The situation we're in reminds me of late stage communism. Not the Glorious Revolution, not Stalinism, but late stage communism, when almost no-one actually believed the story, no-one expected to ever see Workers' Paradise, and yet bureaucrats enforced conformity (because those were the orders, they were paid to do it, and it wasn't their job to actually evaluate any of it), and everyone else conformed because they couldn't see a feasible way out. Few people were jailed, and there were no (political) executions. But say a wrong thing, and you'd be out of a job. Very few people believed the story, and yet it continued for a couple more decades due to sheer inertia.
And I fear that this is what awaits us. Boosters every six months. No-one expects the virus to be eradicated, and no-one thinks it's all that dangerous, either, but hey, rules are rules. If you don't conform, then you're out of a job and maybe even given a short prison sentence. If you don't vaccinate your kids, then you lose custody. Nah. Better conform. After all, most people don't suffer particularly serious side effects. Sure, the stuff might shorten your life, but so would poverty. Eventually, the whole thing will collapse. It would be awfully nice if it collapsed this winter, but it's perfectly possible it'll take decades.
I'm not sure why you think you've angered anyone? Because you don't think this is a vast conspiracy?
It obviously isn't. I wish it was, at least then I could marvel at the sheer brilliance and organizational fortitude of the conspirators. No, I agree that its part of the corporate-academia-government bureaucracy thinking.
I used to come from that world. I was employed at an American corporate and essentially lived my professional life guided by Policies and Guidelines and whatever else they had rules for. Over time, this becomes a way of life, and a way of viewing life
When I became an entrepreneur, first I was jarred by how there were no guidelines, no rules. Just me. Then, as I became good at my job (I run a B2B company) I learned how to exploit those bureaucracies, game regulatory agencies, and capitalise on these organizational idiocies. It has gained me significant wealth, but turned me very cynical, and I am not optimistic about the next 5 years of covid life
What you are describing is absolutely and 100% reality. Its worse than a conspiracy unfortunately, because of its hopeless, vapid banality.
This is the post that converted me to a paid subscriber. There is so much wisdom about how academic and lefty organizations operate. As someone who worked in (American) academia for 20 years I can't tell you how true the following statement is: "Wokeness is also self-radicalising, in the way that many university-incubated ideologies turn out to be. Administrators or department chairs are constantly in danger of being outflanked on their left, and so they must adopt and endorse the most radical line to maintain their position"
I am near the sunset of a long American academic career. Thirty years ago when I was on faculty at a "Public Ivy" I recounted to a bright grad student that I saw the "politically correct" pathway the university had adopted has always turned out badly in history. She noted the difference this time is that we are now pursuing the correct policies rather than the wrong policies of the past. Not sure what she thinks today.
I am currently a senior faculty at a relatively large public university in Texas that has being going woke as fast as it can. Many of my students are not on board though. (Example, when I poll for support of 2nd amendment, it gets 85% support. When I poll for support of concealed carry on campus, it gets about 70% support) When our Governor (Abbott) dropped the mask mandate, the University immediately complied as much of our funding comes from the state. We have no vax mandate, but the University pushed hard for everyone to get a vax and to mask. We have been in face to face classrooms for about 10 weeks now (no social distancing), and masks are optional. I do not wear one. About 20-25% of my students wear a masks - the University still pushes for wearing masks.
We held an in person faculty meeting about 6 weeks ago, and while being the oldest, so presumably the most at risk, I was the only one that did not even take a mask. Most kept masked except when eating, and I noticed it was hard to have a conversation around a large table with those wearing masks as we can't use lip reading to fill in what is not audible, or is muffled by the mask. But it seems most faculty cannot apply their advanced math and stat skills to seeing how little risk they have.
The University publishes a Covid Dashboard. Over the last week, 7 cases have been reported (from a population of about 40,000). For the entire semester to date, less than 250. This is no doubt an underestimate, but if students want extensions on HW, or accommodation for missed exams they will need to report so there is an incentive to report (and I believe it is University Policy to report).
