“…a permanent modern scenario: apocalypse looms…and it doesn’t occur.”
Susan Sontag, AIDs and its Metaphors
“I should not misuse this opportunity to
give you a lecture about, say, logic. I call this a misuse, for to explain a
scientific matter to you it would need a course of lectures and not an hour’s
paper. Another alternative would have been to give you what’s called a popular
scientific lecture, that is a lecture intended to make you believe that you
understand a thing which actually you don’t understand, and to gratify what I
believe to be one of the lowest desires of modern people, namely the
superficial curiosity about the latest discoveries of science. I rejected these
alternatives.”
Ludwig Wittgenstein, A Lecture on Ethics
If you’re reading this, then you’ve probably been called a conspiracy
theorist. Also you’ve been derided and shamed for questioning the “science” of
the Covid debacle.
The idea of science is now a badly corrupted idea. In a nation, today,
(the USA) which in educational terms ranks 25th globally in science skills and
reading, and well below that in math; all one hears is a clarion call to
science. In reading skills the US placed below Malta, Portugal, and right about
the same as Kazakhstan.
But in a nation that no longer
reads, and *can* no longer read, it is not surprising that knowledge is
absorbed via the new hieroglyphics of gifs (interestingly the creator of gifs wanted it pronounced with a
soft g the more to sound like a peanut butter brand) and memes.
So-called ‘response memes’
are the new version of conversation, and most register and communicate (sic)
confusion. As beer ad marketers know, the state of your brain after consuming a
six pack is pretty much the standard target ideal for advertising. And it
relays a message that six pack confusion is actually a good and perhaps even
sexy state in which to find oneself.
Education is for those with
money, those who can afford the proper foundational skills to get into Harvard,
MIT, Cal Tech and the Stanford. For everyone else science is Star Trek.
But I digress. The point is that most Americans imagine
that they revere science, and they ridicule anyone they think of as
unscientific. But they think of it in cult terms, really. It is a religion of
sorts. The only people who don’t are those ‘real’ religious zealots,
Dominionist and Charismatic Christians (like Mike Pompeo, Mike Pence, Rick
Perry, Betsy DeVos et al) who hold positions of enormous power in the US
government under the least scientific president in history.
The Christian right doesn’t
like any science, ANY science. But for most of that target demographic (the
educated mostly white 30%), the cry is to “trust the science”…even the great
Greta says to “trust the science”.
The problem is, science is
not neutral, it is as politicized as media and news and the pronouncements of
celebrities.
In May 2020, The
Lancet published
an article revisiting the 1957 and 1968 Influenza pandemics.
The 1957
outbreak was not caused by a coronavirus—the first human coronavirus would not
be discovered until 1965—but by an influenza virus. However, in 1957, no one
could be sure that the virus that had been isolated in Hong Kong was a new
pandemic strain or simply a descendant of the previous 1918–19 pandemic
influenza virus.
The result was
that as the UK’s weekly death count mounted, peaking at about 600 in the week
ending Oct 17, 1957, there were few hysterical tabloid newspaper headlines and
no calls for social distancing. Instead, the news cycle was dominated by the
Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik and the aftermath of the fire at the Windscale
nuclear reactor in the UK.
By the time
this influenza pandemic — known colloquially at the time as “Asian flu” — had
concluded the following April, an estimated 20 000 people in the UK and 80 000
citizens in the USA were dead. Worldwide, the pandemic, sparked by a new H2N2
influenza subtype, would result in more than 1 million deaths.
To date, Covid 19 has not reached the million death marker in the US And
yet we are seeing the most draconian lockdowns in modern history, the total
suspension of democratic process and a level of hysteria (especially in the
U.S. and UK) unprecedented. I wrote about some aspects of this on my blog here, mostly touching on the cultural effects
Allow me to quote The Lancet
again.
The subsequent
1968 influenza pandemic — or “Hong Kong flu” or “Mao flu” as some western
tabloids dubbed it — would have an even more dramatic impact, killing more than
30 000 individuals in the UK and 100 000 people in the USA, with half the
deaths among individuals younger than 65 years — the reverse of COVID-19 deaths
in the current pandemic.
Yet, while at
the height of the outbreak in December, 1968, The New York Times described the
pandemic as “one of the worst in the nation’s history”, there were few school closures and businesses, for
the most, continued to operate as normal.
I remember the 68 Hong Kong
flu. I was in my last year of high school. The summer after was Woodstock, the
‘summer of love’. Not a lot of social distancing going on. But we are past
numbers and statistics having any real meaning. The Covid narrative is now in
the realm of allegory.
