I like this blog not only because of its rational nature but because of the subscriber comments. You've managed to collect a group of followers who are true thinkers. Most comment sections these days are full of snark, vulgarity, and misspelled words. I enjoy the responses as much as the original blog. Thanks, Eugyppius, for facilitating important discussion that is useful, intelligent and reasoned. I usually don't even feel worthy to comment but greatly appreciate the information you deciminate. Keep up the good work.
Damn Cynthia, now I feel pressure to add a comment worthy of the standard you’ve set. Here goes:
So I second Cynthia’s praise. The only dimension I think E misses is the religious one.
For me, this is a useful paradigm for understanding what has happened, and what is likely to happen yet. It is not a coincidence that the Covid zealots are drawn of that class which abandoned formal religious practices and faith based ethics in favour of a more nebulous conception of modernity. And while some among that class perhaps can kill God and yet withstand the descent into madness - nietzscheian Supermen - for the most part we are left carrying lanterns in broad daylight, blunded by our hubris.
Or, as Chesterton put it, the problem with forsaking religion is not that we believe in nothing. It is that we believe in everything.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not arguing for a return to pre-modern Christiantiy - a religion I paradoxically don’t think can be resurrected.
But it helps if we understand the momentum E describes as a sort of religious force. Perhaps it must coalesce and reform into something more durable? If so, that suggests a Dark Age is ahead…
I've spent my entire life in service to the Christian church through music/arts ministry. I don't think Eugyppius intends for this to become a conversation about religion, but I've had a front row seat observing the changes in many of our churches, including our United Methodist church. My husband and I have actually left our church with no viable alternatives from which to choose.
The past couple years I've finally seen the connection between all the issues we're dealing with as a country/world. Covid, CRT, white fragility, anti-racism, equity, social justice, censorship, cancel culture, climate change, etc.... these concepts have negatively infiltrated the church to such a degree that we could no longer support the theology.
I resigned my position after a year of on-line worship for which I personally edited the video files and provided the music. Our church was the last one in town to begin meeting in person again, which had been closed down at the edict of the bishop, not the local pastor (although she was as fearful of covid as the bishop). They still require all to be masked and social distanced despite a lowered attendance of less than 50 in a large area. No singing. I can't go to church when I have to leave angry. I don't know if we'll ever find a church again where we feel at home. I won't wear a mask because I can't communicate without my face. So here we are... I never dreamed I would get to this age and not have a church I can call "home."
The physical gathering of believers is of deep spiritual significance in any Christian denomination that derives its doctrine from the Book. Congregations that prioritize public health over that reality clearly don't believe what they teach; it is correct to deem such gatherings non-essential.
I do hope you find a suitable replacement gathering, though! The future of the Christian-in-more-than-name church may be in scruffy house gatherings that are largely invisible to the state. Cult-like, unsound teaching is always a risk there, but in this risk lies an opportunity to deepen one's own understanding of what was said, what it means, and how it applies.
The "cult-like" quality is minimized, I think, if the house church has some oversight. I've been part of something like that in the past. Your own small house church group periodically gathers with a larger assembly of house churches. Also, some type of leadership oversees many house churches. We should see the 5-fold ministries as well! Back to the New Testament!
As I said above, there is a curious phenomenon. The church hierarchy is on the side of vaccines, passports, mandates and so on, on the side of Evil, you may even say; while the faithful, mostly are not (of course, not all). But I, at least, met many Christians who are diffident of the vaccines and have an instinctive dislike for the social changes going on. But it's difficult if the Church itself is not on their side, and in many cases requires a "vaccine passport" and masks to go to mass or even just to go in and pray. What do you in that case? I have no idea, but it's a contradiction, and if the situation continues it might lead to big changes.
I was not as entrenched in my church as you, but we had finally found one after moving to a new city, that my husband actually enjoyed going to. The sermons were that good. But they followed all of the government edicts as well, even having a shot clinic, and at that point, I withdrew our financial support and am not sure I will ever have a home church again. I'm okay with it since there is plenty available online.
I don't have the answer.... LOL... it appears no one has the final answer...but I can at least look at how well it has worked out in those countries who closed places of worship by force, executed clergy, etc. That has never been shown to be successful either ! We can look back at, and analyze, were we better off as a nation when we lived in family units, went to a place of worship of our choice as a family unit, attended all school meetings and functions without fail, attended city council meetings just to "keep an eye on things", etc. Was there less fear and anxiety ? Was addiction a reality, but not in every community and local school ? Were we more cohesive ? Did neighbors have warmer feelings toward other neighbors ? Are all technical advances really helpful ? Or, does it depend on HOW people use those advancements ? Can we have respect, honestly, personal integrity, understanding of our fellow humans, and still have anonymous internet blogs, cell phones, Facebook, realistic video games, etc. etc. ? Perhaps that is up to US, not the "fault" of "devices" ? Some thoughts to ponder.
As a dedicated and lifelong atheist, I feel I have to resist what you say, at least on my own behalf. Believe in everything? I don't think so.
I don't disagree that humanity seems to have some sort of need for a higher authority. Afraid of personal responsibility, or what? I don't know. Maybe all we need is training in self-awareness.
Hmmm... interesting thoughts. I've always believed that it's important to believe in something greater than ourselves. Your comment about people possibly being afraid of personal responsibility is interesting. It's because I believe in personal responsibility that I need faith in God to guide me. I'm no philosopher, but my observation of humanity is that because we aren't perfect, we need someplace to turn for grace for our shortcomings. So many people live with guilt and shame all their lives and don't know how to purge it.
I would never presume to foist my observations on those who consider themselves atheists (as does my own son). This is only my personal belief. And yes, I believe atheists can be very good people. 😇
It's very hard to work in nature and not believe or at least entertain the concept of "higher power". Likewise, experiencing death in some form. I agree with your observation on a global wide, general fear of personal responsibility throughout the last 2 years.
I find it interesting that, in my experience, many people who are more vocal against "vaccine passports" and all that other new forms of control, are in many cases Christians. While secular atheists have no problem with it and even push for it. But note that the Church bureaucracy (Protestant or Catholic, doesn't matter) are on the side of mandatory vaccinations and all those rules, even against their own flock. Which is interesting. The blogger Dr. Bruce Charlton has written about that.
An interesting idea/trend; however, when people talk or comment using broad brushes, back up statements with "many ______ are vocal against vaccine passports", and other such broad statements, are, just as you stated, expressing their observation, or as you put it "in my experience". These types non scientific, casual statements really say nothing. They are interesting to ponder. We study such phenomena in psychology. Say a group of people live in an area of Michigan with a high density of Muslims. Because they notice a great lack of interest in something, lets just say the fad a few years back of having your passport on a smart phone app. If there is conversation not favoring this, and much talk about not using it or against even downloading the app, then there will be people who, out of "thin air" as the saying goes, make the faulty deduction that "Muslims are against passport apps" ! People do this all the time, they see a few (those in their experience circle) of this or that group and make broad general "observations". It's human nature.... again. Reminder, NOT speaking of your comment, you hedged it with "in my experience", which made it clear you know of this tendency. Just out of interest, as you stated, I find at my protestant church about a 50/50 on the passports, exactly the same as it is for vaccines and boosters ...LOL ! So I asked our good friends and neighbors, over coffee this morning at the local DD, "how do people at your church, in general, feel about this idea of vaccine passports ? I know they go to a variety of mass times, not just the same every time. Their replay, "LOL, it's like everything else, just like the vaccine shots, about half are all for it, half really opposed, LOL". They also mentioned something additional, that is certainly true in our Lutheran church too.... no matter vaxed or unvaxed, for or against virus passports, pastors or priests, one thing is clear, they are getting and spreading it in equal percentages, the vaxed and the non-vaxed. Someday, we may find all these suppositions we try desperately to tie this "plague" to, have no basis at all ? Time will tell. Admit, I do not really know any secular atheists , so I can't make any statements to support or refute your observation that "they have no problem with it", but I have a "hunch" that their lack of spiritual belief is not the deciding variable for them..... but, could be ! We do have several agnostic couples in our circle of friends... ALL of them are diametrically opposed to vaccination, period, but based on that I certainly could not conclude that "agnostics tend to be strongly opposed to the idea of vaccination passports" so.... it's kind of like a man in a blue shirt who `drops dead while playing golf.... what do we conclude ?" Do not play golf ? Do not wear a blue shirt ? Or, perhaps, males raise their chances of a heart attack when playing golf if they are wearing blue shirts ? I read your post because it was an interesting observation; made me want to just make some informal observations at my own church. But, if I were to formally study those who support and those oppose vaccine "passports", don't know if religion would be one the the variables I would include in my study design... but, perhaps ? Tops on my list of variables to include would be job/profession, and that is due to my experience with the agnostic friends. I was profoundly interested because one is a retired M.D., her objection to vax passports is just a by product to her strong objection to the vaccine to begin with. Said as a physician of course she supports many vaccines, she will not take or support this one because she believes the trials were both "rushed and flawed" and should have waited for data. She could be correct ? Time will tell of course, but nothing was based on her religion, or lack of ! ?
You’re right. It’s an interesting observation. Not sure what to make of it. I mean, I can see a lot of catholics fleeing the Woke Pope and so forth over this kind of thing….
Exactly ! It not only stimulates thinking, for me it serves to expand thinking, it brings out aspects I had not previously thought of, which is so valuable. You are so spot on about so many blogs and comment sections of untold sites, seem nearly 90% are emotionally based defensive moves, the lashing out, the name calling, the denigration, and as you mentioned, full of snark. It always reminds me of the hosts on the program The View; like a pack of snapping, snipping, snarling dogs, turning on each other and incapable to sitting back and considering the line of "thinking" of the others (but it gets them attention !) And using name calling (some quite shocking) as a defense to pound down their deep fears.
My own formative years during the Reagan 80's were spent reading and re-reading everything Ayn Rand wrote. Let's just it out loud: we are living Atlas Shrugged. As the end-game draws near, where 300 million people with no foundation in rational thought, let by sociopaths who are only skilled at manipulating, are unable to keep up with the demands of an industrialized society built by men & women with rock-solid belief systems who sacrificed for future generations. You'll see abominations like what has happened with the deadly experimental gene therapies down to 24 hour traffic jams on common freeways (it's snowed here in the US since the pilgrims landed). The worst is yet to come and will multiply with increasing velocity and violence. We have became a notion of lazy , spoiled idiots, managed by a purely evil idiocracy.
The failure of IDEAS is what has spawned this mess. Without the bedrock of reason and freedom driving us, anything is possible. Event 201 is a symptom, not the cause.
I think you are right. Although there are lots of good things to be said about computers and smartphones, the youth is plainly abusing them. They can no longer think for themselves, but ask their machinery for a solution, blindly following their advice. Every day you read about kids getting harmed or killed by things on Tiktok and Twitter. Millions of people get duped on Facebook. ONe has to really look out what is out there on line, because it makes it much easier for all kind of traitors to reach almost everyone.
Lots of children now have even become blind to facial expression thanks to the masks. The children will have to be re-educated, and I doubt the parents that are up to it.
No, it isn't just the young, but I can tell you from inside the machine that they only care about cultivating the young as lifelong, addicted, omnipresent users. You and I are a nice bonus but not worth the costs of intense, focused efforts to make us as dependent as Gen Z and younger. All they truly care about is hooking the kids and maybe dragging the occasional mom or grandma along for the ride.
They haven't given a shit about anyone over 30 or so in about the past 40 years. They'd frankly wish we'd all just go away- it gets harder and more expensive to manipulate our tastes and beliefs the older we get.
I read a comment by a government official who specifically stated their goal was to place 100% of the world under these shots, n highlighted the children as"the new customers." Nothing we have seen is related to public health, because every recommendation they've implemented was previously rejected as a response to this type of pandemia.
Not helpful to further the context of a disposable society either. Along with that goes a lack of preservation of great knowledge, experience and wisdom gained "the hard way" as my grand dad always expressed it. In other words, if a relative once attempted to "repair" an appliance while still connected to an outlet, and landed in the ER or worse, the morgue, my grand dad considered that a valuable lesson learned "the hard way", and therefore no one else need suffer the same experience/fate.... called CUMULATIVE knowledge, history if you will. Not a good discipline to remove from the school curriculum!
It's called institution amnesia in the context of organizations, and it's the reason why leftist revolutions always focus on the obliteration of history as their first step.
Hummmm, "re-educated" ? I think the children ARE being "re-educated" this very day, this very minute, don't you ? Maybe they will need to be "re-PROGRAMED" ? And around them... they see their parents succumbing to pressures put on them to be able to retain their careers, keep from becoming outcasts of society, see their parents, honest, ethical people, crumble and lie, comply, do what is necessary to "survive"...going to be difficult to Re-program a child exposed to that kind of experience
How do they deprogram children that have been in a cult? That is probably what is needed. I have no idea what will become of these poor kids, especially these that are jabbed. It is not even certain if they will live.