The University may try to backdoor a mask and vax program via the Federal contractor rules. Hopefully the recent court successes against OSHA mandates can also apply or be used as a template to stop that.
So, Abbott's no mask, no vax rules were enough to get our University closer to sanity and he is not pushing as hard as DeSantis. The woke stuff marches on . . .
Thank you for not allowing hysterical conspiracies to guide the discussion . I would add that this is more sinister than an individual actor. If it were one actor you could “remove” them and it would end. This is going to take years if not decades to change.
I confess I don't know what is happening in the world, only that it is very abnormal. I've gone down a number of rabbit holes over the past year and a half and consulted sources that I would have otherwise eschewed. I've heard many theories, some plausible and some crazy. Rather than judging or rejecting, I've placed each theory on my "WTH is Going On" shelf for safe keeping.
Two things can be true at once. The insane response to the virus can be a consequence of a mass formation or a kind of global group think (irony noted 'cause there's very little thinking involved) and at the same time the "elite" can be taking advantage of the current crisis...amplifying and extending it even...to bring about their vision of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a central bank digital currency, and some kind of supranational global control of the little people.
I imagine you've heard Mattias Desmet speak about mass formation. I listened to his full interview on Jerm Warfare in September (unfortunately, I can find only a small excerpt now). He says that there are basically three groups in a mass formation: 30% are true believers, 30% are in opposition, and 40% are in the middle and don't really believe but go along to get along. He believes the 40% are reachable and, thus, we in the opposition should speak out and speak often.
One comment that Desmet made really stuck with me. He said historically the 30% who are in opposition are always a disparate group that devolves into infighting which dilutes their influence. They may have the power to stop or reverse the mass formation, but they are distracted by their own disagreements.
I would caution everyone to heed that warning.
We lose our power to effect real change by arguing over what is happening. The truth is we don't really know what is happening or all the forces at play. We may never know. But we don't have to agree on details or theories to oppose the crazy Covid authoritarian response.
WRT to Schwab and the globalists...we can argue over their ability to pull off their evil plans, but we can't argue about their plans. They've been very transparent. A year ago, I thought Schwab was a clown. Now, in light of the continued and expanded authoritarian crackdowns and increasing censorship, I'm a bit more inclined to think there is more going on than a mass formation in response to fear of a virus.
When news of the viral outbreak in China first broke, I thought it would be a problem for the United States. I fully expected my government to quell fear (keep calm and carry on). They threw gasoline on the fire instead. For me, that was the first red flag.
We accomplish nothing by fighting over theories. We need to fight them.
I have thought about this post and read all the comments. There is much I don't understand. I'm troubled with how the tyrants are acting even when faced with recent data. It seems there is something greater they are working towards, that allows them to ignore facts that are being reported.
A few known facts:
1) Children are not harmed by Covid, they barely get sick. Yet they all need to be vaxxed, from birth.
2) The "vaccines" are failing .Yet everybody needs to get vaxxed some more.
3) People are dying and being harmed by the "vaccines". Yet, the unvacced need to get vaxxed and the reset need number 2 above.
4) Reports pregnant vaxxed women, are giving birth to stillborn children at 29 time higher then just a year ago. Yet, all women need to get vaxxed and the reset need number 2 above.
5) If you are unvaxxed you loose liberty, even to the point of being jailed in your own home or concentration camps. The solution to that is to get vaxxed, even when number 3 and 4 are well known.
6) Your chance of living when getting covid is 99.7%; population wide. Yet, get vaxxed or else. If you have been vaxxed see number 2 above.
They want everybody vaxxed, when they know the "vaccines" are worthless, kill people and are killing them slowly by harming the recipients immune system. Why?
It is easy to speculate there is something bigger happening. I'm very open to different theories. If you (the reader) are not, then you are not practicing critical thinking.
"periodic ritual entertainment of false moral outrages and protests."
From my perch it is the virtue signaling on social media that appears to have cratered the ability to think logically for so many honest hearted people.