The media perspective is
utterly predictable. Liberal outlets that have the inside track to government
are seen to be reinforcing the mainstream story (VOX, Slate, Huff Post, The
Guardian and Washington Post). In a recent VOX article the message was only a
sociopath would NOT wear a mask and that the ‘science’ was unanimous.
Of course it is no such
thing. But the message of sites like VOX, or Daily Beast, or Wa Po or the truly
reprehensible Guardian, are always going to be to hammer away ‘on message’. The
same is true for what passes for moderate news organs like the NY Times, ABC
News, The Hill, and BBC. There has been virtually no dissenting opinions
expressed in these rags.
All these news outlets are
given clear messages by the spin doctors in government, by the White House, and
by contacts within the State Department and Pentagon. And by the advertising
firms employed by the state (such as Ruder Finn).
“Ad agencies
are not in the business of doing science.”
Dr.
Arnold S. Relman (Madison Ave. Has Growing Role In the Business of Drug
Research, NY Times 2002)
The WHO,
the CDC, and most every other NGO or government agency of any size hires
advertising firms. The WHO, which is tied to the United Nations, is a reasonably
sinister organization, actually.
Just
picking up a random publication from the WHO, on what they call ‘the tobacco
epidemic’ and you find on page 33 the following chapter heading “Objective: Effective
surveillance, monitoring and evaluation systems in place to monitor tobacco
use.”
Reading
further and all this is really saying is that the populace of any country is
best put under surveillance. It’s for their own good, you see.
But back
to the science. Here is a small trip down memory lane…
Institutions
of medicine, global and national possess no more integrity than
your average NGO (Amnesty International, Médecins Sans
Frontières, Oxfam et al). And that means not very much.
To
understand the nature of institutional corruption one must understand
Imperialism. The institutions of Imperialist nations are going to further
Imperialist ideology. (see Antonio Gramsci, ideological hegemony). The US is not in the business of
helping Americans.
Modern monopoly
forms better reflect that scientific knowledge, and its advanced application to
production, are concentrated, ultimately, not in physical objects but in human
beings and human interaction with those objects. It is monopoly of the labour
power of the most highly educated workers, by both imperialist states and Multi
National Corporations, that forms the ultimate and most stable base of
imperialist reproduction.
–
Sam King (Lenin’s theory of imperialism: a defence of its relevance in the 21st
century, MLR)
The idea of
super-exploitation needs to be conceptually generalised at the necessary level
of abstraction and incorporated in the theory of imperialism.
Super-exploitation is a specific condition within the capitalist mode of
production […] the hidden common essence defining imperialism.
The working
class of the oppressed nations/Third World/Global South is systematically paid
below the value of labour power of the working class of the oppressor
nations/First World/Global North. This is not because the Southern working
class produces less value, but because it is more oppressed and more exploited.
–
Andy Higginbottom (Structure and Essence in Capital 1, quoted by John Smith
Imperialism in the-First Century)
The US jobless rate just hit 2.1 million.
Officially. Making the total something over forty million. It is much higher in
reality. Nobody has work. There is no work and we are at the start of a period
of massive evictions, foreclosures, and delinquencies — and the homeless
population will soon reach Biblical proportions (in some cities, such as Los
Angeles, its already Biblical). Will be simply of a magnitude never before
seen.
Hence
the authoritarian policing of lockdowns in, for example, New Zealand, suggests
something like a practice run. The ruling class in western nations knows full
well this is coming. And one wonders if it’s not, in fact, a part of the plan (oh
here is where someone says conspiracy theory…probably Louis Proyect).
Yes it’s a fucking conspiracy theory. It is a theory based on evidence, however.
Why are
the US and UK and a host of other countries deliberately ensuring a massive
depression? Because they care about your health? They are worried we all might
catch the flu? Has the US ever demonstrated a concern with your health and
wellbeing before?
Remember
how many discretionary tax dollars go to health care and how much to defense.
Conspiracies do occur. The denial of that fact seems to be a hallmark of the
pseudo or false left. Does the suspension of democratic process not cause this
soft left any problems at all? Look at Sweden, at Belarus…no lockdown and no
problem.
It
should be noted that there are a great many terrific doctors in the US.
Dedicated and brilliant, often. But they are not the system. The system is run
for profit.
With about
three-fourths of Americans under lockdown, the unintended consequences will be
vast. There has been a notable decrease in the number of heart attack and
stroke patients arriving at hospitals, presumably because they are afraid of
catching the coronavirus or of not finding a hospital bed.