Hopefully they will live, we have to have "faith" in that, but what the long term affect might be ? To give hope and a high note, I recently watched AGAIN, a TV mini series: John Adams (staring Paul Giamatti and a truly STELLAR cast). I think it was done by HBO and received so many awards it's in many public library DVD collections now for loan. Can't say enough about the series, not a documentary, it's done in full movie pageant format, costumes, acting, all amazing but... the point is, in one part it shows what our forefather's experienced when nearly every family was touched with death, particularly of children, due to small pox. This is shown in this film, Laura Linney, as Adams wife is faced with the unimaginable decision (with John away working to establish this new, free, nation) to hold each of her children to be given a (rather painful when first discovered and used) vaccination for the plague sweeping the new country, smallpox. It must have been a horrible decision for her, what if she did the wrong thing and John came back from his sacrifice to find their children deceased ? Fortunately, it turned out, they lived, the avoided death from smallpox, and one followed in this father's footsteps as a TRUE public servant (in those days, being a politician meant making a HUGE personal SACRIFICE, personally and financially, the family suffered because they also supported the idea of a free country, a "united" group of states, to form a "perfect union", so back then, to be a politician meant you were going to have to give up a comfortable life style. But the smallpox "experiment" worked out for the better, and we really have to have faith these children will not be permanently damaged. Just this minute on TV, a Harvard profession is actually SHOUTING in this interview.... the vaccinations are SAFE, SAFE, get these children all vaccinated, we need to have ALL schools open and ALL children back in school, they have lost so much education now they will not be "caught up" by the time they graduate high school. Some think another year of school needs to be added to free public education to help in the "catch up" !
I agree there is a lot overlap with Rand’s description of the evil process. However, she wrote to a particular end in which the devils prevailed. I think of it as a story about the death of an ideology, and all her books were about this one story, which she had observed well. Spontaneous order, on the other hand, is predictable temporarily in movement but not in conclusion. Example, many knew the 2008 housing crisis was coming due to valuation data but no one could predict the exact moment the tide would turn. There are many who will refuse mandates to the bitter end. More and more know individuals with vaccine injury or death. Add to these groups the disillusioned former believers and the scientists risking reputation and livelihood to save the children. And of course, there is always Joe Rogan and his audience who still believe in individual liberty. There is hope.
Remember that 20 years ago we lacked the Internet and things like work from home and order from Amazon were impossible. We could act as we have because we could. It would have been unthinkable 20 years ago.
Agree whole-heartedly. The world is much more connected now and there are numerous ways to disseminate & receive information. At the same there, the amount of misery & death that would come from the collapse of industrialized society is something few can imagine. Productive, rational people will always find a way to survive and thrive.
"Woke" is simply an acronym for "I don't wish to work and would prefer to steal what you've earned and need to come up with an excuse to justify it". Lazy, shiftless grifters & looters have been around for time immemorial. The fact that they gave themselves a new name doesn't change anything. Unfortunately, there is no Ayn Rand around to state the obvious, as our current "intellectuals" are dumb as rocks.
While I wholeheartedly agree with the above statement (hear here!), it doesn't acknowledge how the "shiftless" you correctly refer to have been elevated to untouchable status by the very corporate communication systems still calling for the demise of the "unclean". There is clearly a playbook.
Ask yourself : why would vast corporate media enterprises so brazenly submarine their own credibility and a significant fraction of their potential revenue base...?
Having surfed the edges of the mainstream media in a previous life, I can state with confidence that "the message" of the moment has always been -- and will always be -- bought and paid for by the advertisers.
Unfortunately, the corporations, including the large corporate media entities are not true, capitalist organizations, openly competing in a completely free marketplace. They have all positioned themselves via grift, lobbyists and various other mechanisms that aid them in growing revenue, while shielding them from their actions. This is only possible with systemic corruption. these types of organizations attract the same sorts of people that thrive in government: their skill-set is heavily skewed to leveraging relationships and manipulating vs creating actual value. These sorts of minds find it easier to simply virtue signal by throwing $500K to BLM vs standing for the very principles that made their existence possible. They are spineless, feckless shadows of the types of people that built this nation. A poster child for our modern corporations is Pfizer, who showers billions on the media companies, while paying out billions to cover their felonies & misdeeds. They can only get away with this due to various laws which shield them from their actions. In a true, free, capitalist system, in which the government can not use their sanctioned power of brute force to shield them, they would be sued & fire-bombed out of existence.
Thanks a million for the unnecessary lecture, Prof. Obvious. In your rush to "educate" me, you appear to have missed the fact that I invoked not a single "-ism". Corporate, yes. Advertisers, yes. Capitalist, no.
In other words, manipulation of public (mass) perception by "monied" interests. Not a single, lonely declaration of their "-ism". No such labels required.
In fact, I did my best to walk away from such linguistic chicanery decades ago, because as functional and/or descriptive, they are (by design) worthless at best and intentionally misrepresentative at worst.
That they are typically wielded as an intellectual sword and shield (as above), banging loudly in the direction of the perceived "enemy", a reality that was already tedious forty years ago, as a precocious young high school student.
So, as we basically agree on all points, here's your challenge : try teaching the same lesson, WITHOUT invoking a single "-ism" or "-ist".
If my own decades of experience are any indication, your message will be clearer and more concise, raise fewer hackles and your thought processes will be less prone to irritate other thoughtful, well-read souls like yourself.
Lived in that world for years Doug Mitchell, believe me, most (not all of us) in that "academic ivory tower" have NO intention of developing simple, clear, speech patterns.. you probably know.. it's part of the "game", to give the impression you are someone special, of great knowledge. When you enter a doctoral program you have no idea, or very little idea, when you are well along... you realize. Perhaps now, that even doctorates are ordered up on line, it would not be as obvious as when one is a candidate on campus. Using "ism (s) is only part of it, also useful is "research shows" and we learn very well how to make research "show" what we need to support... oh yes, many ways.
And more excellent points seldom brought up in general conversations, articles, or "arguments" among friends, family, and colleagues ! Correct, not what we think of as classic capitalism !
I agree with your summary of "woke" to a point.. I only wish to add that is not the ONLY group. There is a huge group of well educated, hard working, professional people in our very nice planned community, who are far from lazy, shiftless, and "looters", yet, in FEAR (again, there is that root word) of looking cold, uncaring, when they (like myself) feel so fortunate for what they have, that it drives them to appear "caring and concerned" by displaying how "woke" they are. While I never experience a single day I am not thankful for the "accident of nature" that I am a citizen of this country, the recipient of an exceptional education (and yes, even thankful for the three low paying, "menial" jobs I worked to get that education), and have had the ability to go any direction career wise as long as I was willing to do the work... the only difference in myself, and many (not all) of my neighbors, I don't feel a need to show how "woke" by jumping on every popular line spouted at every neighborhood gathering or back yard barbecue !
One of the reasons Ayn Rand's novel was the most-read book of the 20th century is that it perfectly captures how ideas drive what is occurring today and what will occur tomorrow. The characters are rich, complex, yet amplified in a way that is sheer brilliance. Take the time to read Atlas Shrugged and focus on Lillian Rearden, who is the perfect exemplification of the type of people you are describing above. When one understands that they are neither "caring"n or "sympathetic" nor "benevolent" in any way, but are simply seeking the destruction of those they envy, all of the pieces begin to fall into place. The absence of a belief system mired in reality leads to many dangerous roads, but all lead to the same place eventually.
I personally believe one of the most important, and basic, things people at all levels fail to understand (or, possibly have no background or education in ?) is human psychology, human behavior. Ayn Rand also had great insight as a result of "living" under a repressive government....much the same as many Cuban Americans have experienced and try to pass on their first hand experience in their writings and by speaking out in everyday conversation. One of Rand's most famous quotes:
“If you don't know, the thing to do is not to get scared, but to learn.”
We could ALL benefit by having THAT ONE run as a public service announcement all day on every network, in place of: Save the future, save your children, get them vaccinated..... (low whisper..... ) now, now, NOW !
Same here, have all Rand's writing in hard copy in my extensive personal library. Has been enlightening to reread these substantial novels again and again over the years, never boring because each year, decade, of life brings expansion of ability to pick up on nuances, expand understanding... the failure of ideas, yes, along with the inability to accept such with humility and grace and refuse to fuel the denial, defensiveness, to defend failed "ideas" to the very end... it just could be the VERY end ! A great deal to learn from Pasternak, Tolstoy (for insight into human behavior... all wrapped up in an engaging " fictional novel". My copy of Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals, Thirteen Tactics, all required reading in my undergrad years in a large public university... well, I have been rereading and highlighting my copy so often lately, it's about to fall to pieces ! Taken on a whole different meaning with time and distance... if you know what I mean !
Completely agree ! Rand KNEW, knew from experience, as did Pasternak and so many others, it's not as if we have no clue, that none before us warned us ! Pandemic, "Bitcoin", bank failures, "vaccines" that are not vaccinations at all, and seemingly have no effects except some negatives ones for many people, massive gender "confusion", much more and MUCH younger than ever before, and a host of other "events", countries turning away from the U.S. dollar as the standard for trade, I could go on for another paragraph, but no need, the point is, no one sees, no one cares, no one "reads the writing that was clearly written for us as a warning".... ! ?
I didn't comment last time because there were 200+ responses already, but today I might be able to get a word in:
These posts are excellent. They've helped me gather my own thoughts about what's going on and have strong explanatory power. Rival theories depend too heavily on unproven premises.
Don't worry about copping blowback. Call it as you see it. Some of the top rated comments irritate me because the whole article might have been written as a response to it. People read but don't take in. It's fine to disagree but at least address the specific points made.
We've all fallen into mass psychosis on both sides. Vaccines are either the saviour or a plot to murder us all. Leaders saved us, killed us by not being tyrannical enough, or plotted in their thousands to enslave us right from the start.
Everybody calm down. There are good points here and I'm 80% convinced Eugyppius is right. Accepting nuance is not a step backwards for 'our side', it is reason, a thing we used to value.
I am 20% convinced Eugyppius is right. The center position between two opposite views is not necessarily the true one, by virtue of being centrally located. In fact, that position has more often been used to obscure truth and to hide data. It is too easy to ignore facts while self-aggrandizing, simply by claiming to be the adult in the room.
Colleen's sentiments and others who share them must be heard. When the core of Western Civilization is being turned upside down, one must be increasingly cautious and weary of sinister motives at play 😬
You touched on something that I've noticed has become something of a hallmark of the way the modern, "educated" person thinks today, and it's to defer to pointing out when the subject or the argument is polarized or a little too "uncomfortably extreme". Then, they signal their wisdom by suggesting that the answer "always lies somewhere in the middle." Doctors love doing this, for example.
I'd go so far as to say I'm 60% convinced Eugyppius is on the right track. I have listened to 100s of hours of podcasts and read 1000s of articles on the topic of the COVID mania across the spectrum of alt media and I would say there's a convergence to there being no overarching master plan and no one group in control; just lot of seperarte groups wishing that they were .. but of them all deluded. This thing had 'emergent properties' that no one could have foreseen and it has run out of the control of the instigators. Some folks who thought that they were being real clever were in fact fouriously sawing off the branch on which they sat.
That so many "renowned" hospitals are denying life-saving transplants to the unvaccinated screams out that we are in the fight of our lives. This "oh, it's just a group of hive-minded, midwit government officials who've gotten a little too far in from of their skis" nonsense is frankly unbelievable.
Great analysis. The only disagreement, and there has to be some disagreement :) is that the pandemic seems to be heavily monetized. Hospitals and nursing homes are getting mega bucks for a covid label, covid treatments and covid deaths. They have no interest in this ending. The media is supported by the drug industry, and certainly they have no interest in this ending.
There are all sorts of people getting attention that they normally would never get, what will they do when the spotlight isn't on them any longer?
ding ding ding...$$$$$ huge...my hospital system is lying out right about the vid...their recordings on hold say..."this is a preventable disease...do your part to stop it..." um...no...not preventable... They have doctors lying on video in their video news letter saying that the vax provides more protection than natural immunity..this system also drew national attention for a leaked zoom meeting where they discussed marketing plans to "scare" the community into getting vaxed and taking covid seriously.
Intriguing perspective on the matter. I would be very happy if your analysis, that this is now being driven by hysteria rather than being stage-managed by our ruling elites, is true as it makes the challenge seem less insurmountable.
That said, the Covid passports strike me as something being pushed purposefully and with a specific direction in mind.
