I've been engaged in a lot of exercises of deliberate self-reflection, lately, and this essay overlaps one I'm still engaged with.
So comprehensive, intense, and emotional has been my reaction during and after the COVID "emergency" that I feel certain that when the next global or national "emergency" occurs I will find myself wholly concerned with "what will the government try to do to me because of this stated crisis and how effectively can I resist it" and, as a default, completely unconcerned with whatever the actual stated emergency is.
I know- at least as my mindset is now- that I'm going to utterly dismiss whatever the "crisis" is as exaggerated or outright false and assume that the policy created around allegedly protecting or helping me is the real threat.
This would have been- and was- an entirely rational mindset for COVID. But actually deadly diseases DO exist and CAN be epidemics, and there are certainly things that are not made-up boogeymen or propaganda that could pose a communal threat, to my household included.
If "COVID but for real this time" happened tomorrow, I'd probably be fucked- by my own fault- because I would instinctively mistrust any stated information about its severity, threat, efficacy of countermeasures, or need to force them upon me with government power.
I realize these are not incredibly novel thoughts. But when I read nonsense like this- which is exactly what I expected it to be, almost right down to the silly, unimaginative details- I feel a visceral sense of the consequences of "loss of trust in institutions" you and everyone else talks about so frequently.
"The Boy Who Cried Wolf" would have been a better story if the boy had been forced to watch his family and neighbors be eaten by the wolf, instead.
The specific policies are different and less heavy-handed than the policies actually pursued in response to Covid. However, the common thread that runs between these various exercises going back to around 2000 is the focus on waging information warfare against the populace through censorship and propaganda. These well-rehearsed information warfare tactics were the foundation of the Covid response. Once the authorities have that part nailed down, they can plug-and-play with whatever policies they want. So I think in that respect these exercises are highly relevant to what began in 2020.
These tabletop exercises remind me of the old sales training seminars that boiled down to one idea.. If you can't dazzle them with brilliance baffle them with bullsh*t.
These public health folks do seem to understand a few things, though -- scary messages do back-fire, politicians will mess up the plans, and some people will always want a new "miracle" drug to relieve them of even the smallest of health anxieties. What's missing from scenarios like this is the central acknowledgement that public health has screwed up a lot in the past and people have very good reasons to be wary of "disease panic," and afraid of new drugs, and distrustful of politicians. These are not mental health disorders to be "communicated around." People can see through the bullshit. Less bullshit would equal better communication. "This is your State Dept of Health. There's a new disease -- most of you won't notice it. We have no real treatments anyway. Try not to get sick. Eat some healthy food and get some exercise. Everybody dies at some point, just keep that in mind and plan to make the most of your time year here. That is all."
I have been trying to wrap my head around two mayor's organizations (worldwide) and how serious a threat they are (C40.org and www.globalcovenantofmayors.org) The covenant group hands out badges to Mayors who accomplish certain things related to climate change. The C40 group is more scary and has created a large report which outlines what Mayors need to accomplish before 2030. Chapter 6 is the consumption chapter and lays out exact details of what needs to happen re food, clothing (18 kg of meat person per year, 3-6 articles of clothing, one air plane ride (1500 kg return) every two years) These are the bottom end of the requirements (preferred being no meat, or dairy, 3 articles of clothing per year and 1 air trip every three years) LisaLawyer (substack) has done a good job of explaining it but it would be good to hear your thoughts. In Canada, three cities have committed to this - Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. There was a new mayor just elected in Toronto, but I heard nothing about the commitment to these goals during the election. Also, Ontario has just appointed 26 mayors to be 'strong' mayors which gives them incredible power - just wondering if it was for this reason. Here is the report - for some reason you need to scroll to find the pages not search (consumption is Chapter 6 - page 69). https://www.c40.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/2270_C40_CBE_MainReport_250719.original.pdf?
I have a thesis on which you, dear eugyppius, may perhaps some time and at your convenience weigh in on: Namely that Big Pharma is so keen on vaccines because they have difficulty making money with "conventional medicine". The low-hanging fruit of medicine, i.e. drugs that effectively treat common illnesses, have all been harvested. What remains are drugs which take a lot of research, have only limited benefits over older treatments and are useful only for smaller number of cases. In other words, more investment for less return. Now compare that with vaccines: Everybody should get it, preferably multiple times, not only those who actually have the disease, and with the "effectiveness" standard established by the wonderful Coof jabs they don´t even have to have a noticeable positive effect. At this point it would be irrational for any pharmaceutical company not to go all in on all kinds of "vaccines" and forget about any treatments. Indeed, in the FRG we can already see that all kinds of "vaccines" are now being pushed in ads.
