I stand with the people fighting for basic freedoms in Europe, that most people in their wildest dreams never thought they would lose, again. Not this way, not with this disease, which is a bad flu for most people IF THAT.
As I have likely shared, I have changed my own life as little as possible over the last year. I work with people at close distance not wearing masks, hang out in bars where no one is or has been wearing masks, and feel ZERO fear–none–of this disease. If I were not reminded every day by my media, I would–and often do–forget about it completely.
I have not been sick five minutes in the past year. I take my prophylactics every day (Vitamin D, Zinc, Quercetin, Vitamin C, and Magnesium to offset the D), and otherwise view–if I’m honest–with contempt the people who have bought all this bullshit. I feel like yelling at people wearing masks who don’t have to, particularly if, as seems obvious, they EVEN NOW think they protect them, even though Fauci himself never said that. That would have been one lie too far, even for him.
And I will comment that the time to fight–and by this I mean civil disobedience, protests and the like–is at the beginning of tyranny. Once it becomes institutional, once the functionaries develop the habits of power, once the police and armies become used to supporting fundamentally irrational, arbitrary, unnecessary and unaccountable abuses of power, then there is no magic moment after that.
In America we are used to the Deus Ex Machina, a phrase used to good effect in Donnie Darko. But that is not how the world works. Most of the time the cavalry ran out of food and water, and can’t be expected for several days. Most of the time the people who have planned to win, who are willing to lie, cheat, steal, kill and abuse to win, win. That is history, which is filled to overflowing with destroyed cities and plains filled with the bodies of soldiers and civilians alike.
As a corrective, I would encourage you to watch a film called “Ashes and Diamonds”. It is about, at least as a back story, although of course there is more, the–very brief–Polish effort to resist Russian Communist Imperialism at the end of the Second World War.
It doesn’t end well, although it could have been worse. But I think Americans need to remember that the director and most likely all the actors lived through first Nazi occupation and then Communist occupation. No doubt all of them suffered. No doubt all of knew a lot of people who died in ugly ways. To the extent they were intellectuals, many likely knew victims of Katyn.
The movie is a kick in the balls. But I think Americans in particular need MORE kicks in the balls. We have forgotten history, which is filled with ugly people doing horrific things to innocent and guilty alike.
Don’t expect happy stories from people who lived through war, famine, personal loss, and tyranny. Learn from it. Learn from it.