But even if the passport is only a subplot, surely it's a subplot of such importance as to supplant lockdown in importance. In which case you would be right about the ungovernable nature of the present global psychosis, but wrong about its most important practical effect. Maybe some governments want out of lockdown (not mine; I'm Canadian), but they're all furiously single-minded about vaccinations, and more so by the week, even as everyone can see that neither SARS-CoV-2 nor vaccines do very much anymore. That seems hard to put down to spontaneous order, and much easier to put down to an internally acknowledged common purpose. And a common purpose backed by a bizarrely strong motivation, to the nature of which we plebs are not privy.
This truly is a monumentally naive view -- color me a little surprised.
If they have a future, it is *perfectly* clear. If they do not have a future, it will only manifest as a result of direct resistance in many forms.
I respect the view you express atop this page, and agree to an extent, but the "unfounded" offered above reveals what I can only describe as an unexpected level of historical myopia.
History is *ripe* with examples where the construction of false orthodoxy is used as an intellectual dead end, to trap powerful minds which might be swayed to resist in endless loops of reasoning, while assuaging the denial required to "unsee" what is apparent to many.
In recent history, just two (or so) years ago, those who were quite presciently predicting the arrival of our new "papers please" dystopia (including myself) based on historical precedent -- and speaking without hyperbole -- were nonetheless dismissed as wacky "conspiracy theorists".
Yet here they are, emerging almost as if "on schedule".
Many of those same individuals were also predicting the current wave of mandates swirling around the globe. Wielded as a means of both direct and indirect coercion, as well as a way to filter individuals with a moral/ethical backbone, and therefore less likely to follow dystopic orders from superiors in hierarchical systems serving enforcement roles.
Check, check, check.
At what point will the burden of evidence be enough to convince you that there is most definitely nefarious intent emanating from ABOVE the middle management layers the systems of indoctrination (education) entrain us to (falsely) regard as "leadership"...?
Not just "a few bad actors", but the financial backers of every major military conflict -- on all sides, because "good business" -- for more than two centuries...?
I'm not sure it matters if the passes are a part of some broader plot to institute a Chinese-style social credit system. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. Suppose they aren't. Okay, now that you've established the pass for this one thing, what's to stop a committee of "experts" from "expanding" it to include this other very-urgent thing, and then another committee of even more illustrious "experts" from "expanding" it again to include a third even-more-urgent thing, and so on, until you wind up with a full blown social credit system?
Exactly, it's the same type of "slippery slop" we've started down by by-passing the need for congress to make major decisions in "emergencies", such as a pandemic. By relegating so many of these individual liberties to the federal government due to individual fear and and a firm belief that "government" will protect you/us, we are reverting to the very things our founding fathers sought to escape (to ensure that the greatest possible number of decisions (nearly everything but maintaining a military and defining and the borders of our nation) be made at the LOCAL community level. The communist system of "social credit/score" is just another link in the chain you will then wear forever... Shades of Jake Marley in A Christmas Carol ? We STILL have a tiny window left to reject what so many have died defending it since our founding !
I'm hearing in the states some Gov't mutterings of "less testing, less testing" and "test yourself at home" etc. Do you think the hysterical middle will calm down if the testing levels go down? If there are no tests to prove that the Corona is "still out there," perhaps they will relax?
"i think it makes the challenge seem harder to surmount. "
Eventually the hysteria would run out of steam, far harder to stop an ideologically motivated, powerful and entrenched elite, the type that make plans in terms of decades or longer.
Some societies, like China, plan for generations, not just decades. I do believe the U.S. is less focused on the future, of course you could point to environmental controls as one evidence to the contrary, but in general, I believe in the U.S. we are much more focused on policy that addresses the short term... that may be a positive, may be a negative !
In my opinion, if the govt wanted to introduce that for other purposes it would be a complete piece of cake. Its introduction in the Covid context may have been opportunistic, but is also miscalculated and very likely to backfire.
I can foresee the digital ID via v@x pass being implemented in smaller populated countries first, studying the compliance, linking banking, travel, pensions, to the ID.
I think most of that is already done in Belgium. I know my dad has just the one card with all that information on it. I think the only thing still separate is travel documents (passport and visa)
Yes, another very troubling, V. E. R. Y. troubling trend. Be careful what you wish for in the name of "protection". The phrases "slippery path", "double edge sword" and "Pandora's box" come to mind ?
" The tone is still tentative here and there, because the primary force driving lockdowns is the vast, distributed consensus of the middle bureaucratic managerial ranks. This is a dangerous force even for politicians and wealthy oligarchs to confront, and they’ve approached it carefully."
Here, in the US, we refer to this as the "deep state". The unelected, expanding, myopic administrative machine that by day earnestly populates the DMV, TSA, HHS, FBI, NSA, IRS, etc. By night, they are our neighbors. "Good Germans", all of them.
Actually, para-politically speaking, the "Deep State" refers NOT to the agencies themselves, but to embedded agents within the bureaucratic hierarchy representing nefarious interests -- and their "handlers". As the very nature of hierarchy in word and deed requires top-down structure, said handlers often reside "above" said systems. *Compartmentalization* is the key, not coordination.
Based on my experience, these agents exist as you say. However "embedded" should be clarified to mean those operatives who have career-climbed the hierarchy. They become part of the visible insider-elite, then become corrupted by outside interests. The infamous revolving door between private and public sector being a form of this corruption. e.g. The pharmaceutical industry buying off federal regulators. The arms industry and the DOD. The EV, solar, wind industry and the EPA. It never stops.
My own descriptions and conclusions are also based on personal experience, as well as the far greater experience of colleagues with stronger stomachs who've risen much further than my own constitution would allow.
The "climbers" are a significant subset, yes. When their personal "Faustian" bargain finally comes from *above* their current position, they gleefully accept and rise according to their systemic value.
Which delivers us directly to the logical questions that follow : who is making the offer...? Who "authorized" the individual making the offer...? Ad infinitum.
Historically speaking to deny any higher form of *agency* and attribute all "evil" to a largely spineless bureaucratic class is the height of naivete.
I know people within - on the correct side of the" deep state" who see what is happening and are disgusted...and do not consider themselves a part of it...but powerless to stop it...can affirm much of what has been deemed "conspiracy theory" from pre-election to present day. Many of these people work closely with high level folks.
What does one do when the wife and kids say, "are you seriously telling me you are going to jeopardize our INCOME ? You are telling me you are willing to give up your retirement, your pension ? That affects US, not just YOU !"
Ah yes, the valuable phenomenon of "fluid", ever "evolving", "living" definitions, history, quotations, antiquities, ......... so very helpful, so very convenient. Best if we can finally do away with all physical "books", we have all writings and manuscripts in digital forms now, so much easier to "correct", less cumbersome, and in the case of public school districts, saves the taxpayers SO MUCH MONEY to just make a one time purchase of I-pads, makes so much "sense". Right !
Fair point. They just see themselves as being in the organization along side the thugs that are the “deep state” some of whom are their bosses and employees.
I've witnessed the same in local public "health" inspectors and those charged with the responsibility to inspect various aspects of construction; gas connections, concrete specimen testing in road work, and the list goes on.....
Their problem is that they firmly believe they are smarter and therefore they know better what's good for the rest of us. While the former might be true for 50 or 60% of the population, the latter is not.
I have always thought of this as the consequences and scale of failure. The smaller and more distributed the failures, errors, and bad luck events, the less systemic damage potential.
Certainly makes sense... what about the scale of this world wide pandemic ? Can the failures be distributed to the extent they have barely a ripple, let alone a Tsunami ? ?
That is most definitely at the root of so much of this, one group feeling they are more intelligent and therefore have an obligation to "watch over" the masses. Yet, the "masses" seem to be laying in the alleys and on the sidewalks in huge numbers, saw it every morning while visiting relatives in the city over the holidays, saw it every morning as I went for coffee at a nearby shop. No one even seemed to notice, so, don't think the
"care taking" responsibility/burden those of greater intellect believe they have is actually working ! Emphasis on Covid deaths. What about drug deaths, why are more and more and MORE people driven to control their fear and anxiety through drugs, where are all these powerful drugs coming from ? Why is it easier to obtain powerful mind altering drugs than it is to obtain cleaning products or toilet paper ? What is going on here while our eyes are closed ?
Maybe that is the real catastrophe of the deep state. It doesn’t have rational thought driving the bureaucracy. It just has consensus. And the consensus was reached that masking, lockdowns and vaccinations were the goal of the public health bureaucracy. Now the deep state and middle managers spend all of their time trying to force people to lockdown, mask, and vaccinate whether it makes sense or not. At least if the deep state had a head driving it, it could look at the data and quickly change the consensus.
Yes, of course. One of the things we prize most, we try to teach in colleges of business and administration, is the ability to quickly change directions when the collected data indicate no progress, to adapt, to backup and then continue to investigate in an alternative direction, gather facts and eventually, hopefully, find the right solution/truth.
You don't just arbitrarily chose NOT to study natural immunity, or long term effects of even slight oxygen deprivation in the very young, and things such as any long term differences in the effects of vaccines on males and females ? We seem to be unable to study multiple variables, factors... like hamsters just running in one wheel ! Yet we seem to be a society that values the skill of "multi-tasking" ! You see that phrase on nearly every job requirement description !
Not to get defensive, to refuse to accept failure of an idea, to take a set back as a personal assault on one's own ego.... this is just all so unnecessary, wastes so much time. When driving down a road that suddenly narrows, then begins to show considerable deterioration, THEN turns to dirt and gravel... do you continue at break neck speed to the end of the road that ends in a cliff over looking the ocean ?
I remember college. The professors really stressed critical thinking and problem solving in my engineering classes. Then I actually started working in the pharmaceutical industry and I realized that problem solving wasn't at all what was desired. I asked a colleague once, "Why are we doing it this way, it doesn't make any sense?" Her answer, "That is how they think it should be done." My response, "Who is 'they'?" All I get was a blank look from her. She was promoted quickly.
For the millionth time : the bureaucratic behemoth itself is NOT the "Deep State".
The term is unequivocally rooted in the well-documented history -- millennias worth -- of conspiratorial behavior in governance.
It describes a specific class of embedded actors WITHIN the sprawling edifice working to advance agendas often in conflict with the *stated ideals* of the larger system of governance said bureaucracy (at least theoretically) supports.
Sadly, like so many other terms, it is losing it's original meaning via the usual suspects : misuse and repetition.
PREACH!!! And we have this pesky problematic thing called the constitution..oh wait..and the 2nd amendment...full stop for now....other countries that have gone full East German on their populations took weapons years ago...just saying.
A friend in Spain told me that no politician there has ever been able to ignore the wishes of the upper level bureaucrats, which have life time appointments. The bureaucrat always wins, and some politicians have to learn it the hard way.
This also has a positive effect sometimes: there are actually a few good bureaucrats which didn't go along with every crazy corona measure proposed.
As an identified auto-didact and lifelong iconoclast, I've spent the bulk of my sentient years as the proverbial canary in the coalmine. Sadly, life insists on remaining linear, so the largest lessons have had the unfortunate tendency of arriving in single file.
The most valuable of them by FAR was the moment where I lost "faith" in the medical industry in my mid-20's, followed immediately by the discovery that the best "medicine" was what you put in your mouth at "mealtime", as well as the manufactured fallacy of mealtime (and so many others).
What that grueling stretch taught me was critical, after having my immune system trashed by well-meaning, pill-pushing physicians with zero nutritional knowledge : each individual must experience (and survive) their own personal "radicalization" moment, before any awakening is possible.
Mine/ours (me and the wife) was edible. Followed by realizing -- and accepting, then acting on -- the simple, fundamental truth of personal responsibility for EVERYTHING in our lives. Reclaiming "quality control" in all things. It gave sayings like "physician heal thyself" and "do no harm" rich new meaning.
Invested years studying and (un)learning the well-funded tenets of formal "nutrition" and discovering a tawdry history of industrial and institutional meddling and marketing stretching back over a century. Already hip to similar historical arcs in other disciplines, the patterns were very familiar.
To top it all off, the wife and I are both familiar with vaccine injury, personally and peripherally. Our stance on the latest genocidal impulse emanating from the upper reaches of systemic power is rooted in these experiences. The malicious policies advancing on each and every one of us are beyond insulting when viewed in context. It's difficult NOT to interpret a genocidal impulse.
Her family actually hid two of their own from the "Einsatzgruppen" for nearly a decade. One unquestionably damaged by a polio vaccine at age six, the other most likely a developmental DDT casualty in the early "better living through chemistry" years.