As the economy
spirals downward, we can also expect an increase in mental health crises,
domestic violence and suicides. While lockdown supporters say that to have a
functioning economy, we must have good public health, the reverse is also true:
To have good public health, we must have a functioning economy.
–
Alex Berezow PhD (Geopolitical Futures, 2020)
Alfred
Willener wrote an interesting book in 1970, analysing May 68 in France. He
analyses the answers students gave to various questionnaires they responded to.
The section regarding science is worth quoting.
‘The scandalous
fact is that, for all the means that science has put at our disposal, most
people live not much better than in the Middle Ages’. The system benefits from
science in the following way: through the atom bomb, through ‘the power of
statistical research’, through computers, through the chemical industry being
‘in the hands of the state’, through space research.
‘In the end,
you realize’, concludes one reasonably logical reply, ‘that technological
progress, which makes economic growth possible, does not satisfy the
fundamental needs of man and is used above all to maintain and strengthen the
system’.
Lastly, I
should like to quote one quite unexpected reply, which forms the extreme point
of pessimism: ‘ Everyone is oppressed by science.’
–
Alfred Willener (The Action-Image of Society on Cultural Politicization)
I doubt
seriously one would get such responses today in any European or North American
country. The contemporary indoctrination regards science is acute. And the
media abounds in junk science. Click bait science. And this is where most
people have their opinions formed for them.
There is a paper put out by one of the
founders of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab, called The Great Reset. The
conclusion of the book reads…
…at a global level, if viewed in terms of the global
population affected, the corona crisis is (so far) one of the least deadly
pandemics the world has experienced over the last 2000 years.”
In other words, a mortality of .06% is
simply not commensurate with the extreme measures the governments of the world
(the West in particular) are taking.
There is no question, none, that those
measures, the lockdown, the masks, the distancing, and the attending *diseases
of despair*, will kill more people by a factor of ten than the virus itself.
This is
not even to begin discussing the psychological harm done, in particular to
children. And not just harm to children, but severe harm to the most vulnerable.
What is
being internalized by children is three fold. One, there is something
inherently sick and contagious about ME. Two, everyone MIGHT be a threat to my
health. And three, obey authority, because you don’t want to end up like those
smelly homeless people were are trying too hard to avoid.
Children
take things personally. They tend to blame themselves. Even in the comparative
sanity of Norway, where I reside, children are increasingly anxious about the
world. How could they not be? All this for a health risk of .06%.
But it
is more than just the decimation of the economy in the US and UK. It is a
dismantling of the culture. One in three museums closed because of Covid will
not re-open. Ever. Where does all that art go?
Just a
guess but probably very wealthy collectors will gobble it up at wholesale
prices.
The
predictable outcome of these lockdowns, certainly in the US, is a guaranteed
minimum income. Very minimum. Restrictions on travel, all freedom of movement
in fact, will not soon return to normal. Various forms of surveillance and
tracking, as well as health certifications, are the goal of the state.
Also, if this pandemic succeeded so well,
with so little resistance, why not have another? And there is another aspect to
the SWAT mask police, and that is that western society is becoming alarmingly
hypochondriacal. Children are kept out of school for runny noses. If all kids
with snotty noses were kept out of class, nobody would get an education.
There is
a dire future of two or three generations now developing and maturing with very
weak immune systems. So that if a natural mutation takes place one day, from a
Corona virus or any other, a genuinely serious pandemic could kill tens of
millions.
It is not a
speculation that there are people who prosper and even benefit during an economic
crisis—as smaller business owners struggle, large corporations and banks
benefit from huge government subsidies, giving them more power to buy failing
small businesses, for example. And it is a fact that many of those people have
enormous economic power to shape the policies that can benefit themselves.
It is not a
speculation that they would appreciate having strict measures of control
against the people by limiting their freedom of speech, freedom of assembly,
and freedom to travel, or by installing means of surveillance, check points and
official certifications for activities that might give freedom to the people
beyond the capitalist framework.
It is not a
speculation that they would benefit from moving our social interactions to the
digital realm, which can commodify our activities as marketable data for the
advertising industry, insurance industry and any other moneyed social
institutions Including education, political institution, legal institution, and
financial institution.
Such matters
should be seen within the context of the western history being shaped by
unelected capitalists with their enormous networks of social institutions.
–
Hiroyuki Hamada (Wrong Kind of Green, April 2020)
The collapse of retail is accelerating.
This is emerging as a monopolization of retail. Few shops will remain, in fact,
except luxury stores in select gated areas. The rest will be online and
probably rudimentary. The culture and the economy are being strip-mined and
recreated for a select clientele. The collapse of the economy means the
collapse of the bottom 90% or so.
