“May I?”

and Red light, Green light… are these Tavistock encouraged playground games?

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In the playground at primary school in the late 60s early 70s, there were a host of games we used to play at break and lunch in the schoolyard.

I say “we” because quite a large proportion of the children joined in these communal games.

Many reading this will remember such games. I was in the NW of England but variations were, I am informed, played everywhere.

I’m guessing there are far fewer such playground games now. Something has definitely been lost.

But was the losing of it enabled by the games we used to play?

Did they do their job? Allow the basic compliance needed to move to more subtler sparkly means of self-inducing compliance…

…Ones that also inhibit the physical gathering aspect of the 1970s games, induce compliance and insularity.

Astro-roots

Children can be enthusiastic, bossy, organisational. And co-operative. There’s no doubt games in various places had grass-roots input. Variations in names, and other aspects.

The leading image appeared with a warm phrase saying something like

great to see the children organising their own grass-roots games.

But I ask you, would any child of any type, in any kind of group ever come up with a game like May I?

The New Normal

There’s a clue in the name. They used it for a reason. The received hidden assumption in the phrase is smuggled in as axiomatic.

There is a normal.

Which of course there isn’t - on any matter of any complexity ever.

There was an old “normal” and now there’s a new one. Having a normal is… normal.

We are the judge of what is normal

Accredited accreditation of metrics tell us whether you are near enough to being normal on this matter.

(See! We give you a bit of leeway either side)

If you go against the New Normal (or the increasingly algorithmically updated versions after that) you are a bad person and must be stopped. These norms are all based on ethics and stewardship of spaceship earth.

Compliance to the norm is the central core of the new automated algorithmic control architecture appearing everywhere.

It’s very simple and it’s quietly becoming the core of every system we transact with.

The incoming system

1. Deviation from the norm is seen as deviation full stop.

2. Accredited metrics processed algorithmically as “ethical” scores - whether on the individual, corporate, national or global level trigger action. (Restriction)

3. Deviation is corrected by putting impossible automatic gates on all relevant transactions until the deviant behaviour, consumption, travel, expressed points of view, choices, purchases, actions, … cease.

4. It is centred on a global universal ledger of everything. (They are quite mad)

5. which is to include an individual total ledger attached to a digital ID for every human unit. The accredited DATA which determines what you can and can’t do, and how much it costs to make any transaction.

6. The few central valves in a network of pipes that can stop flow of water at a given moment to a specific tap are analogous to the clearing-houses that can stop the flow of MONEY which your chosen current transaction involves. Except - the flow can be totally shut off to a single person, company, organisation … in the time it takes to automatically update one variable - affecting no-one else. Transaction by transaction. All is fed back.

7. Cash has NO PLACE in the system - it escapes all rails of it. They need to remove it.

esc paints every detail of this so well, including the entire history of how this “ethical” totalitarianism arose: all the key minds, and groups. Subscribing to esc is as far as I can see one of the most essential things any of us can do.

Going patiently through his work is another. Maybe work backwards! The new essays are summary overviews.

A Pattern Hidden in Plain Sight

The Game “May I”

I’ve been chatting to my lovely bright and awake mum today about what she remembers of childhood games.

The game May I? - sometimes called Mother May I - did not appear in her 50s memories.

This fits with the fact that Wikipedia and other sources have no record of the game before the ONE and ONLY non-fiction mention of the game in their entire article.

Ready for the one appearance in “non-fiction” of the game? 😀

😀

The game appeared out of nowhere in the late 60s. And this is no game ANY child would ever invent. (Tavistock?)

The Authority Figure stands at one end of the playground and says things like :

Jack, take seven fairy steps forward

At this point one of two things happens.

A) Jack takes seven fairy steps forwards and is promptly sent back to the start - like a snake back to square one.

or

B) Jack says,

May I?

Upon confirmation of permission, Jack takes seven fairy steps forwards and the Authority Figure goes on to make another bountiful offer to someone else - conditional on carefully seeking confirmation of permission.

No child or group of children thought up such a game.

Was it Tavistock?

Simon Says

Unlike May I? this authority based compliance training game does have a history

.The origin of "Simon Says" comes from the simple children's game, likely evolving from older "do as I say" commands, with possible influences from historical figures like Simon de Montfort, who had great authority in 13th-century England, and even ancient Rome's "Cicero dicit" (Cicero says). The phrase became popular in America by the 1840s, using the name "Simon" for its catchy, alliterative sound, and the game tests attentiveness by requiring players to follow instructions only when preceded by "Simon says".

Tests attentiveness.

Hah!!!!

Just like May I? is for training in the skill of saying diphthongs 😀

Red light, Green light

How did the old game Grandmother’s Footsteps come to be called Red light, Green light?

It’s another compliance training ga.. sorry I mean attentiveness training game.

The Authority figure shouts “Green light” and turns away - everyone starts to move up then suddenly the cry of “Red Light” as they spin round.

You move a muscle? You’re out, or back to the start.

British Bulldog

Eventually everyone joins the police force and catches everyone else.

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More than media?

We are all aware of predictive programming and norm shaping via

Novels

Science fiction

“Science”!

Theatre

Newspapers

Radio

Film

TV

Pop music

But how far did the nudging go?

Everybody got to deviate from the norm

One of my first loves. Rush.

2112 is almost happening now! The great computers do fill the hallowed halls. The priests of the temple of Syrinx do try to control everything.

I don’t think they drank the kool-aid these guys.

I may be naive. I mean - how were they there? At the top? I don’t know.

Perhaps they swore to never touch some areas. But they are against all control in their lyrics.

Opening line of Vital Signs:

“Unstable condition - a symptom of life”

Yes indeed. But it’s not allowed in the new system.

End of the “chorus”

Everybody got mixed feelings about the function and the form

Everybody got to deviate from the norm

Sorry.

The function and the form is set in 17 Sustainability goals and their small-print. And in many other ways. Deviation from the norm is deviant behaviour.

And in case you think this is just a song about being an awkward cuss, the phrase gets changed…

Everybody got to elevate from the norm

Please consider a paid subscription if you can. I know everybody is calling for one.

Coming soon - something that I think will be very exciting indeed.

Warm regards

Tim

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