Sadly, such powerful individual lessons are nothing in the apocalyptic battle for hearts and minds so long dominated by well-funded industrial propaganda and the mewling minions who worship at the triumvirate altars of "Science", "Capital" and "Progress".
Our radicalization moment was nearly three decades ago. Over that span, we've personally helped a few close friends -- those with functioning critical minds -- step off the Lazy Susan of industrial "health and nutrition". All are still thanking us to this day, some now more radical than ourselves.
Thirty years down the road and both sporting fully functional immune systems, it's clear to us that the Machine can no longer be sated consuming us one-by-one or in small handfuls. We're reaching truly ghastly levels of blood sacrifice. The blanket othering of critical thought is also tragically familiar, not to mention hugely ironic from our outpost on a rural German farm.
It's hard to cultivate hope when one possesses something akin to "prescience", based on forty years of reading ALL sides and honing one's mental blade.
It's hard to retain hope in the face of colleagues and family with FAR more formal education utterly beholden and incapable of recognizing the basest reality when pointed out, then unable to acknowledge accurate predictions made months/years earlier coming to pass again and again and again.
When hindsight is eliminated, all that remains is the future conflict you allude to above. Is it inevitable...? Unfortunately, if history any sort of guide, the answer appears to be yes.
If I weren't currently "locked down" on this centuries old farm in the western German border country, I'd offer you a beer (or a nice glass of wine. or a nip of the "clear" distilled from our plum trees) from the root cellar and bid you have a seat in the kitchen, where many such conversations have unfolded over the last three centuries or so. Cheers, mate.
And likewise, only I'm an American expat living on Rawai beach on the southern tip of Phuket, Thailand. We're not in lockdown—there has never been that during this near 2 years of insanity—but they do require masks...which is quite ridiculous. There's also a not-enforced helmet law for motorcycles. So, they'll stop you for not wearing a mask but not for not wearing a helmet. Otherwise it's reasonably chill, just that the tourist economy is totally effed. Cheers.
I don't see any option to follow an author and work like this shouldn't be buried in some comment section. You deserve your own platform even if updated only twice a year.
Thanks for the kind words, Victor. You're not the first to mention the idea.
Counterintuitively perhaps, I waded into the defense and media sectors in earlier stages of life, before eventually turning and running in the opposite direction as fast as humanly possible when rapid advancement revealed a bit too much.
Strategically speaking, hanging a shingle here at Substack runs 180° counter to my nearly 30-year-old Joyceian strategy of "silence, exile and cunning". Especially the silent part... =)
That said, having had a successful independent career as an historical consultant and guide built over the last 20+ years shit-canned by bureaucratic diktat over the last two years, I've begun to reconsider the possibility in recent months.
There is a dumbed down generation that will hit America like a tsunami and we need a Moses/Morpheus to greet them at the shore. Don't spend any time on the retired -- their enlightenment is of little consequence.
Thank you for thinking through these issues with rigor and clarity. The conspiracy question has nagged at me endlessly. On the one hand, the covid hystericists reject any criticism of lcokdowns or vaccines or any of their other agendas with the snarky comment: “you sound like a conspiracy theorist!” On the other hand, no high leveling planning by global alites can ever explain why people I have known for decades have suddenly become seized by this mania and seem ready to accept horrible things I never would have believed. You manage to cut the chord nicely.
In a word, FEAR fuels it all, from the refusal of those to consider all the consequences of lock downs, to the attitude of those long time friends and family you mention suddenly seized by the mania, even the seemingly rational consideration of science (data) by large government bureaucracies, all can be boiled down to fear; will the people panic if we tell them everything, how can we control hoarding of commodities, what can we suggest that will at least make them feel they have control and protection even if it has no actual effect, a placebo of some kind ? What internal emotion causes otherwise rational, well educated people, to reject all they know to be fact, things like very basic biology from junior high school ? Fear and doubt fuels it all, that's pretty simplistic, but that's what it is... most of all, the thought of a global conspiracy is so complex, so undefinable, and so horrifying, most people need to try to protect their families, put food on the table, and just try to cope with everyday life... !
I agree with you because I've worked for 17 years in a vast federal bureaucracy, which I liken to carousel that never stops spinning. Although many different people will hop on and off off it, and you can sometimes swap out the lions for tigers, no one is actually in charge and it can't be stopped. I also live in Vermont which is the perfect example, at a state level, of a state controlled by urban upper-class intellectuals. They have vaccinated 60% of the little kids here -- by far the most of any state. Whatever for? They seem to believe this virus is literally Ebola. They seem to be smart people, but why are they so impervious to new information? Why can't they learn and adapt? Why are they biased towards catastrophe? They believe in the vaccines, but they don't "trust" the vaccines. They believe that the vaccines stop transmission, but they also believe they "don't work 100%" and so still demand all the other NPIs and boosters as well. It's like they used all their so-called brain power and education to "pick" an ideology to follow and then after that point they put their brain back on the shelf.
A good analysis. Anyone who tells you they're certain of something like this and that you must be too, in either direction, is either deluded or malicious. That goes for the drones declaring that “Covid doesn't discriminate” and “It definitely came out of a wet market” as much as it does for those telling you it's definitely a grand conspiracy stretching back decades. The most likely history is roughly as described above: a mess of petty conspiracies and plots within a vast ocean of hysteria and ignorance.
Increasingly, I'm coming to this conclusion ... while still angry with the fire of a thousand suns against our feckless and/or captured political leaders and unredeemable legacy media.
I look forward to eugyppius' tomes; unfortunately, most people, in fact, the vast majority will say "TL;DR". And that is unfortunate. But his most compelling point is the following: "...I think it’s essential to develop a counter-narrative that is politically neutral and accessible to ordinary people,.."
George Carlin said "imagine how stupid the average person is then realize half of all people are stupider than that." These are the millions of people in our institutions and bureaucracies making the decisions that affect our lives the deepest. And if some of them are actually smarter than average, they are surrounded by stupid people or they serve stupid people.
Think about the people that work in schools or libraries. They make these decisions.
Axel Oxenstierna said it. In 1648. Awareness of this has been the basis of Swedish public administration theory since then. It needs to be robust to stupidity. Maybe that explains why they are almost the only place that kept their shit together.
The real reason our governement behaved the way they did when it all started, is that the state has removed it's own ability to enforce compliance.
Oh, and they are terrified of being wrong. That means they always without fail wait until they can point to the UN, the EU or the US and say: "Look! Big Brother is doing it, therefore we must do it too, cause if Big Brother does it, it's the right thing to do!".
Meaning they make both their own mistakes and others.
Oxenstierna was managing a war, which is the reason there was no room for stupidity (well, except for the normal levels). One of the most sparsely populated regions of Europe leading the war against the Catholic League - and winning? Inconceivable!
The swedish governements from the mid-nineties to today are best thought of as governors of a province in the EU.
What do you mean by "removed its own ability to enforce compliance"? In any case, that in itself sounds like a good thing. Certainly I do not want to idolize Sweden though, or anywhere else (that I can think of). I have it on what I took to be good authority that Oxenstierna founded the modern Swedish public administration, in any case the more important point is that there will always be stupidity and incompetence and it should be the default explanation for most phenomena. In order to optimise outcomes under real world conditions we need to avoid concentrations of power within bureaucracies and make decisions in a way that admits all qualified persons to the table. At this point this is absolutely clear, and it concerns way more than Covid, it is becoming essential to the future of democratic societies themselves, because this degree of incompetence coupled with this degree of power is an existential threat to humanity.
"So yes, the inception of this involved a lot of planning. Now, however, the initiators are no longer in the driver’s seat. " In my opinion, the initiators are still providing the script, especially when it comes to the unvaccinated who are demonised by Macron, Trudeau, Morrison, Jacinta Ardern; right on cue, they make their chilling statements.
That’s not how it went here in the US. When they thought the Vaccine really worked nobody was suggesting mandates. It wasn’t until the Vaccine was clearly not going to end the Pandemic that they started pushing mandates. If you have ever spent time around the US federal government or I imagine any large bureaucracy this is predictable behavior. You don’t make it to the top by being a creative thinker who takes risks, instead you are political and safe. You never want a failure or you will cover up your failures. What would a bunch of bureaucrats at the end of their careers who have been faced with “their moment” do when they see their plan failing? Double down. I really think big Pharma is happy to piggy back on the bad policy for sinister reasons but the Fauci’s of the world are just normal corrupt bureaucrats afraid to admit they were wrong. So in a sense Eugyppius did address it. We must contain at all costs and the vaccine is the last hope dwindling by the day. Candle burns brightest before it goes out.
What many people fail to realize is that in many respects this is much much more dangerous than if it were a Bond-type villain scenario. There is no central commanding force that you can talk to, defeat, or even surrender to on suitable terms
Live not by lies.... Here's a passage from A.S.'s great work:
"But it will never come unstuck by itself, if we all, every day, continue to acknowledge, glorify, and strengthen it, if we do not, at the least, recoil from its most vulnerable point.
From lies."
So friends resist and do not comply, not even an iota with the madness.
Yeah. Someone (David W?) previously posted a link in a comment to "things we can do" which I found helpful. Forgot to bookmark it, though.
Apropos, I would be careful not to mention "mass formation psychosis" outside of the Reality circles. It's not in the DSM and since Malone mentioned it on Rogan has been viciously attacked and "fact checked"
As an outspoken naturopathic physician, I am no stranger to "fact checkers" and their pharma-purchased assertions and their abysmal paucity of data and logic. Bring on the critics of Mattias Desmet's mass formation hypothesis. I am ready to debate at his and Malone's side.
It's not about logic, as we well know. It's about pursuasion, as you say empathy (for most), and ridicule (in general and for some in particular). In other words, rhetoric.
My daily consumption of information gets a bit blurry. Your writing generally helps to clarify. I appreciate your positive efforts and think your conspiracy thoughts are correct. Thank you!
I strongly agree with your main point. Even things that may have started as 'conspiracies' eventually develop a method of their own (emergent behavior). This can be a bit disturbing to those who favor the comic-book image of a diabolical evil genius or organization controlling all this. But it's gone long past that point. We are in the world of the mob and NO ONE has control. You can take away the favorite targets (Fauci, WEF, Bill Gates, George Soros etc) and that will no longer change things.
And ant colony is made up of ants with very simple programming, but the colony itself is remarkably successful and adaptable, really the colony should be considered an animal in its own right.
The beast has emerged, and it is us.
Added one more thought: I think this is WHY the government(s) are digging in their heels. To admit mistake at this point will result in unpredictable behavior and possible political or societal collapse.
I like this blog not only because of its rational nature but because of the subscriber comments. You've managed to collect a group of followers who are true thinkers. Most comment sections these days are full of snark, vulgarity, and misspelled words. I enjoy the responses as much as the original blog. Thanks, Eugyppius, for facilitating important discussion that is useful, intelligent and reasoned. I usually don't even feel worthy to comment but greatly appreciate the information you deciminate. Keep up the good work.
Damn Cynthia, now I feel pressure to add a comment worthy of the standard you’ve set. Here goes:
So I second Cynthia’s praise. The only dimension I think E misses is the religious one.
For me, this is a useful paradigm for understanding what has happened, and what is likely to happen yet. It is not a coincidence that the Covid zealots are drawn of that class which abandoned formal religious practices and faith based ethics in favour of a more nebulous conception of modernity. And while some among that class perhaps can kill God and yet withstand the descent into madness - nietzscheian Supermen - for the most part we are left carrying lanterns in broad daylight, blunded by our hubris.
Or, as Chesterton put it, the problem with forsaking religion is not that we believe in nothing. It is that we believe in everything.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not arguing for a return to pre-modern Christiantiy - a religion I paradoxically don’t think can be resurrected.
But it helps if we understand the momentum E describes as a sort of religious force. Perhaps it must coalesce and reform into something more durable? If so, that suggests a Dark Age is ahead…
Great response!
I've spent my entire life in service to the Christian church through music/arts ministry. I don't think Eugyppius intends for this to become a conversation about religion, but I've had a front row seat observing the changes in many of our churches, including our United Methodist church. My husband and I have actually left our church with no viable alternatives from which to choose.
The past couple years I've finally seen the connection between all the issues we're dealing with as a country/world. Covid, CRT, white fragility, anti-racism, equity, social justice, censorship, cancel culture, climate change, etc.... these concepts have negatively infiltrated the church to such a degree that we could no longer support the theology.
I resigned my position after a year of on-line worship for which I personally edited the video files and provided the music. Our church was the last one in town to begin meeting in person again, which had been closed down at the edict of the bishop, not the local pastor (although she was as fearful of covid as the bishop). They still require all to be masked and social distanced despite a lowered attendance of less than 50 in a large area. No singing. I can't go to church when I have to leave angry. I don't know if we'll ever find a church again where we feel at home. I won't wear a mask because I can't communicate without my face. So here we are... I never dreamed I would get to this age and not have a church I can call "home."
