I thought of this 14 year old chaiwallah, his life, his hopes, his dreams being destroyed, of how his fate was symbolic of the fate of the hundreds of millions sacrificed on the altar of panic.
I thought this comment about “Ecolo-Apocalytism“ interesting:
"Despair, in the Christian sense, is when one gives up the hope for salvation. This is why despair is the sin that cannot be forgiven. What would be the equivalent for the modern atheist? When someone decides not to have children, out of fear that the world is coming to an end; this is despair. "
This reminds me of an observation by the American atheist and novelist, Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut relates that in his youth he had been an optimistic believer in Progress, confident that science was leading us to Nirvana. All the great mysteries of life would be solved. But this initial optimism was laid low by the harsh realities of war and everyday life and led to pessimism and a deep questioning of Enlightenment dogma. As it turned out, in his twenty-first year Vonnegut was a first-hand witness to the firebombing and annihilation of Dresden in Germany during World War II. He notes with irony that his generation witnessed scientific truth being dropped on Hiroshima. Vonnegut confessed, in a speech at a high school graduation (published in Wampeters), that as a result of these events he then had an intimate conversation with himself and provides a glimpse
"Hey, Corporal Vonnegut," I said to myself, "maybe you were wrong to be an optimist. Maybe pessimism is the thing." I have been a consistent pessimist ever since, with a few exceptions. In order to persuade my wife to marry me, of course, I had to promise her that the future would be heavenly. And then I had to lie about the future again every time I thought she should have a baby. And then I had to lie to her again every time she threatened to leave me because I was too pessimistic. I saved our marriage many times by exclaiming, "Wait!; Wait! I see light at the end of the tunnel at last!" And I wish I could bring light to your tunnels today. My wife begged me to bring you light, but there is no light. Everything is going to become unimaginably worse, and never get better again. If I lied to you about that, you would sense that I'd lied to you, and that would be another cause for gloom. We have enough causes for gloom. (p. 162)
I know that millions of dollars have been spent to produce this splendid graduating class, and that the main hope of your teachers was, once they got through with you, that you would no longer be superstitious. I'm sorry I have to undo that now. I beg you to believe in the most ridiculous superstition of all: that humanity is at the center of the universe, the fulfiller or the frustrator of the grandest dreams of God Almighty. If you can believe that, and make others believe it, then there might be hope for us. Human beings might stop treating each other like garbage, might begin to treasure and protect each other instead. Then it might be all right to have babies again. Many of you will have babies anyway, if you're anything like me. To quote the poet Schiller: "Against stupidity the very gods themselves contend in vain." About astrology and palmistry: They are good because they make people feel vivid and full of possibilities. They are communism at its best. Everybody has a birthday and almost everybody has a palm.(pp. 163-64)
Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. (1975) Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons, Dell Publishing Co. Inc, New York 238 p.
And on a further note Vonnegut provides a thought-provoking observation on the cognitive dissonance implied by the totalitarian mindset that is worth consideration.
I have never seen a more sublime demonstration of the totalitarian mind, a mind which might be likened unto a system of gears whose teeth have been filed off at random. Such a snaggle-toothed thought machine, driven by a standard or even substandard libido, whirls with the jerky, noisy, gaudy pointlessness of a cuckoo clock in Hell. The boss G-man concluded wrongly that there were no teeth on the gears in the mind of Jones. You're completely crazy, he said. Jones wasn't completely crazy. The dismaying thing about the classic totalitarian mind is that any given gear, though mutilated, will have at its circumference unbroken sequences of teeth that are immaculately, that are exquisitely machined. Hence the cuckoo clock in Hell keeping perfect time for eight minutes and thirty-three seconds, jumping ahead fourteen minutes, keeping perfect time for six seconds, jumping ahead two seconds, keeping perfect time for two hours and one second, then jumping ahead a year. The missing teeth, of course, are simple, obvious truths, truths available and comprehensible even to ten-year-olds, in most cases. That was how a household as contradictory as one composed of Jones, Father Keeley, Vice-Bundesfuehrer Krapptaer, and the Black Fuehrer could exist in relative harmony. That was how my father-in-law could contain in one mind an indifference toward slave women and love for a blue vase. That was how Rudolf Hoess, Commandant of Auschwitz, could alternate over the loudspeakers of Auschwitz great music and calls for corpse-carriers. That was how Nazi Germany could sense no important difference between civilization and hydrophobia. That is the closest I can come to explaining the legions, the nations of lunatics I've seen in my time. (pp. 162-163)
Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. (1961) Mother Night. Dell Publishing New York
No ambiguity whatsoever in the past 3 years of irrationality, censorship, deplatforming, demonizing & otherwise completely shutting down any ability to weigh other views. And it’s ongoing as some places are still flogging the shots, claiming masks work, etc
My unforgivable sin is that I cannot forgive all the people who indulged in the panic, who refused to think, who screamed "witch" at everyone, who would have burnt others at the stake to save themselves. The ones who accepted the destruction of livelihoods, education, hopes, life itself whilst refusing to calm down and think. All those people in positions of perceived authority (politicians, health officials, teachers, celebrities etc) who whipped up the frenzy of panic. I can't forgive any of them.