Eugypius, Thank you for your sacrifice and service in exposing this crap. Whilst I love fairy stories as much as anyone, it's scary that they think this could come true.
PS Is English really not your native language? I could never tell - Awesome!!!
I can't believe someone who writes this balderdash is paid to do so, and probably quite well, too. Focus on your book first and get that out. I don't know about a Sunday, too, on top of your other excellent writings. I'm afraid you might develop combat fatigue from reading all this garbage, or maybe lower your IQ 50 or 60 points. You choose.
What the fresh hell is this? Is this an AI simulation on how stupid homo sapiens do a simulation on how try to control the public in a pandemic without doing anything of value?
I know this asinine type of thinking is not exclusive to Americans, but I still found myself deeply embarrassed as an American that this came from those who are represented as our “experts”.
How about the one in NYC in the fall of 2019? Event 201 or something like that. I have seen clips of that one as well as the SPARS one, and they have been edited to make them seem deadly serious and prescient. But the devil really is in the details. The details of the SPARS one as you described create an entirely different impression. Ludicrous. Shame on all of us for allowing our academic and scientific worlds to be led like this. Perhaps mockery is now the best solution so have at it.
'a flat, nearly plotless, deeply unimaginative fictional work set a decade in the future, for the purpose of giving “public health communicators and risk communication researchers” the “prompt … to imagine the dynamic and oftentimes conflicted circumstances in which communication around emergency medical countermeasures development, distribution, and uptake takes place.”'
I suppose it would be non-PC to imagine a satirical take on this, as written by German bureaucrats in 1930…
I'll try to make this a Sunday feature until I run out of energy or my valued readers revolt.
Which one should I do next?
I've been engaged in a lot of exercises of deliberate self-reflection, lately, and this essay overlaps one I'm still engaged with.
So comprehensive, intense, and emotional has been my reaction during and after the COVID "emergency" that I feel certain that when the next global or national "emergency" occurs I will find myself wholly concerned with "what will the government try to do to me because of this stated crisis and how effectively can I resist it" and, as a default, completely unconcerned with whatever the actual stated emergency is.
I know- at least as my mindset is now- that I'm going to utterly dismiss whatever the "crisis" is as exaggerated or outright false and assume that the policy created around allegedly protecting or helping me is the real threat.
This would have been- and was- an entirely rational mindset for COVID. But actually deadly diseases DO exist and CAN be epidemics, and there are certainly things that are not made-up boogeymen or propaganda that could pose a communal threat, to my household included.
If "COVID but for real this time" happened tomorrow, I'd probably be fucked- by my own fault- because I would instinctively mistrust any stated information about its severity, threat, efficacy of countermeasures, or need to force them upon me with government power.
I realize these are not incredibly novel thoughts. But when I read nonsense like this- which is exactly what I expected it to be, almost right down to the silly, unimaginative details- I feel a visceral sense of the consequences of "loss of trust in institutions" you and everyone else talks about so frequently.
"The Boy Who Cried Wolf" would have been a better story if the boy had been forced to watch his family and neighbors be eaten by the wolf, instead.
The specific policies are different and less heavy-handed than the policies actually pursued in response to Covid. However, the common thread that runs between these various exercises going back to around 2000 is the focus on waging information warfare against the populace through censorship and propaganda. These well-rehearsed information warfare tactics were the foundation of the Covid response. Once the authorities have that part nailed down, they can plug-and-play with whatever policies they want. So I think in that respect these exercises are highly relevant to what began in 2020.
These tabletop exercises remind me of the old sales training seminars that boiled down to one idea.. If you can't dazzle them with brilliance baffle them with bullsh*t.
