THE MONIKA MARKS THE SPOT

WHEN OTHER PEOPLE GET PULLED INTO THE VORTEX

You may have heard the term “flying monkeys.” 

It comes from The Wizard of Oz, where the Wicked Witch sends others out to carry out her wishes.

Today, people often use the term to describe someone who gets recruited into another person’s conflict and begins carrying messages, applying pressure, spreading a version of the story, defending harmful behavior, or trying to pull someone back into a dysfunctional relationship.

And this is where things can get confusing.

You finally set a boundary with someone who has repeatedly hurt you, manipulated you, or disrupted your peace. Then suddenly someone else appears.

“You should really call them.”

“They’re devastated.”

“You know how they are.”

“Can’t you just forgive them?”

“Family is family.”

“They said you’re the one causing all of this.”

Now you’re no longer dealing with the original relationship. You’re dealing with an entire system trying to pull you back into the role you finally stepped out of.

This happens often in dysfunctional families and relationships because systems resist change. When one person stops participating in an unhealthy pattern, everyone else is forced to feel the discomfort that the old arrangement was hiding.

Sometimes the person approaching you knows exactly what they’re doing. Other times they honestly believe they’re helping. They may only know one side of the story. They may fear upsetting the most volatile person. They may have spent years learning that keeping that person happy is easier than confronting what is actually happening.

But their intentions do not erase the effect their behavior has on you.

You are allowed to say, “This is between me and them.”

You are allowed to refuse to defend yourself against rumors.

You are allowed to stop explaining a boundary that has already been clearly communicated.

You are allowed to protect your peace without convincing the entire family that your reasons are valid.

And one of the most important lessons is this: stop sending private information back through the system. The more you explain yourself to people carrying messages between both sides, the more material there is to twist, repeat, debate, and weaponize.

Stay calm. Stay consistent. Keep your communication simple. Document serious harassment if necessary. Lean on people you genuinely trust. And if someone repeatedly refuses to respect your boundaries, you are allowed to create distance from them too.

Healing sometimes means realizing that the problem was never just one difficult person. Sometimes an entire system grew around protecting the dysfunction.

You do not have to destroy that system.

You simply have to stop participating in it.

And when you step outside of the cycle, something powerful happens...

You finally get to hear your own voice again.”

ZF 🔥

Now “flying monkeys” have escalated to serious breaches and recent digital incursions. 

Beware of superficial, sensationalist legacy media reports. 

Claude model swarms and OPEN AI have already breached  Medicare & hugging face data. 

What’s next with the flying monkeys, Salem witch hunts, now on machine learning AI speed?