The physical gathering of believers is of deep spiritual significance in any Christian denomination that derives its doctrine from the Book. Congregations that prioritize public health over that reality clearly don't believe what they teach; it is correct to deem such gatherings non-essential.
I do hope you find a suitable replacement gathering, though! The future of the Christian-in-more-than-name church may be in scruffy house gatherings that are largely invisible to the state. Cult-like, unsound teaching is always a risk there, but in this risk lies an opportunity to deepen one's own understanding of what was said, what it means, and how it applies.
The "cult-like" quality is minimized, I think, if the house church has some oversight. I've been part of something like that in the past. Your own small house church group periodically gathers with a larger assembly of house churches. Also, some type of leadership oversees many house churches. We should see the 5-fold ministries as well! Back to the New Testament!
As I said above, there is a curious phenomenon. The church hierarchy is on the side of vaccines, passports, mandates and so on, on the side of Evil, you may even say; while the faithful, mostly are not (of course, not all). But I, at least, met many Christians who are diffident of the vaccines and have an instinctive dislike for the social changes going on. But it's difficult if the Church itself is not on their side, and in many cases requires a "vaccine passport" and masks to go to mass or even just to go in and pray. What do you in that case? I have no idea, but it's a contradiction, and if the situation continues it might lead to big changes.
I was not as entrenched in my church as you, but we had finally found one after moving to a new city, that my husband actually enjoyed going to. The sermons were that good. But they followed all of the government edicts as well, even having a shot clinic, and at that point, I withdrew our financial support and am not sure I will ever have a home church again. I'm okay with it since there is plenty available online.
I don't have the answer.... LOL... it appears no one has the final answer...but I can at least look at how well it has worked out in those countries who closed places of worship by force, executed clergy, etc. That has never been shown to be successful either ! We can look back at, and analyze, were we better off as a nation when we lived in family units, went to a place of worship of our choice as a family unit, attended all school meetings and functions without fail, attended city council meetings just to "keep an eye on things", etc. Was there less fear and anxiety ? Was addiction a reality, but not in every community and local school ? Were we more cohesive ? Did neighbors have warmer feelings toward other neighbors ? Are all technical advances really helpful ? Or, does it depend on HOW people use those advancements ? Can we have respect, honestly, personal integrity, understanding of our fellow humans, and still have anonymous internet blogs, cell phones, Facebook, realistic video games, etc. etc. ? Perhaps that is up to US, not the "fault" of "devices" ? Some thoughts to ponder.
As a dedicated and lifelong atheist, I feel I have to resist what you say, at least on my own behalf. Believe in everything? I don't think so.
I don't disagree that humanity seems to have some sort of need for a higher authority. Afraid of personal responsibility, or what? I don't know. Maybe all we need is training in self-awareness.
Hmmm... interesting thoughts. I've always believed that it's important to believe in something greater than ourselves. Your comment about people possibly being afraid of personal responsibility is interesting. It's because I believe in personal responsibility that I need faith in God to guide me. I'm no philosopher, but my observation of humanity is that because we aren't perfect, we need someplace to turn for grace for our shortcomings. So many people live with guilt and shame all their lives and don't know how to purge it.
I would never presume to foist my observations on those who consider themselves atheists (as does my own son). This is only my personal belief. And yes, I believe atheists can be very good people. 😇
Yes,many. There is still a moral order.
It's very hard to work in nature and not believe or at least entertain the concept of "higher power". Likewise, experiencing death in some form. I agree with your observation on a global wide, general fear of personal responsibility throughout the last 2 years.
Btw- love the Substack handle- awesome series!😁
It's an awesome species, for sure. The only series I'm aware of is the Star Trek spinoff.
I find it interesting that, in my experience, many people who are more vocal against "vaccine passports" and all that other new forms of control, are in many cases Christians. While secular atheists have no problem with it and even push for it. But note that the Church bureaucracy (Protestant or Catholic, doesn't matter) are on the side of mandatory vaccinations and all those rules, even against their own flock. Which is interesting. The blogger Dr. Bruce Charlton has written about that.
An interesting idea/trend; however, when people talk or comment using broad brushes, back up statements with "many ______ are vocal against vaccine passports", and other such broad statements, are, just as you stated, expressing their observation, or as you put it "in my experience". These types non scientific, casual statements really say nothing. They are interesting to ponder. We study such phenomena in psychology. Say a group of people live in an area of Michigan with a high density of Muslims. Because they notice a great lack of interest in something, lets just say the fad a few years back of having your passport on a smart phone app. If there is conversation not favoring this, and much talk about not using it or against even downloading the app, then there will be people who, out of "thin air" as the saying goes, make the faulty deduction that "Muslims are against passport apps" ! People do this all the time, they see a few (those in their experience circle) of this or that group and make broad general "observations". It's human nature.... again. Reminder, NOT speaking of your comment, you hedged it with "in my experience", which made it clear you know of this tendency. Just out of interest, as you stated, I find at my protestant church about a 50/50 on the passports, exactly the same as it is for vaccines and boosters ...LOL ! So I asked our good friends and neighbors, over coffee this morning at the local DD, "how do people at your church, in general, feel about this idea of vaccine passports ? I know they go to a variety of mass times, not just the same every time. Their replay, "LOL, it's like everything else, just like the vaccine shots, about half are all for it, half really opposed, LOL". They also mentioned something additional, that is certainly true in our Lutheran church too.... no matter vaxed or unvaxed, for or against virus passports, pastors or priests, one thing is clear, they are getting and spreading it in equal percentages, the vaxed and the non-vaxed. Someday, we may find all these suppositions we try desperately to tie this "plague" to, have no basis at all ? Time will tell. Admit, I do not really know any secular atheists , so I can't make any statements to support or refute your observation that "they have no problem with it", but I have a "hunch" that their lack of spiritual belief is not the deciding variable for them..... but, could be ! We do have several agnostic couples in our circle of friends... ALL of them are diametrically opposed to vaccination, period, but based on that I certainly could not conclude that "agnostics tend to be strongly opposed to the idea of vaccination passports" so.... it's kind of like a man in a blue shirt who `drops dead while playing golf.... what do we conclude ?" Do not play golf ? Do not wear a blue shirt ? Or, perhaps, males raise their chances of a heart attack when playing golf if they are wearing blue shirts ? I read your post because it was an interesting observation; made me want to just make some informal observations at my own church. But, if I were to formally study those who support and those oppose vaccine "passports", don't know if religion would be one the the variables I would include in my study design... but, perhaps ? Tops on my list of variables to include would be job/profession, and that is due to my experience with the agnostic friends. I was profoundly interested because one is a retired M.D., her objection to vax passports is just a by product to her strong objection to the vaccine to begin with. Said as a physician of course she supports many vaccines, she will not take or support this one because she believes the trials were both "rushed and flawed" and should have waited for data. She could be correct ? Time will tell of course, but nothing was based on her religion, or lack of ! ?
You’re right. It’s an interesting observation. Not sure what to make of it. I mean, I can see a lot of catholics fleeing the Woke Pope and so forth over this kind of thing….
Exactly ! It not only stimulates thinking, for me it serves to expand thinking, it brings out aspects I had not previously thought of, which is so valuable. You are so spot on about so many blogs and comment sections of untold sites, seem nearly 90% are emotionally based defensive moves, the lashing out, the name calling, the denigration, and as you mentioned, full of snark. It always reminds me of the hosts on the program The View; like a pack of snapping, snipping, snarling dogs, turning on each other and incapable to sitting back and considering the line of "thinking" of the others (but it gets them attention !) And using name calling (some quite shocking) as a defense to pound down their deep fears.
Excellent point. Can't be made enough. Dunbar's number.
Hey, there's something important going on in those venues w vulgarity and misplaced words too😁
I couldn't have written it better, Ms. Marlette.
Only because you mentioned misspelled words… I think you meant 'disseminate' :)
My own formative years during the Reagan 80's were spent reading and re-reading everything Ayn Rand wrote. Let's just it out loud: we are living Atlas Shrugged. As the end-game draws near, where 300 million people with no foundation in rational thought, let by sociopaths who are only skilled at manipulating, are unable to keep up with the demands of an industrialized society built by men & women with rock-solid belief systems who sacrificed for future generations. You'll see abominations like what has happened with the deadly experimental gene therapies down to 24 hour traffic jams on common freeways (it's snowed here in the US since the pilgrims landed). The worst is yet to come and will multiply with increasing velocity and violence. We have became a notion of lazy , spoiled idiots, managed by a purely evil idiocracy.
The failure of IDEAS is what has spawned this mess. Without the bedrock of reason and freedom driving us, anything is possible. Event 201 is a symptom, not the cause.
I think you are right. Although there are lots of good things to be said about computers and smartphones, the youth is plainly abusing them. They can no longer think for themselves, but ask their machinery for a solution, blindly following their advice. Every day you read about kids getting harmed or killed by things on Tiktok and Twitter. Millions of people get duped on Facebook. ONe has to really look out what is out there on line, because it makes it much easier for all kind of traitors to reach almost everyone.
Lots of children now have even become blind to facial expression thanks to the masks. The children will have to be re-educated, and I doubt the parents that are up to it.
It isn’t just the young.
No, it isn't just the young, but I can tell you from inside the machine that they only care about cultivating the young as lifelong, addicted, omnipresent users. You and I are a nice bonus but not worth the costs of intense, focused efforts to make us as dependent as Gen Z and younger. All they truly care about is hooking the kids and maybe dragging the occasional mom or grandma along for the ride.
They haven't given a shit about anyone over 30 or so in about the past 40 years. They'd frankly wish we'd all just go away- it gets harder and more expensive to manipulate our tastes and beliefs the older we get.
I read a comment by a government official who specifically stated their goal was to place 100% of the world under these shots, n highlighted the children as"the new customers." Nothing we have seen is related to public health, because every recommendation they've implemented was previously rejected as a response to this type of pandemia.
Well, they won't do any better than 99.99% until they shoot me, which is exactly what I expect will happen eventually.
You won't be alone. See you at the camps maybe.
Not helpful to further the context of a disposable society either. Along with that goes a lack of preservation of great knowledge, experience and wisdom gained "the hard way" as my grand dad always expressed it. In other words, if a relative once attempted to "repair" an appliance while still connected to an outlet, and landed in the ER or worse, the morgue, my grand dad considered that a valuable lesson learned "the hard way", and therefore no one else need suffer the same experience/fate.... called CUMULATIVE knowledge, history if you will. Not a good discipline to remove from the school curriculum!
It's called institution amnesia in the context of organizations, and it's the reason why leftist revolutions always focus on the obliteration of history as their first step.
Hummmm, "re-educated" ? I think the children ARE being "re-educated" this very day, this very minute, don't you ? Maybe they will need to be "re-PROGRAMED" ? And around them... they see their parents succumbing to pressures put on them to be able to retain their careers, keep from becoming outcasts of society, see their parents, honest, ethical people, crumble and lie, comply, do what is necessary to "survive"...going to be difficult to Re-program a child exposed to that kind of experience
How do they deprogram children that have been in a cult? That is probably what is needed. I have no idea what will become of these poor kids, especially these that are jabbed. It is not even certain if they will live.
Hopefully they will live, we have to have "faith" in that, but what the long term affect might be ? To give hope and a high note, I recently watched AGAIN, a TV mini series: John Adams (staring Paul Giamatti and a truly STELLAR cast). I think it was done by HBO and received so many awards it's in many public library DVD collections now for loan. Can't say enough about the series, not a documentary, it's done in full movie pageant format, costumes, acting, all amazing but... the point is, in one part it shows what our forefather's experienced when nearly every family was touched with death, particularly of children, due to small pox. This is shown in this film, Laura Linney, as Adams wife is faced with the unimaginable decision (with John away working to establish this new, free, nation) to hold each of her children to be given a (rather painful when first discovered and used) vaccination for the plague sweeping the new country, smallpox. It must have been a horrible decision for her, what if she did the wrong thing and John came back from his sacrifice to find their children deceased ? Fortunately, it turned out, they lived, the avoided death from smallpox, and one followed in this father's footsteps as a TRUE public servant (in those days, being a politician meant making a HUGE personal SACRIFICE, personally and financially, the family suffered because they also supported the idea of a free country, a "united" group of states, to form a "perfect union", so back then, to be a politician meant you were going to have to give up a comfortable life style. But the smallpox "experiment" worked out for the better, and we really have to have faith these children will not be permanently damaged. Just this minute on TV, a Harvard profession is actually SHOUTING in this interview.... the vaccinations are SAFE, SAFE, get these children all vaccinated, we need to have ALL schools open and ALL children back in school, they have lost so much education now they will not be "caught up" by the time they graduate high school. Some think another year of school needs to be added to free public education to help in the "catch up" !