Well, I guess this all makes me glad that I'm mostly "self-educated". I might not be able to "hold my own" with an "intellectual", but I trust my common sense, *life experience* and "street smarts" more than just trusting books, lectures or "cultural trends". I am also willing to listen to and/or read opinions about subject matter I may not understand or know much about and make a determination based on the combination of that information and my "gut instinct." I'm not sure if this comment is really in context with what your article is about, but some of us "hicks" out here trust our gut. If something being peddled on the world's stage or in universities just seems really "bad" for society... we reject it. Thanks for continuing to welcome people like myself to read and ponder your great articles Eugyppius.
Really well-thought out, and helpful. Thank you. I've never been a conspiracy person for the simple reason that humans generally aren't that smart or clever, and someone will always snitch. That's not to say they don't ever happen - they absolutely do. But they almost inevitably come apart or fail. And this also matches much of my experience working in and outside of governments.
It still leaves me with the question = so what do we do? How do we bring this to an end? I think that wokeness and phenomena like that eventually destroy themselves from the inside out. And Corona containment may as well. But I've got little kids and I'm out of patience with how it's ruining their lives. How do we accelerate the demise of this phenomenon?
I've commented on this typically great plague chronicle post earlier but just have to add something. I'm reading Robert Kennedy's new book, "The Real Anthony Fauci", and though I'm only in the first chapter, my blood is boiling. The high level worldwide collusion to actively suppress alternatives to the mRNA shots, which began in the spring of 2020, is real, is continuing, and is truly frightening. While perhaps just one of many plans, it is one backed by enormous power and has had correspondingly enormous consequences, the biggest being the loss of millions of lives. This ongoing plan is not one of incompetence. It is intentional evil by real people in real positions of power. I cannot recommend Kennedy's book enough. Read it and pass it on to others.
We need to think every hypothesis. What you bring in the table is of great value in so many levels.
You should also be able to accept that not all of your articles will be on the right track. Shouldn't you ?
Here is my issue.
"These failures are too consistent to be accidental: The system is too large and unwieldy to act according to coherent strategies and basically lurches from one failure to the next. It is only good at sustaining itself and enforcing compliance."
This STILL looks wrong to me.
If 'it' (a system too big to be controlled but small enough to be defined in an article /s ) was lurching from one failure to the next at some point it would come to a pair of moves that would take it out of existence. Especially if the moves are so nasty to so many people.
You can't expect us to believe that the system is moving randomly by a decentralized group of bureaucrats and at the same time it keeps maintaining the zero-covid illusion goal target perfectly aligned in a mirror opposite of biologic reality do you ?. You can't make us believe that there are so many people that can't read or search information.
The element you are not covering is a VERY tightly controlled group of people: the mass media,, social media and at least one famous search engine.
He who controls them , controls the narrative, and this is not covered in your article.
Now if you want me to believe that all these not-real-journalists that work in these institutions are not controlled that will be a hard sell.
Again back and forth is necessary here but this is not a random walk.
I wasn't aware there was so much arguing about the last post. I guess I didn't read the comments thoroughly enough.
Your point here is fine, but I think you're swinging to the other extreme; there are indisputably individual actors and discrete organizations that are opportunistically using the current macrosocial conditions to consolidate power and advance agendas. The WEF, Bill Gates, and Soros probably didn't release COVID on the world as part of an elaborate James Bond Villain scheme, but they are 100% seizing the reins of specific social forces acting within the crisis to advance globalist totalitarian goals.
BRAVO!! You got it eugyppius! This is surely one of your best and brightest pieces yet! 😊 Wokeness run amok makes more sense than anything else. And while I greatly appreciate your more techy articles and read them eagerly, I would love more articles like this as well.
The only other request I would make is that you write something available to us free subscribers about how and when you see this whole horrible thing finally coming to an end.
