Life Is Not A Game

Animals, Plants, People -- are not playthings. Life is not a game to win or lose. Listening to the radio, watching TV, listening to political leaders -- it is easy to hear and see the actions of humanity dumbed down to a game. Listening to recordings of soccer or some other popular sport I find it easy to forget the meaning of life, to think of our days and something to win. It is easy to get wrapped up in whatever is broadcast on radio or TV until you learn of children being killed so an ambitious ego can win a war. Sometimes you mention very sad events and you'll hear a friend say "you take life too seriously!"

This is another way of reminding us the purpose of our world is to shrink life into a game. Accumulating more wealth than you'll have time to spend. Television and radio programs that trivialize humanity and their struggles. Keeping it light and entertaining. Yes, while tuning in to TV and Radio, you cannot avoid the trivialization of life and feel you are expected to not take anything seriously. Life as entertainment.

But you also have to go to work to earn money to pay rent or mortgage and there are places and people who are not fun to be around. Your children may suffer bullying at school. Your teacher may be overcome with frustration. People who try to perform with integrity find the world going mad around them.

How can you move forward when it feels like the office is a torture chamber? How can you advise your children when they are bullied? How can you protect the vulnerable when you feel like sitting down and crying?

The answer seems trite. Be honourable, kind and treat others as you would like to be treated. I have no advice to offer beyond the classic stories of the last 100 years. Scrooge, Heidi, Star Wars! All you can do is keep an open mind and heart for compassion and empathy. Be honest, love yourself, love life, choose justice and fairness. 
 

Drink The Poison

 

Reality Is Poison

It was after giving birth to three

I realized this was a torture chamber

try to correct the cruelty of our society

and you shall be punished.

Try to ignore it

and you shall go mad.

There are beautiful moments

where you will be celebrated

even if it is kept under a table.

We have learned that perpetrators of rape

are celebrated by ridiculing the raped

until we realize the jungle is where it all began.

If you write about the injustice

you shall be accused

of something

lying, hatred, seeking attention

hating men.

This is why there is no empathy

anywhere and why any criticism of

working class, women, children

dogs, cats and butterflies

is wiped clean off the board

why power has become

the only thing we fight for

dismissing all the colours

in the crayon box

and why we destroy our home

this universe

trying to put it right.

Janet Vickers

Back To Reason (thoughts are free)

 

Humanity has the gift of questioning how or why we choose what we choose.  Of course we are born into a society that has already been destroyed so how can we overcome that?

History has shown some brilliant minds even though our society constructed a broken tendency to create new worlds by destroying old worlds.

How can we survive when we keep killing good people?

Every generation has swallowed the myth that a new world can be created by trashing the one we are in.

I want to look back to the beginning of Palestine.

"In 1947, against a backdrop of growing violence between Jews and Arabs - and against British rule - the United Nations (UN) voted for Palestine to be split into separate Jewish and Arab states. Jerusalem would become an international city." https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-44124396

Born and raised in Britain I have found that history has been polished to make it look like Britain is the greatest country in this world, but I also understand every nation believes they are the greatest in the world because British children are taught that. And since WWII most teachers and medical doctors were Jewish (Palestinian) refugees from Hitlers' murderous holocaust. Great writers, male and female have often been from Palestinian stock.

America, the most powerful nation on this planet, has created the sentiment of wealth over virtue, and most people who can, focus of getting rich and have found success bullying other nations into submission. This is not good for the future. Humanity is at risk of creating more Hitler's who want to murder all who don't seek power first and last.

The greatest flaw in this goal is the silencing of women. Look at how Syria treats their women? Look at how the current government speaks of women? Look at how Hitler treated women?  Read the novels written since WWII. Fantasies of a world that creates their own babies without the help of women.

Read the Handmaids Tale (Atwood), read Maya Angelou, read the early history of Palestine. The cries of humanity are the people who lost hope in constant war and the meddling of other nations disrupting the process of each country as it tries to find peace in their world.

A Planet Trapped by One Species

Whenever I listen to news I feel like our species is on its way out. Not because we have no power but because we have built societies that abuse power to the end.

By this I mean Henry VIII murdered his best friends. Sure he viewed them not as friends but servants. People to use as his will dictated. Wives he no longer wanted, friends he no longer felt useful. It was a way to build a society of fear so all would do as he wished. People were to be used until they were most useful, beheaded, to remind the populace the power of the realm was to be feared. Not loved.

Nations run through fear and violence, not wisdom.

Now as we watch the politics of our neighbour to the south. We see and feel a world of distrust trading in wisdom and knowledge for the political return of the Roman Empire. Brutality, fear and cruelty to put every living thing in a state of panic wondering what the future will be. Another World War and end of our planet? 

Who will replace Jesus on the Cross? Who will be hung as "witches"? Who will dare to turn our politics into a disciplined science? How will we convince bandits, bullies and murderers to be civilized, not afraid, Police, Lawmakers, teachers and parents, to honour kindness and civilized justice? How will we find peace to replace fear? How will be take care of the life we share on this planet?

Apart from the misery we create, how can we nurture the good things like clean water, fresh air? How can we keep civilization progressing?