I agree there is a lot overlap with Rand’s description of the evil process. However, she wrote to a particular end in which the devils prevailed. I think of it as a story about the death of an ideology, and all her books were about this one story, which she had observed well. Spontaneous order, on the other hand, is predictable temporarily in movement but not in conclusion. Example, many knew the 2008 housing crisis was coming due to valuation data but no one could predict the exact moment the tide would turn. There are many who will refuse mandates to the bitter end. More and more know individuals with vaccine injury or death. Add to these groups the disillusioned former believers and the scientists risking reputation and livelihood to save the children. And of course, there is always Joe Rogan and his audience who still believe in individual liberty. There is hope.
Who ever would have believed 20 years ago that the host of Fear Factor would be leading the dissemination of truth and clarity into a dying empire?
Rogan isn't alone, but he is one of the few true journalists alive, whether he realizes it or not.
Remember that 20 years ago we lacked the Internet and things like work from home and order from Amazon were impossible. We could act as we have because we could. It would have been unthinkable 20 years ago.
Agree whole-heartedly. The world is much more connected now and there are numerous ways to disseminate & receive information. At the same there, the amount of misery & death that would come from the collapse of industrialized society is something few can imagine. Productive, rational people will always find a way to survive and thrive.
Atlas Shrugged ... a very apt comparison. Quite a book.
And you must include the "Politically Correct" little dot sized melanoma that has metastisized into stage 4 full body "Woke" cancer.
"Woke" is simply an acronym for "I don't wish to work and would prefer to steal what you've earned and need to come up with an excuse to justify it". Lazy, shiftless grifters & looters have been around for time immemorial. The fact that they gave themselves a new name doesn't change anything. Unfortunately, there is no Ayn Rand around to state the obvious, as our current "intellectuals" are dumb as rocks.
While I wholeheartedly agree with the above statement (hear here!), it doesn't acknowledge how the "shiftless" you correctly refer to have been elevated to untouchable status by the very corporate communication systems still calling for the demise of the "unclean". There is clearly a playbook.
Ask yourself : why would vast corporate media enterprises so brazenly submarine their own credibility and a significant fraction of their potential revenue base...?
Having surfed the edges of the mainstream media in a previous life, I can state with confidence that "the message" of the moment has always been -- and will always be -- bought and paid for by the advertisers.
And who exactly are these amorphous entities...?
Unfortunately, the corporations, including the large corporate media entities are not true, capitalist organizations, openly competing in a completely free marketplace. They have all positioned themselves via grift, lobbyists and various other mechanisms that aid them in growing revenue, while shielding them from their actions. This is only possible with systemic corruption. these types of organizations attract the same sorts of people that thrive in government: their skill-set is heavily skewed to leveraging relationships and manipulating vs creating actual value. These sorts of minds find it easier to simply virtue signal by throwing $500K to BLM vs standing for the very principles that made their existence possible. They are spineless, feckless shadows of the types of people that built this nation. A poster child for our modern corporations is Pfizer, who showers billions on the media companies, while paying out billions to cover their felonies & misdeeds. They can only get away with this due to various laws which shield them from their actions. In a true, free, capitalist system, in which the government can not use their sanctioned power of brute force to shield them, they would be sued & fire-bombed out of existence.
Thanks a million for the unnecessary lecture, Prof. Obvious. In your rush to "educate" me, you appear to have missed the fact that I invoked not a single "-ism". Corporate, yes. Advertisers, yes. Capitalist, no.
In other words, manipulation of public (mass) perception by "monied" interests. Not a single, lonely declaration of their "-ism". No such labels required.
In fact, I did my best to walk away from such linguistic chicanery decades ago, because as functional and/or descriptive, they are (by design) worthless at best and intentionally misrepresentative at worst.
That they are typically wielded as an intellectual sword and shield (as above), banging loudly in the direction of the perceived "enemy", a reality that was already tedious forty years ago, as a precocious young high school student.
So, as we basically agree on all points, here's your challenge : try teaching the same lesson, WITHOUT invoking a single "-ism" or "-ist".
If my own decades of experience are any indication, your message will be clearer and more concise, raise fewer hackles and your thought processes will be less prone to irritate other thoughtful, well-read souls like yourself.
Peace brother.
Lived in that world for years Doug Mitchell, believe me, most (not all of us) in that "academic ivory tower" have NO intention of developing simple, clear, speech patterns.. you probably know.. it's part of the "game", to give the impression you are someone special, of great knowledge. When you enter a doctoral program you have no idea, or very little idea, when you are well along... you realize. Perhaps now, that even doctorates are ordered up on line, it would not be as obvious as when one is a candidate on campus. Using "ism (s) is only part of it, also useful is "research shows" and we learn very well how to make research "show" what we need to support... oh yes, many ways.
I dunno ... I think my point was crystal clear. There was no intent to lecture you or teach you a lesson. Peace to you as well.
And more excellent points seldom brought up in general conversations, articles, or "arguments" among friends, family, and colleagues ! Correct, not what we think of as classic capitalism !
You make multiple excellent points !
I agree with your summary of "woke" to a point.. I only wish to add that is not the ONLY group. There is a huge group of well educated, hard working, professional people in our very nice planned community, who are far from lazy, shiftless, and "looters", yet, in FEAR (again, there is that root word) of looking cold, uncaring, when they (like myself) feel so fortunate for what they have, that it drives them to appear "caring and concerned" by displaying how "woke" they are. While I never experience a single day I am not thankful for the "accident of nature" that I am a citizen of this country, the recipient of an exceptional education (and yes, even thankful for the three low paying, "menial" jobs I worked to get that education), and have had the ability to go any direction career wise as long as I was willing to do the work... the only difference in myself, and many (not all) of my neighbors, I don't feel a need to show how "woke" by jumping on every popular line spouted at every neighborhood gathering or back yard barbecue !
One of the reasons Ayn Rand's novel was the most-read book of the 20th century is that it perfectly captures how ideas drive what is occurring today and what will occur tomorrow. The characters are rich, complex, yet amplified in a way that is sheer brilliance. Take the time to read Atlas Shrugged and focus on Lillian Rearden, who is the perfect exemplification of the type of people you are describing above. When one understands that they are neither "caring"n or "sympathetic" nor "benevolent" in any way, but are simply seeking the destruction of those they envy, all of the pieces begin to fall into place. The absence of a belief system mired in reality leads to many dangerous roads, but all lead to the same place eventually.
I personally believe one of the most important, and basic, things people at all levels fail to understand (or, possibly have no background or education in ?) is human psychology, human behavior. Ayn Rand also had great insight as a result of "living" under a repressive government....much the same as many Cuban Americans have experienced and try to pass on their first hand experience in their writings and by speaking out in everyday conversation. One of Rand's most famous quotes:
“If you don't know, the thing to do is not to get scared, but to learn.”
We could ALL benefit by having THAT ONE run as a public service announcement all day on every network, in place of: Save the future, save your children, get them vaccinated..... (low whisper..... ) now, now, NOW !
And the Gatorade continues to be poured on the plants.
Sure does !
It has electrolytes!
Yes..and/or both and.
Same here, have all Rand's writing in hard copy in my extensive personal library. Has been enlightening to reread these substantial novels again and again over the years, never boring because each year, decade, of life brings expansion of ability to pick up on nuances, expand understanding... the failure of ideas, yes, along with the inability to accept such with humility and grace and refuse to fuel the denial, defensiveness, to defend failed "ideas" to the very end... it just could be the VERY end ! A great deal to learn from Pasternak, Tolstoy (for insight into human behavior... all wrapped up in an engaging " fictional novel". My copy of Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals, Thirteen Tactics, all required reading in my undergrad years in a large public university... well, I have been rereading and highlighting my copy so often lately, it's about to fall to pieces ! Taken on a whole different meaning with time and distance... if you know what I mean !
Completely agree ! Rand KNEW, knew from experience, as did Pasternak and so many others, it's not as if we have no clue, that none before us warned us ! Pandemic, "Bitcoin", bank failures, "vaccines" that are not vaccinations at all, and seemingly have no effects except some negatives ones for many people, massive gender "confusion", much more and MUCH younger than ever before, and a host of other "events", countries turning away from the U.S. dollar as the standard for trade, I could go on for another paragraph, but no need, the point is, no one sees, no one cares, no one "reads the writing that was clearly written for us as a warning".... ! ?
I didn't comment last time because there were 200+ responses already, but today I might be able to get a word in:
These posts are excellent. They've helped me gather my own thoughts about what's going on and have strong explanatory power. Rival theories depend too heavily on unproven premises.
Don't worry about copping blowback. Call it as you see it. Some of the top rated comments irritate me because the whole article might have been written as a response to it. People read but don't take in. It's fine to disagree but at least address the specific points made.
We've all fallen into mass psychosis on both sides. Vaccines are either the saviour or a plot to murder us all. Leaders saved us, killed us by not being tyrannical enough, or plotted in their thousands to enslave us right from the start.
Everybody calm down. There are good points here and I'm 80% convinced Eugyppius is right. Accepting nuance is not a step backwards for 'our side', it is reason, a thing we used to value.
*ducks*
I am 20% convinced Eugyppius is right. The center position between two opposite views is not necessarily the true one, by virtue of being centrally located. In fact, that position has more often been used to obscure truth and to hide data. It is too easy to ignore facts while self-aggrandizing, simply by claiming to be the adult in the room.
I agree with Eugyppius but I also agree with this. Sometimes one side is right. Compromise or moderation is only good when it’s closer to the truth.
Colleen's sentiments and others who share them must be heard. When the core of Western Civilization is being turned upside down, one must be increasingly cautious and weary of sinister motives at play 😬
You touched on something that I've noticed has become something of a hallmark of the way the modern, "educated" person thinks today, and it's to defer to pointing out when the subject or the argument is polarized or a little too "uncomfortably extreme". Then, they signal their wisdom by suggesting that the answer "always lies somewhere in the middle." Doctors love doing this, for example.
I'd go so far as to say I'm 60% convinced Eugyppius is on the right track. I have listened to 100s of hours of podcasts and read 1000s of articles on the topic of the COVID mania across the spectrum of alt media and I would say there's a convergence to there being no overarching master plan and no one group in control; just lot of seperarte groups wishing that they were .. but of them all deluded. This thing had 'emergent properties' that no one could have foreseen and it has run out of the control of the instigators. Some folks who thought that they were being real clever were in fact fouriously sawing off the branch on which they sat.
Excellent analysis. I'm more on the fact that there are some masterminds behind this but do not discount your theory
No, we haven't all fallen victim to mass psychosis.
Only one side wants to strip every man and woman who defy them of their freedoms, livelihoods, or lives.
Spare me your "both sides" bullshit. I promise you they aren't doing it.
That so many "renowned" hospitals are denying life-saving transplants to the unvaccinated screams out that we are in the fight of our lives. This "oh, it's just a group of hive-minded, midwit government officials who've gotten a little too far in from of their skis" nonsense is frankly unbelievable.
Something evil is afoot.
Great analysis. The only disagreement, and there has to be some disagreement :) is that the pandemic seems to be heavily monetized. Hospitals and nursing homes are getting mega bucks for a covid label, covid treatments and covid deaths. They have no interest in this ending. The media is supported by the drug industry, and certainly they have no interest in this ending.
There are all sorts of people getting attention that they normally would never get, what will they do when the spotlight isn't on them any longer?
ding ding ding...$$$$$ huge...my hospital system is lying out right about the vid...their recordings on hold say..."this is a preventable disease...do your part to stop it..." um...no...not preventable... They have doctors lying on video in their video news letter saying that the vax provides more protection than natural immunity..this system also drew national attention for a leaked zoom meeting where they discussed marketing plans to "scare" the community into getting vaxed and taking covid seriously.
The "scare and jab" tactic has been universal, wherever one looks. Surely eugyppius will be aware of the Panic Paper in Germany.
Intriguing perspective on the matter. I would be very happy if your analysis, that this is now being driven by hysteria rather than being stage-managed by our ruling elites, is true as it makes the challenge seem less insurmountable.
That said, the Covid passports strike me as something being pushed purposefully and with a specific direction in mind.
i think it makes the challenge seem harder to surmount.
yes, of course there are coordinated subplots in the broader edifice. the vaccine passports are a part of that.