Otherwise, thank you, just thank you for being you and sharing with all of us. 😊
The situation we're in reminds me of late stage communism. Not the Glorious Revolution, not Stalinism, but late stage communism, when almost no-one actually believed the story, no-one expected to ever see Workers' Paradise, and yet bureaucrats enforced conformity (because those were the orders, they were paid to do it, and it wasn't their job to actually evaluate any of it), and everyone else conformed because they couldn't see a feasible way out. Few people were jailed, and there were no (political) executions. But say a wrong thing, and you'd be out of a job. Very few people believed the story, and yet it continued for a couple more decades due to sheer inertia.
And I fear that this is what awaits us. Boosters every six months. No-one expects the virus to be eradicated, and no-one thinks it's all that dangerous, either, but hey, rules are rules. If you don't conform, then you're out of a job and maybe even given a short prison sentence. If you don't vaccinate your kids, then you lose custody. Nah. Better conform. After all, most people don't suffer particularly serious side effects. Sure, the stuff might shorten your life, but so would poverty. Eventually, the whole thing will collapse. It would be awfully nice if it collapsed this winter, but it's perfectly possible it'll take decades.
I'm not sure why you think you've angered anyone? Because you don't think this is a vast conspiracy?
It obviously isn't. I wish it was, at least then I could marvel at the sheer brilliance and organizational fortitude of the conspirators. No, I agree that its part of the corporate-academia-government bureaucracy thinking.
I used to come from that world. I was employed at an American corporate and essentially lived my professional life guided by Policies and Guidelines and whatever else they had rules for. Over time, this becomes a way of life, and a way of viewing life
When I became an entrepreneur, first I was jarred by how there were no guidelines, no rules. Just me. Then, as I became good at my job (I run a B2B company) I learned how to exploit those bureaucracies, game regulatory agencies, and capitalise on these organizational idiocies. It has gained me significant wealth, but turned me very cynical, and I am not optimistic about the next 5 years of covid life
What you are describing is absolutely and 100% reality. Its worse than a conspiracy unfortunately, because of its hopeless, vapid banality.
This is the post that converted me to a paid subscriber. There is so much wisdom about how academic and lefty organizations operate. As someone who worked in (American) academia for 20 years I can't tell you how true the following statement is: "Wokeness is also self-radicalising, in the way that many university-incubated ideologies turn out to be. Administrators or department chairs are constantly in danger of being outflanked on their left, and so they must adopt and endorse the most radical line to maintain their position"
One of your best, please write more like this and continue to expand beyond Corona-centric material.
I am near the sunset of a long American academic career. Thirty years ago when I was on faculty at a "Public Ivy" I recounted to a bright grad student that I saw the "politically correct" pathway the university had adopted has always turned out badly in history. She noted the difference this time is that we are now pursuing the correct policies rather than the wrong policies of the past. Not sure what she thinks today.
I am currently a senior faculty at a relatively large public university in Texas that has being going woke as fast as it can. Many of my students are not on board though. (Example, when I poll for support of 2nd amendment, it gets 85% support. When I poll for support of concealed carry on campus, it gets about 70% support) When our Governor (Abbott) dropped the mask mandate, the University immediately complied as much of our funding comes from the state. We have no vax mandate, but the University pushed hard for everyone to get a vax and to mask. We have been in face to face classrooms for about 10 weeks now (no social distancing), and masks are optional. I do not wear one. About 20-25% of my students wear a masks - the University still pushes for wearing masks.
We held an in person faculty meeting about 6 weeks ago, and while being the oldest, so presumably the most at risk, I was the only one that did not even take a mask. Most kept masked except when eating, and I noticed it was hard to have a conversation around a large table with those wearing masks as we can't use lip reading to fill in what is not audible, or is muffled by the mask. But it seems most faculty cannot apply their advanced math and stat skills to seeing how little risk they have.
The University publishes a Covid Dashboard. Over the last week, 7 cases have been reported (from a population of about 40,000). For the entire semester to date, less than 250. This is no doubt an underestimate, but if students want extensions on HW, or accommodation for missed exams they will need to report so there is an incentive to report (and I believe it is University Policy to report).
The University may try to backdoor a mask and vax program via the Federal contractor rules. Hopefully the recent court successes against OSHA mandates can also apply or be used as a template to stop that.
