The new public health response that was trialed during this outbreak is far more attractive to investors creating vast opportunities for future growth. Holding to the new dogma enables a positive career path and financial security, as did siding with the Inquisition centuries ago.
This pairs well with the work of Margaret Heffernan on “willful blindness.” She has some TED talks on this and another on “Dare to Disagree” that you might find interesting.
Trying to write positive stuff but its a bit sparse right now. I agree on masks etc- you don’t need medical training to figure out what heath &safety industry has known for a hundred years. I think many doctors are scared to think independently now - trained out of them.
The ability of formerly sane, rational people to convince themselves the lies are the truth never fails to amaze me. The wearing of masks is the one that amazes me most. I am not a medical or scientific person but it was so obvious that a mask couldn't stop a germ (or whatever it's called!). I kept telling people their mask might stop them swallowing a gnat but they looked at me like I was mad.
I guess people have been conditioned over years to simply trust the bloke in the white coat regardless of how bonkers his instructions are!
An excellent analysis and must have taken an immense amount of focus to write! One of the best I have read. I called out this CBULLSHIT sham from day one and was forced to resign from my part time job at a charity shop for refusing to wear a mask. The incidents that led to this forced resignation were fraught and not nice and was a concentrated scene of what has happened to personal relationships globally. Having been confronted directly to "put your mask on!" I said NO. I was told to leave the premises. I requested a disciplinary hearing which never materialised. I was told 'you will not win'. I answered I did not want to win, I wanted a record of the incident. The disciplinary hearing did not materialise. An email arrived: "Mask 24/7 or go." The fact that I could not wear a mask due to a combination of childhood trauma and 'sovereignty attack shock' was of little consideration. As a South African having lived through every painful moment of apartheid I had learnt a lot with regard to double speak and lies. BUT until there are arrests, accountability, confiscation of wealth to be distributed to survivors etc there is just going to be business as usual and that dreadful technology (noticed more and more on fb) is going to be forced upon us apace. Where are the protests/articles/fb pages to demand tribunals? They are the only way forward for sane humanity.
Hello Helge, thanks for your thoughts,. Sorry you had a hard time. It's called fascism, and it's an intrinsically popular way for people to act if they are authorized to do so. People have been authorized through the COVID response, as they were in Germany in 1930s, in the Balkans, and more or less anywhere that leaders are willing to accept doing evil to get ahead. I agree, we have to just keep calling it out.
......so true David. Birthed under apartheid, all of my creative work (performance/art) is an exposure of fascism. I had no idea then, that that work would become so much more relevant today. Fascism keeps morphing externally while remaining intrinsically constant. Never before has mankind needed a huge collective miracle and the only miracle I can think of right now, is that the cause/call for tribunals manifests sooner rather than later.
"In a former role I had a boss who lied a lot" Me too. I am with you on what you have said.
I lost my Job, this in my last 5 years where my pension would have grown for my retirement.
I was fired for challenging my MD/CEO when he lied. I was subjected to a kangaroo court (Disciplinary Hearing) of petty tyrants (Human Resources) and paid Legal Hangmen who were employed to destroy any challenge to authority, even though I was supposedly "Senior management as part of Exco".
I played back a damming recording of his conversation with an employee, that he said never happened. He was highly embarrassed, yet I was still fired. Oh, I got a 3 month settlement. So never feel bad, the liars are protected. Hopefully one day they will be judged.
Sorry to hear. Unfortunately most people, at least where I worked, were fine with being lied to. This is not the case everywhere I have worked, but has become particularly prevalent in public health. Historically, truth seems to win eventually, but that does not mean liars don't throve and die financially rich. This is going to go on for quite a while - we have to hold to a different definition of riches, and of what is a worthwhile life. Not always easy in the moment.
Amen.
Thanks, Barbara. Will look.
And a bit depressing, the way integrity is more a career move than a value for sommany.
… so many
I really enjoyed the story about your boss. It's a powerful example.
This pairs well with the work of Margaret Heffernan on “willful blindness.” She has some TED talks on this and another on “Dare to Disagree” that you might find interesting.
Or as Ethical Skeptic would call it, "Nelsonian knowledge".
Trying to write positive stuff but its a bit sparse right now. I agree on masks etc- you don’t need medical training to figure out what heath &safety industry has known for a hundred years. I think many doctors are scared to think independently now - trained out of them.
Excellent but depressing article!
The ability of formerly sane, rational people to convince themselves the lies are the truth never fails to amaze me. The wearing of masks is the one that amazes me most. I am not a medical or scientific person but it was so obvious that a mask couldn't stop a germ (or whatever it's called!). I kept telling people their mask might stop them swallowing a gnat but they looked at me like I was mad.
I guess people have been conditioned over years to simply trust the bloke in the white coat regardless of how bonkers his instructions are!
An excellent analysis and must have taken an immense amount of focus to write! One of the best I have read. I called out this CBULLSHIT sham from day one and was forced to resign from my part time job at a charity shop for refusing to wear a mask. The incidents that led to this forced resignation were fraught and not nice and was a concentrated scene of what has happened to personal relationships globally. Having been confronted directly to "put your mask on!" I said NO. I was told to leave the premises. I requested a disciplinary hearing which never materialised. I was told 'you will not win'. I answered I did not want to win, I wanted a record of the incident. The disciplinary hearing did not materialise. An email arrived: "Mask 24/7 or go." The fact that I could not wear a mask due to a combination of childhood trauma and 'sovereignty attack shock' was of little consideration. As a South African having lived through every painful moment of apartheid I had learnt a lot with regard to double speak and lies. BUT until there are arrests, accountability, confiscation of wealth to be distributed to survivors etc there is just going to be business as usual and that dreadful technology (noticed more and more on fb) is going to be forced upon us apace. Where are the protests/articles/fb pages to demand tribunals? They are the only way forward for sane humanity.
Hello Helge, thanks for your thoughts,. Sorry you had a hard time. It's called fascism, and it's an intrinsically popular way for people to act if they are authorized to do so. People have been authorized through the COVID response, as they were in Germany in 1930s, in the Balkans, and more or less anywhere that leaders are willing to accept doing evil to get ahead. I agree, we have to just keep calling it out.
......so true David. Birthed under apartheid, all of my creative work (performance/art) is an exposure of fascism. I had no idea then, that that work would become so much more relevant today. Fascism keeps morphing externally while remaining intrinsically constant. Never before has mankind needed a huge collective miracle and the only miracle I can think of right now, is that the cause/call for tribunals manifests sooner rather than later.
"In a former role I had a boss who lied a lot" Me too. I am with you on what you have said.
I lost my Job, this in my last 5 years where my pension would have grown for my retirement.
I was fired for challenging my MD/CEO when he lied. I was subjected to a kangaroo court (Disciplinary Hearing) of petty tyrants (Human Resources) and paid Legal Hangmen who were employed to destroy any challenge to authority, even though I was supposedly "Senior management as part of Exco".
I played back a damming recording of his conversation with an employee, that he said never happened. He was highly embarrassed, yet I was still fired. Oh, I got a 3 month settlement. So never feel bad, the liars are protected. Hopefully one day they will be judged.
Sorry to hear. Unfortunately most people, at least where I worked, were fine with being lied to. This is not the case everywhere I have worked, but has become particularly prevalent in public health. Historically, truth seems to win eventually, but that does not mean liars don't throve and die financially rich. This is going to go on for quite a while - we have to hold to a different definition of riches, and of what is a worthwhile life. Not always easy in the moment.
Big fan of your Twitter.
https://nitter.net/bell00david
Thanks for all your hard work.
Thanks. Not a natural but does not feel right to remain silent.