I thought of poor Indian children as an example too. During our first lockdown in UK, my son, 24 came back from London and we spent days in the garden, cruised into Waitrose for steaks and wine and I commented at the time, in horror 'how lucky are we, when there are children in India who make money climbing over rubbish to pick out bits they can sell - they will literally starve to death'. Where were the politicians? - the people we vote in to make sane decisions? Are they all literally captured and corrupt? Have none of them got a shred of common sense? Have none of them any empathy? I will never forgive them or forget what they have done and I want justice.
There was a long study in California where one of the couples were HIV negative and the other positive. Despite half of them not using protection, none of the negative people caught it.
On the other hand, if you were diagnosed at the time, you were told to go on toxic drugs like AZT, which Fauci promoted.
The Virus theory of disease is seeing the result of cell damage as the cause of it. Never mind the many other factors.
Really well said, Thorsteinn. This line resonated with me, "For panic on this scale is dangerous; it is devastating. And in the end, there is no difference between burning witches out of fear of sorcery, and locking down whole societies due to wildly exaggerated fear of a virus." Thanks for fighting the panic and fear.
I thought this comment about “Ecolo-Apocalytism“ interesting:
"Despair, in the Christian sense, is when one gives up the hope for salvation. This is why despair is the sin that cannot be forgiven. What would be the equivalent for the modern atheist? When someone decides not to have children, out of fear that the world is coming to an end; this is despair. "
This reminds me of an observation by the American atheist and novelist, Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut relates that in his youth he had been an optimistic believer in Progress, confident that science was leading us to Nirvana. All the great mysteries of life would be solved. But this initial optimism was laid low by the harsh realities of war and everyday life and led to pessimism and a deep questioning of Enlightenment dogma. As it turned out, in his twenty-first year Vonnegut was a first-hand witness to the firebombing and annihilation of Dresden in Germany during World War II. He notes with irony that his generation witnessed scientific truth being dropped on Hiroshima. Vonnegut confessed, in a speech at a high school graduation (published in Wampeters), that as a result of these events he then had an intimate conversation with himself and provides a glimpse
"Hey, Corporal Vonnegut," I said to myself, "maybe you were wrong to be an optimist. Maybe pessimism is the thing." I have been a consistent pessimist ever since, with a few exceptions. In order to persuade my wife to marry me, of course, I had to promise her that the future would be heavenly. And then I had to lie about the future again every time I thought she should have a baby. And then I had to lie to her again every time she threatened to leave me because I was too pessimistic. I saved our marriage many times by exclaiming, "Wait!; Wait! I see light at the end of the tunnel at last!" And I wish I could bring light to your tunnels today. My wife begged me to bring you light, but there is no light. Everything is going to become unimaginably worse, and never get better again. If I lied to you about that, you would sense that I'd lied to you, and that would be another cause for gloom. We have enough causes for gloom. (p. 162)
I know that millions of dollars have been spent to produce this splendid graduating class, and that the main hope of your teachers was, once they got through with you, that you would no longer be superstitious. I'm sorry I have to undo that now. I beg you to believe in the most ridiculous superstition of all: that humanity is at the center of the universe, the fulfiller or the frustrator of the grandest dreams of God Almighty. If you can believe that, and make others believe it, then there might be hope for us. Human beings might stop treating each other like garbage, might begin to treasure and protect each other instead. Then it might be all right to have babies again. Many of you will have babies anyway, if you're anything like me. To quote the poet Schiller: "Against stupidity the very gods themselves contend in vain." About astrology and palmistry: They are good because they make people feel vivid and full of possibilities. They are communism at its best. Everybody has a birthday and almost everybody has a palm.(pp. 163-64)
Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. (1975) Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons, Dell Publishing Co. Inc, New York 238 p.