The very
richest men and corporations on the planet are making huge profits.
And yet,
there are precious few voices of dissent to the master narrative in the US. In
Norway, the lockdown was about five weeks. But it is a sparsely populated
country and one hardly noticed it save for the kids being home and not in
school. But schools reopened and the Prime Minister actually made a speech
apologizing, in effect, for an *unnecessary* lockdown. She had been frightened.
But now,
with a mild uptick in positive cases the country is considering stricter
limitations on travel. Why?
There is
no uptick in deaths, only in positive test results. The fact remains the virus
attacks the aged and the already sick. But this is very telling, I think. The
Norwegian government doesn’t want to be seen as disobedient. They don’t want to
not follow the grand plan provided by western agencies and experts. Even if
they seemingly don’t really believe it.
(The
saddest aspect is the voice of Dr. Mads Gilbert, a known advocate for
Palestinian rights, who has weighed in on the side of fear. Why? I have no
idea. But it is worth noting his predictions from March 2020 were
staggeringly wrong.)
But
clearly the groupthink pressure is powerful and small nations do not want to be
singled out for bucking the *science*. There are economic coercions threatened,
tacitly, as well. The pressure to conform is huge and it takes a Herculean
effort — both individually and as a nation, to resist. And *experts* seem to
have a hard time admitting they were wrong.
The
science has been consistently wrong from day one.
As I say, this is now allegory. Or fable.
There is nothing reasonable or rational in the lockdown measures of the US and
UK and NZ. Or anywhere. And this is not even to touch upon the criminality of
the Gates Foundation and Bill Gates buying public influence and visibility. Not
trained in any medical discipline, Gates has somehow made himself one of the
faces of the pandemic.
And to deconstruct Gates’ language is to
find a disturbing quality of authoritarian hubris. Gates utters declarations as
if he were God speaking to his flock. All from a man who has done little save
steal from his partners and exploit the poor of India and Africa. One of the
most striking aspects of this whole last few months has been the enormous and
coordinated effort the Gates machine has put into rehabilitating his image.
If you
google “Crimes of the Gates Foundation” for example, you will get ten different
fact-checkers officially denying any crimes and another half dozen articles
ridiculing those who question Gates motives, his profit from vaccines, or even
his alignment with eugenicists (depopulation adherents)– all are derided as,
yes, conspiracy theorists.
If you
dare to question the rushing of an untested vaccine you are called an
anti-vaxxer.
My
children are vaccinated. I just don’t like the idea of a hurried untested
vaccine produced for a virus that needs no vaccine. And one promoted by a
creepy millionaire.
But
clearly the Gates charm offensive is in overdrive. The pastel cardigan is
everywhere. And yet, his favorable rating in recent surveys is around 56%. That
is actually not very high given the amount of self-promotion involved. It’s
better than Mark Zuckerberg and Joe Biden, though. Gates is not likeable. No
amount of spin can change that.
The
final factor to note is the Trump effect. Many liberals would literally rather
see dead in the street if it meant discrediting Trump. It is no longer quite a
zero sum game, though. But overall the hatred of Trump is now at a religious
level, too.
And
behold, the opposition is Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. If you want a window in
the black heart of Biden, watch and/or listen to his testimony around the Waco
inferno. The inherent sadism and lack of humanity is glaringly apparent.
As for
Kamala Harris:
As a San
Francisco social worker, I sat on the school district committee that met with
families of chronically truant students. Once, when we asked a student why he
didn’t go to school, he said there was too much police tape and shootings at
his school bus stop.
Harris, as CA
Attorney General, was putting parents/caregivers in jail if their child was
chronically truant. Also as Attorney General, she denied a DNA test to Kevin
Cooper, a very likely innocent man who came within hours of execution in 2004.
–
Riva Enteen (Counterpunch Aug. 2020)
These
are the servants of capital.
The left
should be emphasising the economic aspect of lockdown because it is the working
class who are the principal victims of lockdown.”
Phil
Shannon (Lockdown Skeptics, June 2020)
A
Downing street tweet today:
We’re
putting tougher measures in place to target serious breaches of coronavirus
restrictions. Fines for not wearing a face-covering will double for repeat
offences, up to £3,200.”
This is a
class-based assault. The wealthy will not be fined for not wearing a
face-covering on their private beaches, or dinner parties at the yacht club.
https://off-guardian.org/2020/08/19/if-you-are-reading-this-you-might-be-a-conspiracy-theorist/