As I’ve been told, pretty patronisingly at times, I’ve become ‘quite political’. Really, this utterance should exit mouths with a tone of encouragement, but every time I hear it it seems that the words spill out accompanied with a side-serving of belittlement, as though, because I think about things, I should be put away in a zoo-like environment so people, when they need cheering up, can drop by and have a look and a laugh.

While I’m away on my trivial and entertaining trips to thinky-thinky land I often wonder why the world is in such a horrible, desperate mess, and, more importantly, why we don’t seem to care in the slightest. The reason is that the information presented to us, and the language it is presented in, places strict limits on what we can actually think about. If we ever manage to think outside of this narrow range we’re labelled as a ‘radical’ or a ‘loon’ (I’m being a loony radical in writing something like this).

Some of you will be thinking “what are you on about Liam, I can think what I want”, which may be true, but, if your mind is being controlled, would you know?

One of the main ways our thought is restricted, as has been mentioned by multiple people (who aren’t allowed to say such things on the television) is through the language of fear:
“Did you know that wealth inequality is a huge problem in the world and people are needlessly homeless or in poverty or starving to death”
“Did you know ISIS are going to drop EBOLA BOMBS EVERYWHERE and KILL US ALL!?”
“Oh goodness, don’t worry about the poor or homeless or starving people!!!! stop ISIS giving me ebola!!!!!!”
Maybe that is an extreme example (I prefer to call it a satire) but this is a very common thought process in such areas as the Daily Mail comments section (other racist, sexist, homophobic tabloids are available) but also in other parts of the internet and in the mainstream media. So, it’s basically everywhere. People are being scared by the constant stream of terrifying stories presented by the media and politicians, and fear can be a very overpowering emotion, and being scared of ISIS’s ebola bombs is a fairly rational reaction; ebola bombs are scary. This all results in lots of people being scared stiff of ebola bombs and dying, which in turn means that the real problems in the world, the problems that mean ISIS and ebola are actually a threat to a lot of people, are pushed almost completely out of the public consciousness.

This fear, and the resulting restriction of thought, is very handy for those few people (who are in charge of the media that scares us) who benefit from the massive wealth inequality that the above conversation so very rightly brought to our attention; it means we’re not pissed off at them for keeping everything for themselves with no regard for other humans. We’re too busy panicking. As soon as the threat of ebola bombs from ISIS are presented as a possibility and we’re all scared into thinking only about that, they let out a sigh of relief (some money probably comes out with that sigh, they’ve run out of places to put it), the status-quo that they so adore, that keeps their pockets so heftily lined, is safe. Thank god for ISIS!

Fear, though, is not the only thought controlling technique used by those in power/those with money (from now on, when I say ‘those with power’ or ‘those with money’ I mean the same thing, those people are the same people). Have you ever thought that every political party is almost exactly the same thing? Good. They are. Now, why might this be?

Political parties, full of people who’d quite like some power, rely on donations to get their campaigning to a level that brings them to the public attention. They need quite a lot of money, which is quite handy, because there’s a few people in this country who have all the money (literally all of it) and they’d quite like things to stay the way they are. If only there was a way for them to encourage the political parties to keep things the same… The donations? Oh, I see.

Politics and people’s thoughts therefore operate in a very small sphere: the sphere of main stream politics, or capitalism. In an ideal world we’d have political parties and media outlets offering an alternative to capitalism and the massive inequality and misery it brings, but that would cost money, and as we’ve seen, a few people have all of that, and they are sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g capitalism, so any media outlets that would allow people to think beyond the very restricting shackles of capitalism are unable to find funding.

Seeing as we’ve been dragged through the dirt of capitalist rhetoric and propaganda for so long, no one even believes there’s an alternative, we have to plough on, ruining the lives of the majority of people on earth, creating endless wars and ensuring that a tragically enormous number of people live in poverty because people find it extremely difficult to think that this isn’t actually right.

Because of the control of the wealthy, when you go to vote you have a very limited choice, with the green party probably the nicest of a bad lot, and they get hardly any attention from the media (funny that innit). By scaring us into submission and subservience and giving us the same political party three times (or four times if you count the UKIP), the people with power (the people with money) ensure that we can only think in the realms that they let us, want us, to think in, we honestly and truly believe that Labour offer us something different to the Conservatives: “you can have this red capitalism or this blue capitalism, go on, pick one, PICK ONE”.

If we could start again now, with the technology we have, if we had a choice of how to run the world because no one has all the money and we’d erased all traces of the massive wealth the richest few people had, do you think we’d collectively, democratically choose to distribute wealth and resources the way we do now? Of course not, it’s horribly unjust, but it’s really hard for us to imagine a world that isn’t as shit as the one we’re in now because we’re constantly bombarded with assertions that this, the current way, is the best way the world could be, and poverty and starvation and all kinds of inequality are just an unfortunate result of a ‘fair’ system. Maybe one day we’ll get back to those basic human instincts of empathy and compassion and we can move forward in a better world.

Until then though, thank god we’ve not been ebola-bombed.

Earlier in the year, I wrote a blog post about juggling music journalism alongside attending university, and how that impacted upon my life. (If your mind needs refreshing, have a read here.)

However, I decided that I’d also talk about another love of mine, which is heavily influenced by my music taste: tattoos. Tattoos are becoming a more mainstream fashion choice nowadays. It’s rather difficult to not spot any tattoos when walking down the street. Listening to heavier music, I found that about 99% of bands had tattoos and visible ones at that too, such as on their hands and arms, or their throat. The other 1% most probably had tattoos that just weren’t visible.

I suppose that, in some unconscious way, I ended up liking tattoos because the bands I liked had them. I know – cue everyone saying, “If someone told you to jump off a cliff, would you?” because it’s rather similar, in a sense. I ended up desperately wanting a tattoo, especially when my best friend got her first one; she’s a year older than me, so I had to wait like a sulky teenager until I was 18 to get mine.

My first (and so far, only) tattoo is of a rose and is on the inside of my right leg, just above my ankle. It was done by Antony Flemming, a very talented artist who specialises in Japanese and neo-traditional tattoos, which is my favourite style. After that tattoo though, I promised my Mum I wouldn’t get any done until I was 21 and, surprisingly, I’ve kept to my word. I have, however, had a sketch from my friend, Kathy, who’s doing my next tattoo, and what she sent me is perfect. It makes me excited to have another piece of art on my body!

It also amuses me that different cultures take to tattoos in different ways. Example: me and my best friend (I referred to her earlier) went to Rome this July. Naturally, it was scorching so we wore shorts or skirts for most of the week. At the time, she had about seven tattoos on her legs, so they were visible to the public eye. And boy, did she receive some dirty looks! Everywhere we went, people would openly stare at her legs and then shake their heads before walking away.

It intrigued me. Here, no one really bats an eyelid if you do or don’t have a tattoo, but in Italy, people seemed absolutely disgusted that we’d gotten our legs tattooed. It surprised me at the time but it also makes sense – whilst we were there, it seemed “normal” for men to be heavily tattooed, but the majority of young women would only have one or two, and even then it was usually something like a rose or a butterfly.

I find it strange how some people are so violently against tattoos, but I can understand some people’s concerns. But for me, I love tattoos – it’s like having your own art gallery at your disposal. There isn’t any opening or closing times, and you can touch the artwork too. I have plans for many more, but rest assured, they’ll be all on my legs, with maybe one on my ribs too. Here’s to the next one!