But even if the passport is only a subplot, surely it's a subplot of such importance as to supplant lockdown in importance. In which case you would be right about the ungovernable nature of the present global psychosis, but wrong about its most important practical effect. Maybe some governments want out of lockdown (not mine; I'm Canadian), but they're all furiously single-minded about vaccinations, and more so by the week, even as everyone can see that neither SARS-CoV-2 nor vaccines do very much anymore. That seems hard to put down to spontaneous order, and much easier to put down to an internally acknowledged common purpose. And a common purpose backed by a bizarrely strong motivation, to the nature of which we plebs are not privy.
the green passes are really bad, but their future is not clear, and most of the darkest suppositions about their significance are unfounded.
This truly is a monumentally naive view -- color me a little surprised.
If they have a future, it is *perfectly* clear. If they do not have a future, it will only manifest as a result of direct resistance in many forms.
I respect the view you express atop this page, and agree to an extent, but the "unfounded" offered above reveals what I can only describe as an unexpected level of historical myopia.
History is *ripe* with examples where the construction of false orthodoxy is used as an intellectual dead end, to trap powerful minds which might be swayed to resist in endless loops of reasoning, while assuaging the denial required to "unsee" what is apparent to many.
In recent history, just two (or so) years ago, those who were quite presciently predicting the arrival of our new "papers please" dystopia (including myself) based on historical precedent -- and speaking without hyperbole -- were nonetheless dismissed as wacky "conspiracy theorists".
Yet here they are, emerging almost as if "on schedule".
Many of those same individuals were also predicting the current wave of mandates swirling around the globe. Wielded as a means of both direct and indirect coercion, as well as a way to filter individuals with a moral/ethical backbone, and therefore less likely to follow dystopic orders from superiors in hierarchical systems serving enforcement roles.
Check, check, check.
At what point will the burden of evidence be enough to convince you that there is most definitely nefarious intent emanating from ABOVE the middle management layers the systems of indoctrination (education) entrain us to (falsely) regard as "leadership"...?
Not just "a few bad actors", but the financial backers of every major military conflict -- on all sides, because "good business" -- for more than two centuries...?
I'm not sure it matters if the passes are a part of some broader plot to institute a Chinese-style social credit system. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. Suppose they aren't. Okay, now that you've established the pass for this one thing, what's to stop a committee of "experts" from "expanding" it to include this other very-urgent thing, and then another committee of even more illustrious "experts" from "expanding" it again to include a third even-more-urgent thing, and so on, until you wind up with a full blown social credit system?
Exactly, it's the same type of "slippery slop" we've started down by by-passing the need for congress to make major decisions in "emergencies", such as a pandemic. By relegating so many of these individual liberties to the federal government due to individual fear and and a firm belief that "government" will protect you/us, we are reverting to the very things our founding fathers sought to escape (to ensure that the greatest possible number of decisions (nearly everything but maintaining a military and defining and the borders of our nation) be made at the LOCAL community level. The communist system of "social credit/score" is just another link in the chain you will then wear forever... Shades of Jake Marley in A Christmas Carol ? We STILL have a tiny window left to reject what so many have died defending it since our founding !
Excellent comment.
I'm hearing in the states some Gov't mutterings of "less testing, less testing" and "test yourself at home" etc. Do you think the hysterical middle will calm down if the testing levels go down? If there are no tests to prove that the Corona is "still out there," perhaps they will relax?
There is no sure way to determine the direction frightened herds of animals will stampede when startled....
I think you find it hard to come to terms with the fact that the EU vax passports go back to 2018; that is not only coordination but planning.
"i think it makes the challenge seem harder to surmount. "
Eventually the hysteria would run out of steam, far harder to stop an ideologically motivated, powerful and entrenched elite, the type that make plans in terms of decades or longer.
Some societies, like China, plan for generations, not just decades. I do believe the U.S. is less focused on the future, of course you could point to environmental controls as one evidence to the contrary, but in general, I believe in the U.S. we are much more focused on policy that addresses the short term... that may be a positive, may be a negative !
I agree some long term thinking from our leaders rather than the short termism that seems to dominate would be nice.
My point was more that the real dangerous "enemies" with regards to C19 are distinguishable from the hysterical faction by their long term goals.
Agree !
In my opinion, if the govt wanted to introduce that for other purposes it would be a complete piece of cake. Its introduction in the Covid context may have been opportunistic, but is also miscalculated and very likely to backfire.
I can foresee the digital ID via v@x pass being implemented in smaller populated countries first, studying the compliance, linking banking, travel, pensions, to the ID.
I think most of that is already done in Belgium. I know my dad has just the one card with all that information on it. I think the only thing still separate is travel documents (passport and visa)
One can only hope.
True... it certainly might !
Yes, another very troubling, V. E. R. Y. troubling trend. Be careful what you wish for in the name of "protection". The phrases "slippery path", "double edge sword" and "Pandora's box" come to mind ?
" The tone is still tentative here and there, because the primary force driving lockdowns is the vast, distributed consensus of the middle bureaucratic managerial ranks. This is a dangerous force even for politicians and wealthy oligarchs to confront, and they’ve approached it carefully."
Here, in the US, we refer to this as the "deep state". The unelected, expanding, myopic administrative machine that by day earnestly populates the DMV, TSA, HHS, FBI, NSA, IRS, etc. By night, they are our neighbors. "Good Germans", all of them.
Actually, para-politically speaking, the "Deep State" refers NOT to the agencies themselves, but to embedded agents within the bureaucratic hierarchy representing nefarious interests -- and their "handlers". As the very nature of hierarchy in word and deed requires top-down structure, said handlers often reside "above" said systems. *Compartmentalization* is the key, not coordination.
Based on my experience, these agents exist as you say. However "embedded" should be clarified to mean those operatives who have career-climbed the hierarchy. They become part of the visible insider-elite, then become corrupted by outside interests. The infamous revolving door between private and public sector being a form of this corruption. e.g. The pharmaceutical industry buying off federal regulators. The arms industry and the DOD. The EV, solar, wind industry and the EPA. It never stops.
My own descriptions and conclusions are also based on personal experience, as well as the far greater experience of colleagues with stronger stomachs who've risen much further than my own constitution would allow.
The "climbers" are a significant subset, yes. When their personal "Faustian" bargain finally comes from *above* their current position, they gleefully accept and rise according to their systemic value.
Which delivers us directly to the logical questions that follow : who is making the offer...? Who "authorized" the individual making the offer...? Ad infinitum.
Historically speaking to deny any higher form of *agency* and attribute all "evil" to a largely spineless bureaucratic class is the height of naivete.
I know people within - on the correct side of the" deep state" who see what is happening and are disgusted...and do not consider themselves a part of it...but powerless to stop it...can affirm much of what has been deemed "conspiracy theory" from pre-election to present day. Many of these people work closely with high level folks.
What does one do when the wife and kids say, "are you seriously telling me you are going to jeopardize our INCOME ? You are telling me you are willing to give up your retirement, your pension ? That affects US, not just YOU !"
Dear Cathie : if they are on the "right side" of the moral and ethical aisle, they are by their very nature NOT part of the "Deep State".
The term is unequivocally rooted in the well-documented history of conspiratorial behavior in governance.
Sadly, like so many other terms, it is losing it's original meaning via the usual suspects : misuse and repetition.
Ah yes, the valuable phenomenon of "fluid", ever "evolving", "living" definitions, history, quotations, antiquities, ......... so very helpful, so very convenient. Best if we can finally do away with all physical "books", we have all writings and manuscripts in digital forms now, so much easier to "correct", less cumbersome, and in the case of public school districts, saves the taxpayers SO MUCH MONEY to just make a one time purchase of I-pads, makes so much "sense". Right !
Fair point. They just see themselves as being in the organization along side the thugs that are the “deep state” some of whom are their bosses and employees.
Anyone remember the #1 best selling book of the past... The Peter Principle ?
Hmmm. I just briefly looked it up. Such a true premise
Long ago and far away... another required reading in both high schools and universities !
I've witnessed the same in local public "health" inspectors and those charged with the responsibility to inspect various aspects of construction; gas connections, concrete specimen testing in road work, and the list goes on.....
Their problem is that they firmly believe they are smarter and therefore they know better what's good for the rest of us. While the former might be true for 50 or 60% of the population, the latter is not.
Central planning will always fail because the planners can't possibly have enough information to make correct decisions.
https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/the-failure-of-central-planning
I have always thought of this as the consequences and scale of failure. The smaller and more distributed the failures, errors, and bad luck events, the less systemic damage potential.
Yep! Imagine if we had used the covid rules for NY across the entire country. How many more seniors would we have murdered?
Certainly makes sense... what about the scale of this world wide pandemic ? Can the failures be distributed to the extent they have barely a ripple, let alone a Tsunami ? ?
That is most definitely at the root of so much of this, one group feeling they are more intelligent and therefore have an obligation to "watch over" the masses. Yet, the "masses" seem to be laying in the alleys and on the sidewalks in huge numbers, saw it every morning while visiting relatives in the city over the holidays, saw it every morning as I went for coffee at a nearby shop. No one even seemed to notice, so, don't think the
"care taking" responsibility/burden those of greater intellect believe they have is actually working ! Emphasis on Covid deaths. What about drug deaths, why are more and more and MORE people driven to control their fear and anxiety through drugs, where are all these powerful drugs coming from ? Why is it easier to obtain powerful mind altering drugs than it is to obtain cleaning products or toilet paper ? What is going on here while our eyes are closed ?
Por ejemplo
https://youtu.be/HOn9_StvCwM
Maybe that is the real catastrophe of the deep state. It doesn’t have rational thought driving the bureaucracy. It just has consensus. And the consensus was reached that masking, lockdowns and vaccinations were the goal of the public health bureaucracy. Now the deep state and middle managers spend all of their time trying to force people to lockdown, mask, and vaccinate whether it makes sense or not. At least if the deep state had a head driving it, it could look at the data and quickly change the consensus.
Yes, of course. One of the things we prize most, we try to teach in colleges of business and administration, is the ability to quickly change directions when the collected data indicate no progress, to adapt, to backup and then continue to investigate in an alternative direction, gather facts and eventually, hopefully, find the right solution/truth.
You don't just arbitrarily chose NOT to study natural immunity, or long term effects of even slight oxygen deprivation in the very young, and things such as any long term differences in the effects of vaccines on males and females ? We seem to be unable to study multiple variables, factors... like hamsters just running in one wheel ! Yet we seem to be a society that values the skill of "multi-tasking" ! You see that phrase on nearly every job requirement description !
Not to get defensive, to refuse to accept failure of an idea, to take a set back as a personal assault on one's own ego.... this is just all so unnecessary, wastes so much time. When driving down a road that suddenly narrows, then begins to show considerable deterioration, THEN turns to dirt and gravel... do you continue at break neck speed to the end of the road that ends in a cliff over looking the ocean ?
I remember college. The professors really stressed critical thinking and problem solving in my engineering classes. Then I actually started working in the pharmaceutical industry and I realized that problem solving wasn't at all what was desired. I asked a colleague once, "Why are we doing it this way, it doesn't make any sense?" Her answer, "That is how they think it should be done." My response, "Who is 'they'?" All I get was a blank look from her. She was promoted quickly.
BINGO ! Now, realistically, you, and I, can not be the only individuals who realize that !
For the millionth time : the bureaucratic behemoth itself is NOT the "Deep State".
The term is unequivocally rooted in the well-documented history -- millennias worth -- of conspiratorial behavior in governance.
It describes a specific class of embedded actors WITHIN the sprawling edifice working to advance agendas often in conflict with the *stated ideals* of the larger system of governance said bureaucracy (at least theoretically) supports.
Sadly, like so many other terms, it is losing it's original meaning via the usual suspects : misuse and repetition.
PREACH!!! And we have this pesky problematic thing called the constitution..oh wait..and the 2nd amendment...full stop for now....other countries that have gone full East German on their populations took weapons years ago...just saying.
A friend in Spain told me that no politician there has ever been able to ignore the wishes of the upper level bureaucrats, which have life time appointments. The bureaucrat always wins, and some politicians have to learn it the hard way.
This also has a positive effect sometimes: there are actually a few good bureaucrats which didn't go along with every crazy corona measure proposed.
As an identified auto-didact and lifelong iconoclast, I've spent the bulk of my sentient years as the proverbial canary in the coalmine. Sadly, life insists on remaining linear, so the largest lessons have had the unfortunate tendency of arriving in single file.
The most valuable of them by FAR was the moment where I lost "faith" in the medical industry in my mid-20's, followed immediately by the discovery that the best "medicine" was what you put in your mouth at "mealtime", as well as the manufactured fallacy of mealtime (and so many others).
What that grueling stretch taught me was critical, after having my immune system trashed by well-meaning, pill-pushing physicians with zero nutritional knowledge : each individual must experience (and survive) their own personal "radicalization" moment, before any awakening is possible.
