How the covid episode changed my life, part 2
Friendships
i. Our fate
No public health issue ever has been so contentious as the covid episode. Everything about it, from its origins in Wuhan China to the extraordinary experimental drugs deployed to contain it, has been riven with controversy. It will come as no surprise to those who have engaged in such arguments that rarely if ever are they settled on the basis of facts, logic, evidence, and other kinds of ratiocination. This is not to say that truth is relative, or that there is no such thing as objective truth. Instead, it is to say that such arguments trigger atavistic fears about out own survival and well-being, and whom to trust when the chips are down. They go directly to our fate in this world and hereafter. No wonder they bypass rational argument!
Augmented by the formidable search tools that bring all the world's knowledge to our screens with the click of a mouse, we can find cogent arguments for anything we wish to assert. Everyone can be his own expert witness, with charts and tables and hundreds of authoritative references. There could hardly be a better demonstration that such arguments merely rationalize prior conclusions reached by other means.
These other means, largely beyond the reach of science, include intuition, instinct, pattern recognition, practical know-how, personal experience, collective memory, and historical records, among others. Ruling these other means out-of-bounds, as those urging us to 'follow the science' tend to do, narrows the scope of possible discussion. While I have not personally been subjected to abusive terms such as 'anti-vaxxer', 'conspiracy theorist', 'racist', 'anti-science', and the like, these have received such extensive on-line and media coverage that they might seem to occur automatically in in-person conversation. The interaction of on-line and in-person dialogue is such that I thought I had actually heard such terms flung at me, when in fact I had not. This is an important distinction, as it led me to imagine non-existent disputes with friends.
ii. My personal triage
An entire subculture of the artificial intelligentsia extends its antennae, twitching reflexively, to discern what might provoke such disputes. In lieu of purposeless disputes, I treat these topics as no-go zones, mine-fields that could blow up the friendship with one careless misstep. Here, state censorship reveals its purpose -- to promote self-censorship. It's a test: Do I care enough about this person to stifle my views to preserve his fragile amour-propre? With others who, yielding to the demand for self-censorship, have restricted their own expression, discovering through hints that they are really like-minded has reinforced and deepened the friendship. In the chloroform-like atmosphere of mass conformity, pervasive state supervision, and social and economic pressure, it seems miraculous to find others who have resisted these forces. For this I am profoundly grateful, which is always reciprocated.
Between these two groups in my personal triage are those of open mind who are neither offended nor discomfited by novel views. With them, I might allude indirectly to my departure from the fabricated consensus, mention facts or credibly reported experiences that support my views, and leave it at that. I don't try to 'convert' them, I try only to satisfy their curiosity.
For the millions killed or disabled by the most tragically misguided mass-injection campaign in the history of medicine, I feel only the deepest sympathy. They were coerced, or tricked, or pressured into doing themselves grave harm. Among those who have taken one or more mRNA shots, with no immediately apparent ill effects, the most disturbing aspect of their experience may be the prospect of long-term harm due to advice from seemingly trustworthy sources. The good news, for them, is that many doses injected were expired or inert, thus harmless;
and that simple at-home remedies can de-toxify the body of vax-induced spike proteins.
Many friends, sad to say, would rather restrict everyone's freedom than admit the possibility of error. My own freedom has not been restricted, except for my voluntary pausing of international travel.
Were I living and working in America or Europe, I would have been subject to the whole panoply of failed policies -- lockdowns, house arrest, vaccine passports, business closures, prohibitions of in-person gatherings, masking, censorship -- fervently embraced by officialdom during the 2020 - 2023 period. My friends would probably have supported these restrictions over my objections. Fortunately I did not have to test that supposition, and now that I am thinking about it, that's probably one reason I did not travel overseas.
These policies continued long past the point where they were demonstrated to be useless for public health, or actually harmful. Three related reasons are that officials hoped to retain powers the covid emergency had given them, hated to admit having made grievous mistakes, and feared legal liability. The drug-makers had already immunized themselves against lawsuits. That left Government possibly exposed to legal liability. In Switzerland, the Swiss Government granted itself absolution from financial responsibility for drug-caused harm to patients. As of April 4, 2023, Switzerland declared, 'All vaccination recommendations have been withdrawn, doctors can only administer the controversial vaccines in individual cases under certain conditions -- but then bear the risk of liability for vaccination damage.'1 This may be the model for other governments to declare their own financial irresponsibility, pushing lawsuits and compensation onto doctors.
This outcome in Switzerland indicates why the covid emergency has been prolonged. Officials locked themselves into a closed feedback loop, where the covid emergency justified restrictions on freedom, and these restrictions reified the appearance of an emergency. Officials sought to prop up their official positions, extend the illusion of infallibility, and avoid legal accountability. Public opinion, for the majority, assumed officials would never adopt such severe controls except in case of a real emergency. And the covid emergency felt real to many people because they were terrified.
iv. No-go zones fading away
As fear slowly and gradually releases its grip on the populace, the covid emergency is disappearing before our eyes like the cheshire cat, leaving only a disembodied smirk. With it, restrictions on freedom are melting away like last winter's snowman on a warm spring day. Stealth non-enforcement, rather than triumphal announcement, is the style -- anything to avoid saying 'We were wrong'. I look forward to the disappearance, likewise, of those no-go zones in conversations with friends, and to the full range of uninhibited, uncensored exchanges of views.
Machine translation from the German, The Federal Office of Public Health (BAG) and the Federal Commission for Vaccination Issues.
Much to think about. Almost (almost) too subtle. I mean, for others.