ASTRONOMICA BOOK LAUNCH Library

 Astronomica     poems by Janet Vickers

                             Book Launch Nanaimo

                             at Public Library

                            May 24, 2025

                            3pm to 4pm

When Labels Shackle Us

People have been labelled different things throughout history. As if the label fully describes the subject. Currently a label that is overused in America is Immigrant. The current president uses it to blame immigrants for all the problems expressed by Americans.

You might think all Americans worth a grain of salt were born in America. When black Africans were kidnapped and shipped to America they were kept segregated. Captured from their home in Africa, kept in the bowel of a ship, chains around their body, then marched (or dragged off to someplace on the American continent) "Sold" to a white man, malnourished, shackled, whipped and forced to do as the "manager" ordered.

Eventually slavery was made illegal and most were "given" freedom, yet the white man found ways to keep the black people separated, starved, and bullied. This was to keep the white man "superior" in status, it was cruel but then in Britain people were segregated by status. Those born into upper class families went to upper class schools and lived in upper class neighbourhoods.

The class system enables exploitation. Poor children could be used as workers to crawl inside the machinery to check that everything is connected and working well.  Some children got caught inside the machines, were mutilated or killed. It was probably not intended but easier than sending upper class educated to believe they had worth. Or more realistically, better than maiming the offspring of those who believed in their superior standing.

That some people believe they are upper class or lower class has crippled society in many ways all while believing in civilization as a good thing. 

When I first immigrated to Canada in 1965, a young man took great delight informing me that Canada was an advanced society whereas I came from England which was backward. Crippled by old habits and social systems. Since then I have heard different opinions. English men who believe they are superior to Canadians and Americans, men who believe they are superior to women, Christians who believe they are superior to other religions, whites who believe they are superior to First Nations, and Dutch who believe they are superior to people of other countries, beautiful women who believe they are superior to plain women, and on it goes forever and everywhere.

In fact we nurture our own self esteem by seeking superiority, real or imagined. This habit has nurtured capitalism as we spend our waking lives striving to get to the top.

All these measures of success or dignity have trapped us in a continual war with others and ourselves. Skin colour, IQ, place of birth, attractiveness, wealth, home, car and clothes.

Diversity is our saving, our survival, not our legs in shackles attached to the ship. We are shackled by our minds, our constant judgement of others and ourselves. Capitalism plays into this. So does every system of labelling, law, education and justice.

Living and Dying in Capitalism

 Living and Dying in Capitalism

Inside the Economy my name is not mentioned

neither is my mother or father

my brother or my sister.

The birth of my children

was beautiful but they are not mentioned

either. See how I end the line

before it is complete?

This is the world I live in.

Sayed Rahim Saidi, a 57-year-old filmmaker and managing director of Anar Media, was arrested near his office on July 14, 2024, by members of the Taliban’s General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) District 40. Accused of spreading propaganda against the Taliban, he was sentenced to three years in prison on December 18, 2024. He is now serving his sentence in Pol-e-Charkhi prison. https://amnesty.ca/urgent-actions/afghanistan-filmmaker-tortured-and-denied-care-in-taliban-prison/

Yes Afghanistan is not a democracy or capitalist society but this is the end of humanity, absorbed into an autocratic system. The only reason, you, dear reader, have freedom and options, is that authoritarian rule is only partly successful here, between capitalism and authoritarian power.

Have you noticed how, within a year, women's voices are not being heard so much in media?

Mass Killing in Vancouver: Who Is To Blame?

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-accused-in-vancouver-festival-vehicle-attack-was-under-mental-health/  

A man in his early thirties, drove his car over pedestrians who were at the Lapu Lapu festival last Saturday.  Certitified mentally ill some time ago, he got into a black car, drove into the pedestrian centre of the Festival in downtown Vancouver. This was a festival of celebration, the achievements of immigrants.

Could it be this man was offered money and use of a glossy car to disrupt the event from a white supremacist group, or a group of billionaires who hate immigrants, or males who hate the gentle expressions of gratitude?

Could it be the way young men are taught to MAN UP, to not show any feelings for fear of appearing vulnerable, shut down his own feelings to the extent he exploded. Could it be that feelings of any kind are a threat to his sense of success?

What about false machismo? What does it look like? When a gang  decide to beat up one of their schoolmates. What courage does it take when it's four against one unsuspecting target?

And could it be all these things collapsing together was simply too much?

How well do humans process stress? Looking tough or strong, saying the right things, developing self esteem against all the let downs is not an easy task in a modern world.

Masculinity is in trouble. The leader of a powerful nation attempts to call it back. Making general insults to other leaders. Making it illegal for girls to go outside the home without a male escort, blaming attractive women for a man's failure to find a mate and the status quo that indicates only wealthy men attract women.

Our current world, in public social media portrays a capitalism like the monster it can be when the gap between haves and have-nots widens and public participation is underfunded and ignored by media who are focused on bling.

Only the beautiful as identified by influencers, can be shown, everything else is rubbish.

In short this means you are either at the top or you are nothing. This is a deeply shallow idea and happy people would never claim this, but capitalism is so focused on money it trashes lives and teaches the masses to trash all that is beyond the economy.

This is a mental illness, a society destroying pursuit yet so much of it destroys lives, nature as well as the economy. LIFE IS VULNERABLE.