional when decisions from those in such powerful positions seem so alien and inhumane.
Through the pokes and prods which provoke the anger within us, clearness disappears and we forget that they are human. Sure, many of them live in nice gated houses and may even have extreme hoards of money, and many of them are corrupt as you can get, still they are human though. Just lost, thinking they are at the front of the queue, but really just right at the back. As Bob Marley would say "You think you're living in heaven but you're living in hell."
Many won't ever get it, but shame on them.
Still, it's too unfortunate this desperate lust to please themselves or those which care not of the reality of the everyday person have forced people into a battle with them. Of course, power can make people tick and I expect no switching-on of the mind with the majority of such people who are rubbing their hands at the thought of chaos and division. For the everyday person that questions if they're lost in life or not, maybe you're closer to source and spirit than many of these people will ever be.
Still I always pray for a wake up call for each and every one of them, and even if they've already lost our trust it's never too late to at least come and join us secretly. They would always get that choice with me, because that is our way, right?
You'd have to keep your eyes on a snake at times but I believe that's the sort of world we should strive for because I know that often such types would like nothing more than seeing us shouting out about hanging people etc.
But I truly believe the real trick to all of this, the real dark-art sorcery which many are falling for is simply that they are tapping into our more beastly and immediate desires.
They know full well that by poking and prodding at the immediate situations that can wriggle you they'll stir people up and get them going. Then suddenly thousands of people forget that workers are going hungry.
One serious question though, to all of those people that hear of workers having to go to a foodbank, and not in the last decade but over the last two years. Have you lived yourself with experiencing the malnutrition of living off a week-and-a-halves worth of tinned food that's supposed to last you for a month? Did you ever get to that point where your hands were shaking and you were thinking you might collapse? Maybe you won't fully get it until you yourself have been there.
I never thought I'd see the day when our own people were willing to see public services workers and nurses having to work themselves to exhaustion and not even be able to get the right amount of vitamins and nutrients in to get by on their long shifts.
So for all of the elitist and far-right deranged nonsense that is spouted about through either news reporters or random social media messages, it truly counts for nothing when a human being is walking fast asleep unable to currently see the bigger picture. That we are all one organism, just like the mystic and natural ways of the rest of the earths creatures.
Some of us sit back baffled at this crazy age where the con-artists and emotion-pullers know how to make enough noise to whip up a bit of attention.
But some of you people just gotta stop falling for it.
If people don't stand up for themselves when things are at their worst, when will they ever?
It's likely scientific proof or something that your immediate needs will get to your emotions before the longer-term and bigger-picture issues do.
And if you are on of those people feeling somewhat bitter about the strikers then all I ask is that you consider the following questions.
What really happens to an NHS ran by workers that are malnourished and stressed? What is the risk to themselves and patients? How many people would die because of it?
What happens to corruption and the crime rate coming from people within our own public services when they can't afford to keep their families safe?
What happens to the safeguarding systems within our services when workers are completely worn out and feel undervalued? Will it all be completely open to exploitation of unsavoury people and groups?
Back when I used to put my efforts into the Neuroliberation Campaign (a campaign raising awareness of the wider affects of the liberalisation of gambling), despite the interest and opportunities from various internet, radio and television sources it had always been difficult to get people to understand where I was coming from in terms of it's mental health affects on society.
Sadly, despite my concerns of public safety after what I'd seen was people showing psychotic mental health side-effects from losing their money on the roulette machines - back when I first started it I'd said I was worried it was only a matter of time before innocent people got hurt.
All it takes now is a google search on such words as 'gambling addict court' or 'pensioner killed betting shop' to find an absolute horrifying amount of gambling-related cases happening across the UK that many people simply generally aren't aware of, nor see themselves connected to it in any way.
Crime, corruption and suicide will for sure rise in our society if we choose bitterness at the strikers over solidarity.
You might have your comfortable immediate things now, but what happens when peoples immediate needs get really beastly and there's no one there to help. Before you know it then it will be you, doing the exact same thing because through ignorance it will be the world that we're living in.
But stripping everything back again, we simply need to see the narcissist for what they are - divisive and unable to settle a dispute in a way which directs towards them any guilt or accountability, The same goes for those that echo the b*tchy whispers, the flying monkeys.
And if you're one of those to say "They should just shut up, do their job and be paid what they are" then if this mad max future really does unfold, then sorry but that's on you. But you just not might have had the time to really think about it that deep yet.
Something to think about?
Peace.