So, Abbott's no mask, no vax rules were enough to get our University closer to sanity and he is not pushing as hard as DeSantis. The woke stuff marches on . . .
Thank you for not allowing hysterical conspiracies to guide the discussion . I would add that this is more sinister than an individual actor. If it were one actor you could “remove” them and it would end. This is going to take years if not decades to change.
I confess I don't know what is happening in the world, only that it is very abnormal. I've gone down a number of rabbit holes over the past year and a half and consulted sources that I would have otherwise eschewed. I've heard many theories, some plausible and some crazy. Rather than judging or rejecting, I've placed each theory on my "WTH is Going On" shelf for safe keeping.
Two things can be true at once. The insane response to the virus can be a consequence of a mass formation or a kind of global group think (irony noted 'cause there's very little thinking involved) and at the same time the "elite" can be taking advantage of the current crisis...amplifying and extending it even...to bring about their vision of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a central bank digital currency, and some kind of supranational global control of the little people.
I imagine you've heard Mattias Desmet speak about mass formation. I listened to his full interview on Jerm Warfare in September (unfortunately, I can find only a small excerpt now). He says that there are basically three groups in a mass formation: 30% are true believers, 30% are in opposition, and 40% are in the middle and don't really believe but go along to get along. He believes the 40% are reachable and, thus, we in the opposition should speak out and speak often.
One comment that Desmet made really stuck with me. He said historically the 30% who are in opposition are always a disparate group that devolves into infighting which dilutes their influence. They may have the power to stop or reverse the mass formation, but they are distracted by their own disagreements.
I would caution everyone to heed that warning.
We lose our power to effect real change by arguing over what is happening. The truth is we don't really know what is happening or all the forces at play. We may never know. But we don't have to agree on details or theories to oppose the crazy Covid authoritarian response.
WRT to Schwab and the globalists...we can argue over their ability to pull off their evil plans, but we can't argue about their plans. They've been very transparent. A year ago, I thought Schwab was a clown. Now, in light of the continued and expanded authoritarian crackdowns and increasing censorship, I'm a bit more inclined to think there is more going on than a mass formation in response to fear of a virus.
When news of the viral outbreak in China first broke, I thought it would be a problem for the United States. I fully expected my government to quell fear (keep calm and carry on). They threw gasoline on the fire instead. For me, that was the first red flag.
We accomplish nothing by fighting over theories. We need to fight them.
https://odysee.com/@jermwarfare:2/dissenting-voices-are-important:b
I have thought about this post and read all the comments. There is much I don't understand. I'm troubled with how the tyrants are acting even when faced with recent data. It seems there is something greater they are working towards, that allows them to ignore facts that are being reported.
A few known facts:
1) Children are not harmed by Covid, they barely get sick. Yet they all need to be vaxxed, from birth.
2) The "vaccines" are failing .Yet everybody needs to get vaxxed some more.
3) People are dying and being harmed by the "vaccines". Yet, the unvacced need to get vaxxed and the reset need number 2 above.
4) Reports pregnant vaxxed women, are giving birth to stillborn children at 29 time higher then just a year ago. Yet, all women need to get vaxxed and the reset need number 2 above.
5) If you are unvaxxed you loose liberty, even to the point of being jailed in your own home or concentration camps. The solution to that is to get vaxxed, even when number 3 and 4 are well known.
6) Your chance of living when getting covid is 99.7%; population wide. Yet, get vaxxed or else. If you have been vaxxed see number 2 above.
They want everybody vaxxed, when they know the "vaccines" are worthless, kill people and are killing them slowly by harming the recipients immune system. Why?
It is easy to speculate there is something bigger happening. I'm very open to different theories. If you (the reader) are not, then you are not practicing critical thinking.
"periodic ritual entertainment of false moral outrages and protests."
From my perch it is the virtue signaling on social media that appears to have cratered the ability to think logically for so many honest hearted people.
Nobody wants to be Emmanuel Goldstein.
"This image heads Harvard University’s list of Socializing Rules. None of these students is at serious risk of severe outcome from Corona."