These public health folks do seem to understand a few things, though -- scary messages do back-fire, politicians will mess up the plans, and some people will always want a new "miracle" drug to relieve them of even the smallest of health anxieties. What's missing from scenarios like this is the central acknowledgement that public health has screwed up a lot in the past and people have very good reasons to be wary of "disease panic," and afraid of new drugs, and distrustful of politicians. These are not mental health disorders to be "communicated around." People can see through the bullshit. Less bullshit would equal better communication. "This is your State Dept of Health. There's a new disease -- most of you won't notice it. We have no real treatments anyway. Try not to get sick. Eat some healthy food and get some exercise. Everybody dies at some point, just keep that in mind and plan to make the most of your time year here. That is all."
Very interesting -- thank you for doing all this-- I never could stomach this much stupid in one place, that's for sure.
I have been trying to wrap my head around two mayor's organizations (worldwide) and how serious a threat they are (C40.org and www.globalcovenantofmayors.org) The covenant group hands out badges to Mayors who accomplish certain things related to climate change. The C40 group is more scary and has created a large report which outlines what Mayors need to accomplish before 2030. Chapter 6 is the consumption chapter and lays out exact details of what needs to happen re food, clothing (18 kg of meat person per year, 3-6 articles of clothing, one air plane ride (1500 kg return) every two years) These are the bottom end of the requirements (preferred being no meat, or dairy, 3 articles of clothing per year and 1 air trip every three years) LisaLawyer (substack) has done a good job of explaining it but it would be good to hear your thoughts. In Canada, three cities have committed to this - Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. There was a new mayor just elected in Toronto, but I heard nothing about the commitment to these goals during the election. Also, Ontario has just appointed 26 mayors to be 'strong' mayors which gives them incredible power - just wondering if it was for this reason. Here is the report - for some reason you need to scroll to find the pages not search (consumption is Chapter 6 - page 69). https://www.c40.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/2270_C40_CBE_MainReport_250719.original.pdf?
"As further preventative for plague, no one should neglect or skip their yearly purgations and bloodletting. " - Augsburg During the Reformation Era
I have a thesis on which you, dear eugyppius, may perhaps some time and at your convenience weigh in on: Namely that Big Pharma is so keen on vaccines because they have difficulty making money with "conventional medicine". The low-hanging fruit of medicine, i.e. drugs that effectively treat common illnesses, have all been harvested. What remains are drugs which take a lot of research, have only limited benefits over older treatments and are useful only for smaller number of cases. In other words, more investment for less return. Now compare that with vaccines: Everybody should get it, preferably multiple times, not only those who actually have the disease, and with the "effectiveness" standard established by the wonderful Coof jabs they don´t even have to have a noticeable positive effect. At this point it would be irrational for any pharmaceutical company not to go all in on all kinds of "vaccines" and forget about any treatments. Indeed, in the FRG we can already see that all kinds of "vaccines" are now being pushed in ads.
Eugypius, Thank you for your sacrifice and service in exposing this crap. Whilst I love fairy stories as much as anyone, it's scary that they think this could come true.
PS Is English really not your native language? I could never tell - Awesome!!!
Thanks. I really needed that. I don’t have any idea how you come up with this stuff but don’t stop.
I can't believe someone who writes this balderdash is paid to do so, and probably quite well, too. Focus on your book first and get that out. I don't know about a Sunday, too, on top of your other excellent writings. I'm afraid you might develop combat fatigue from reading all this garbage, or maybe lower your IQ 50 or 60 points. You choose.
Danny Huckabee
What the fresh hell is this? Is this an AI simulation on how stupid homo sapiens do a simulation on how try to control the public in a pandemic without doing anything of value?
I know this asinine type of thinking is not exclusive to Americans, but I still found myself deeply embarrassed as an American that this came from those who are represented as our “experts”.
How about the one in NYC in the fall of 2019? Event 201 or something like that. I have seen clips of that one as well as the SPARS one, and they have been edited to make them seem deadly serious and prescient. But the devil really is in the details. The details of the SPARS one as you described create an entirely different impression. Ludicrous. Shame on all of us for allowing our academic and scientific worlds to be led like this. Perhaps mockery is now the best solution so have at it.
'a flat, nearly plotless, deeply unimaginative fictional work set a decade in the future, for the purpose of giving “public health communicators and risk communication researchers” the “prompt … to imagine the dynamic and oftentimes conflicted circumstances in which communication around emergency medical countermeasures development, distribution, and uptake takes place.”'
I suppose it would be non-PC to imagine a satirical take on this, as written by German bureaucrats in 1930…