And on a further note Vonnegut provides a thought-provoking observation on the cognitive dissonance implied by the totalitarian mindset that is worth consideration.
I have never seen a more sublime demonstration of the totalitarian mind, a mind which might be likened unto a system of gears whose teeth have been filed off at random. Such a snaggle-toothed thought machine, driven by a standard or even substandard libido, whirls with the jerky, noisy, gaudy pointlessness of a cuckoo clock in Hell. The boss G-man concluded wrongly that there were no teeth on the gears in the mind of Jones. You're completely crazy, he said. Jones wasn't completely crazy. The dismaying thing about the classic totalitarian mind is that any given gear, though mutilated, will have at its circumference unbroken sequences of teeth that are immaculately, that are exquisitely machined. Hence the cuckoo clock in Hell keeping perfect time for eight minutes and thirty-three seconds, jumping ahead fourteen minutes, keeping perfect time for six seconds, jumping ahead two seconds, keeping perfect time for two hours and one second, then jumping ahead a year. The missing teeth, of course, are simple, obvious truths, truths available and comprehensible even to ten-year-olds, in most cases. That was how a household as contradictory as one composed of Jones, Father Keeley, Vice-Bundesfuehrer Krapptaer, and the Black Fuehrer could exist in relative harmony. That was how my father-in-law could contain in one mind an indifference toward slave women and love for a blue vase. That was how Rudolf Hoess, Commandant of Auschwitz, could alternate over the loudspeakers of Auschwitz great music and calls for corpse-carriers. That was how Nazi Germany could sense no important difference between civilization and hydrophobia. That is the closest I can come to explaining the legions, the nations of lunatics I've seen in my time. (pp. 162-163)
Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. (1961) Mother Night. Dell Publishing New York
No ambiguity whatsoever in the past 3 years of irrationality, censorship, deplatforming, demonizing & otherwise completely shutting down any ability to weigh other views. And it’s ongoing as some places are still flogging the shots, claiming masks work, etc
Well said!
My unforgivable sin is that I cannot forgive all the people who indulged in the panic, who refused to think, who screamed "witch" at everyone, who would have burnt others at the stake to save themselves. The ones who accepted the destruction of livelihoods, education, hopes, life itself whilst refusing to calm down and think. All those people in positions of perceived authority (politicians, health officials, teachers, celebrities etc) who whipped up the frenzy of panic. I can't forgive any of them.
I thought of poor Indian children as an example too. During our first lockdown in UK, my son, 24 came back from London and we spent days in the garden, cruised into Waitrose for steaks and wine and I commented at the time, in horror 'how lucky are we, when there are children in India who make money climbing over rubbish to pick out bits they can sell - they will literally starve to death'. Where were the politicians? - the people we vote in to make sane decisions? Are they all literally captured and corrupt? Have none of them got a shred of common sense? Have none of them any empathy? I will never forgive them or forget what they have done and I want justice.
Yes. This is the truth: Crying 'Fire, Fire' in a crowded theatre can kill a lot more people than a crazed gunman.
You can't even catch AIDS by intimate contact.
There was a long study in California where one of the couples were HIV negative and the other positive. Despite half of them not using protection, none of the negative people caught it.
On the other hand, if you were diagnosed at the time, you were told to go on toxic drugs like AZT, which Fauci promoted.
The Virus theory of disease is seeing the result of cell damage as the cause of it. Never mind the many other factors.
https://odysee.com/@drsambailey:c/Toxicology-vs-Virology-Rockefeller-Institute-and-the-Criminal-Polio-Fraud:1
Really well said, Thorsteinn. This line resonated with me, "For panic on this scale is dangerous; it is devastating. And in the end, there is no difference between burning witches out of fear of sorcery, and locking down whole societies due to wildly exaggerated fear of a virus." Thanks for fighting the panic and fear.