They are, however, at serious risk of severe outcome of brainwashing.
Well, I guess this all makes me glad that I'm mostly "self-educated". I might not be able to "hold my own" with an "intellectual", but I trust my common sense, *life experience* and "street smarts" more than just trusting books, lectures or "cultural trends". I am also willing to listen to and/or read opinions about subject matter I may not understand or know much about and make a determination based on the combination of that information and my "gut instinct." I'm not sure if this comment is really in context with what your article is about, but some of us "hicks" out here trust our gut. If something being peddled on the world's stage or in universities just seems really "bad" for society... we reject it. Thanks for continuing to welcome people like myself to read and ponder your great articles Eugyppius.
Really well-thought out, and helpful. Thank you. I've never been a conspiracy person for the simple reason that humans generally aren't that smart or clever, and someone will always snitch. That's not to say they don't ever happen - they absolutely do. But they almost inevitably come apart or fail. And this also matches much of my experience working in and outside of governments.
It still leaves me with the question = so what do we do? How do we bring this to an end? I think that wokeness and phenomena like that eventually destroy themselves from the inside out. And Corona containment may as well. But I've got little kids and I'm out of patience with how it's ruining their lives. How do we accelerate the demise of this phenomenon?
I've commented on this typically great plague chronicle post earlier but just have to add something. I'm reading Robert Kennedy's new book, "The Real Anthony Fauci", and though I'm only in the first chapter, my blood is boiling. The high level worldwide collusion to actively suppress alternatives to the mRNA shots, which began in the spring of 2020, is real, is continuing, and is truly frightening. While perhaps just one of many plans, it is one backed by enormous power and has had correspondingly enormous consequences, the biggest being the loss of millions of lives. This ongoing plan is not one of incompetence. It is intentional evil by real people in real positions of power. I cannot recommend Kennedy's book enough. Read it and pass it on to others.
I will disappoint you, but bear with me.
We need to think every hypothesis. What you bring in the table is of great value in so many levels.
You should also be able to accept that not all of your articles will be on the right track. Shouldn't you ?
Here is my issue.
"These failures are too consistent to be accidental: The system is too large and unwieldy to act according to coherent strategies and basically lurches from one failure to the next. It is only good at sustaining itself and enforcing compliance."
This STILL looks wrong to me.
If 'it' (a system too big to be controlled but small enough to be defined in an article /s ) was lurching from one failure to the next at some point it would come to a pair of moves that would take it out of existence. Especially if the moves are so nasty to so many people.
You can't expect us to believe that the system is moving randomly by a decentralized group of bureaucrats and at the same time it keeps maintaining the zero-covid illusion goal target perfectly aligned in a mirror opposite of biologic reality do you ?. You can't make us believe that there are so many people that can't read or search information.
The element you are not covering is a VERY tightly controlled group of people: the mass media,, social media and at least one famous search engine.
He who controls them , controls the narrative, and this is not covered in your article.
Now if you want me to believe that all these not-real-journalists that work in these institutions are not controlled that will be a hard sell.
Again back and forth is necessary here but this is not a random walk.
I wasn't aware there was so much arguing about the last post. I guess I didn't read the comments thoroughly enough.
Your point here is fine, but I think you're swinging to the other extreme; there are indisputably individual actors and discrete organizations that are opportunistically using the current macrosocial conditions to consolidate power and advance agendas. The WEF, Bill Gates, and Soros probably didn't release COVID on the world as part of an elaborate James Bond Villain scheme, but they are 100% seizing the reins of specific social forces acting within the crisis to advance globalist totalitarian goals.
BRAVO!! You got it eugyppius! This is surely one of your best and brightest pieces yet! 😊 Wokeness run amok makes more sense than anything else. And while I greatly appreciate your more techy articles and read them eagerly, I would love more articles like this as well.
The only other request I would make is that you write something available to us free subscribers about how and when you see this whole horrible thing finally coming to an end.
Otherwise, thank you, just thank you for being you and sharing with all of us. 😊