Mine/ours (me and the wife) was edible. Followed by realizing -- and accepting, then acting on -- the simple, fundamental truth of personal responsibility for EVERYTHING in our lives. Reclaiming "quality control" in all things. It gave sayings like "physician heal thyself" and "do no harm" rich new meaning.
Invested years studying and (un)learning the well-funded tenets of formal "nutrition" and discovering a tawdry history of industrial and institutional meddling and marketing stretching back over a century. Already hip to similar historical arcs in other disciplines, the patterns were very familiar.
To top it all off, the wife and I are both familiar with vaccine injury, personally and peripherally. Our stance on the latest genocidal impulse emanating from the upper reaches of systemic power is rooted in these experiences. The malicious policies advancing on each and every one of us are beyond insulting when viewed in context. It's difficult NOT to interpret a genocidal impulse.
Her family actually hid two of their own from the "Einsatzgruppen" for nearly a decade. One unquestionably damaged by a polio vaccine at age six, the other most likely a developmental DDT casualty in the early "better living through chemistry" years.
Sadly, such powerful individual lessons are nothing in the apocalyptic battle for hearts and minds so long dominated by well-funded industrial propaganda and the mewling minions who worship at the triumvirate altars of "Science", "Capital" and "Progress".
Our radicalization moment was nearly three decades ago. Over that span, we've personally helped a few close friends -- those with functioning critical minds -- step off the Lazy Susan of industrial "health and nutrition". All are still thanking us to this day, some now more radical than ourselves.
Thirty years down the road and both sporting fully functional immune systems, it's clear to us that the Machine can no longer be sated consuming us one-by-one or in small handfuls. We're reaching truly ghastly levels of blood sacrifice. The blanket othering of critical thought is also tragically familiar, not to mention hugely ironic from our outpost on a rural German farm.
It's hard to cultivate hope when one possesses something akin to "prescience", based on forty years of reading ALL sides and honing one's mental blade.
It's hard to retain hope in the face of colleagues and family with FAR more formal education utterly beholden and incapable of recognizing the basest reality when pointed out, then unable to acknowledge accurate predictions made months/years earlier coming to pass again and again and again.
When hindsight is eliminated, all that remains is the future conflict you allude to above. Is it inevitable...? Unfortunately, if history any sort of guide, the answer appears to be yes.
"As an identified auto-didact and lifelong iconoclast"
I laughed out loud. Me too.
Moreover, my favorite saying about it all is:
Before 2020 I was a targeted and focussed misanthrope but Covid has turned my misanthropy to general and blurry.
If I weren't currently "locked down" on this centuries old farm in the western German border country, I'd offer you a beer (or a nice glass of wine. or a nip of the "clear" distilled from our plum trees) from the root cellar and bid you have a seat in the kitchen, where many such conversations have unfolded over the last three centuries or so. Cheers, mate.
And likewise, only I'm an American expat living on Rawai beach on the southern tip of Phuket, Thailand. We're not in lockdown—there has never been that during this near 2 years of insanity—but they do require masks...which is quite ridiculous. There's also a not-enforced helmet law for motorcycles. So, they'll stop you for not wearing a mask but not for not wearing a helmet. Otherwise it's reasonably chill, just that the tourist economy is totally effed. Cheers.
I don't see any option to follow an author and work like this shouldn't be buried in some comment section. You deserve your own platform even if updated only twice a year.
Thanks for the kind words, Victor. You're not the first to mention the idea.
Counterintuitively perhaps, I waded into the defense and media sectors in earlier stages of life, before eventually turning and running in the opposite direction as fast as humanly possible when rapid advancement revealed a bit too much.
Strategically speaking, hanging a shingle here at Substack runs 180° counter to my nearly 30-year-old Joyceian strategy of "silence, exile and cunning". Especially the silent part... =)
That said, having had a successful independent career as an historical consultant and guide built over the last 20+ years shit-canned by bureaucratic diktat over the last two years, I've begun to reconsider the possibility in recent months.
There is a dumbed down generation that will hit America like a tsunami and we need a Moses/Morpheus to greet them at the shore. Don't spend any time on the retired -- their enlightenment is of little consequence.
Thank you.
Thank you for thinking through these issues with rigor and clarity. The conspiracy question has nagged at me endlessly. On the one hand, the covid hystericists reject any criticism of lcokdowns or vaccines or any of their other agendas with the snarky comment: “you sound like a conspiracy theorist!” On the other hand, no high leveling planning by global alites can ever explain why people I have known for decades have suddenly become seized by this mania and seem ready to accept horrible things I never would have believed. You manage to cut the chord nicely.
In a word, FEAR fuels it all, from the refusal of those to consider all the consequences of lock downs, to the attitude of those long time friends and family you mention suddenly seized by the mania, even the seemingly rational consideration of science (data) by large government bureaucracies, all can be boiled down to fear; will the people panic if we tell them everything, how can we control hoarding of commodities, what can we suggest that will at least make them feel they have control and protection even if it has no actual effect, a placebo of some kind ? What internal emotion causes otherwise rational, well educated people, to reject all they know to be fact, things like very basic biology from junior high school ? Fear and doubt fuels it all, that's pretty simplistic, but that's what it is... most of all, the thought of a global conspiracy is so complex, so undefinable, and so horrifying, most people need to try to protect their families, put food on the table, and just try to cope with everyday life... !
I agree with you because I've worked for 17 years in a vast federal bureaucracy, which I liken to carousel that never stops spinning. Although many different people will hop on and off off it, and you can sometimes swap out the lions for tigers, no one is actually in charge and it can't be stopped. I also live in Vermont which is the perfect example, at a state level, of a state controlled by urban upper-class intellectuals. They have vaccinated 60% of the little kids here -- by far the most of any state. Whatever for? They seem to believe this virus is literally Ebola. They seem to be smart people, but why are they so impervious to new information? Why can't they learn and adapt? Why are they biased towards catastrophe? They believe in the vaccines, but they don't "trust" the vaccines. They believe that the vaccines stop transmission, but they also believe they "don't work 100%" and so still demand all the other NPIs and boosters as well. It's like they used all their so-called brain power and education to "pick" an ideology to follow and then after that point they put their brain back on the shelf.
A good analysis. Anyone who tells you they're certain of something like this and that you must be too, in either direction, is either deluded or malicious. That goes for the drones declaring that “Covid doesn't discriminate” and “It definitely came out of a wet market” as much as it does for those telling you it's definitely a grand conspiracy stretching back decades. The most likely history is roughly as described above: a mess of petty conspiracies and plots within a vast ocean of hysteria and ignorance.
Increasingly, I'm coming to this conclusion ... while still angry with the fire of a thousand suns against our feckless and/or captured political leaders and unredeemable legacy media.
I look forward to eugyppius' tomes; unfortunately, most people, in fact, the vast majority will say "TL;DR". And that is unfortunate. But his most compelling point is the following: "...I think it’s essential to develop a counter-narrative that is politically neutral and accessible to ordinary people,.."
A parallel structure
Agree!!
George Carlin said "imagine how stupid the average person is then realize half of all people are stupider than that." These are the millions of people in our institutions and bureaucracies making the decisions that affect our lives the deepest. And if some of them are actually smarter than average, they are surrounded by stupid people or they serve stupid people.
Think about the people that work in schools or libraries. They make these decisions.
Axel Oxenstierna said it. In 1648. Awareness of this has been the basis of Swedish public administration theory since then. It needs to be robust to stupidity. Maybe that explains why they are almost the only place that kept their shit together.
Ahem. We didn't.
The real reason our governement behaved the way they did when it all started, is that the state has removed it's own ability to enforce compliance.
Oh, and they are terrified of being wrong. That means they always without fail wait until they can point to the UN, the EU or the US and say: "Look! Big Brother is doing it, therefore we must do it too, cause if Big Brother does it, it's the right thing to do!".
Meaning they make both their own mistakes and others.
Oxenstierna was managing a war, which is the reason there was no room for stupidity (well, except for the normal levels). One of the most sparsely populated regions of Europe leading the war against the Catholic League - and winning? Inconceivable!
The swedish governements from the mid-nineties to today are best thought of as governors of a province in the EU.
What do you mean by "removed its own ability to enforce compliance"? In any case, that in itself sounds like a good thing. Certainly I do not want to idolize Sweden though, or anywhere else (that I can think of). I have it on what I took to be good authority that Oxenstierna founded the modern Swedish public administration, in any case the more important point is that there will always be stupidity and incompetence and it should be the default explanation for most phenomena. In order to optimise outcomes under real world conditions we need to avoid concentrations of power within bureaucracies and make decisions in a way that admits all qualified persons to the table. At this point this is absolutely clear, and it concerns way more than Covid, it is becoming essential to the future of democratic societies themselves, because this degree of incompetence coupled with this degree of power is an existential threat to humanity.
We have a head librarian in our Rotary Club Chapter. Her name is Karen.
"So yes, the inception of this involved a lot of planning. Now, however, the initiators are no longer in the driver’s seat. " In my opinion, the initiators are still providing the script, especially when it comes to the unvaccinated who are demonised by Macron, Trudeau, Morrison, Jacinta Ardern; right on cue, they make their chilling statements.
Excellent point. It sure seems like these odious characters are in on a group email. eugyppius needs to address this.
That’s not how it went here in the US. When they thought the Vaccine really worked nobody was suggesting mandates. It wasn’t until the Vaccine was clearly not going to end the Pandemic that they started pushing mandates. If you have ever spent time around the US federal government or I imagine any large bureaucracy this is predictable behavior. You don’t make it to the top by being a creative thinker who takes risks, instead you are political and safe. You never want a failure or you will cover up your failures. What would a bunch of bureaucrats at the end of their careers who have been faced with “their moment” do when they see their plan failing? Double down. I really think big Pharma is happy to piggy back on the bad policy for sinister reasons but the Fauci’s of the world are just normal corrupt bureaucrats afraid to admit they were wrong. So in a sense Eugyppius did address it. We must contain at all costs and the vaccine is the last hope dwindling by the day. Candle burns brightest before it goes out.
What many people fail to realize is that in many respects this is much much more dangerous than if it were a Bond-type villain scenario. There is no central commanding force that you can talk to, defeat, or even surrender to on suitable terms
right, exactly. also, the system will continue to behave and bizarre and often unpredictable ways, probably growing more erratic and unstable.
What we can do to emerge from the COVID era though is this:
1) Civil disobedience, passive non-compliance against fascist demands (masks, vaccines), and
2) Gently and empathetically help those with fractured spirits and impaired cognition to emerge from mass formation hypnosis.
Live not by lies.... Here's a passage from A.S.'s great work:
"But it will never come unstuck by itself, if we all, every day, continue to acknowledge, glorify, and strengthen it, if we do not, at the least, recoil from its most vulnerable point.
From lies."
So friends resist and do not comply, not even an iota with the madness.
Yeah. Someone (David W?) previously posted a link in a comment to "things we can do" which I found helpful. Forgot to bookmark it, though.
Apropos, I would be careful not to mention "mass formation psychosis" outside of the Reality circles. It's not in the DSM and since Malone mentioned it on Rogan has been viciously attacked and "fact checked"
As an outspoken naturopathic physician, I am no stranger to "fact checkers" and their pharma-purchased assertions and their abysmal paucity of data and logic. Bring on the critics of Mattias Desmet's mass formation hypothesis. I am ready to debate at his and Malone's side.
It's not about logic, as we well know. It's about pursuasion, as you say empathy (for most), and ridicule (in general and for some in particular). In other words, rhetoric.
They are mostly in the same Harvard church or at least can't stray too far from the official orthodoxy.
But yeah, they would be easier to pursuade as the court decisions on the injunctions show so far.
My daily consumption of information gets a bit blurry. Your writing generally helps to clarify. I appreciate your positive efforts and think your conspiracy thoughts are correct. Thank you!
I strongly agree with your main point. Even things that may have started as 'conspiracies' eventually develop a method of their own (emergent behavior). This can be a bit disturbing to those who favor the comic-book image of a diabolical evil genius or organization controlling all this. But it's gone long past that point. We are in the world of the mob and NO ONE has control. You can take away the favorite targets (Fauci, WEF, Bill Gates, George Soros etc) and that will no longer change things.
And ant colony is made up of ants with very simple programming, but the colony itself is remarkably successful and adaptable, really the colony should be considered an animal in its own right.
The beast has emerged, and it is us.
Added one more thought: I think this is WHY the government(s) are digging in their heels. To admit mistake at this point will result in unpredictable behavior and possible political or societal collapse.
Or, it's both. Evil planning and failure of complex irrational systems, which seems more likely.