A Silver Lining In the Shitstorm: Part 1

[Warning: Forgive me for philosophizing. Recently, I feel like I can almost but not quite grasp the infinite. Skip today’s post (and tomorrow’s) if you wish.]

A month ago I mentioned my job was in jeopardy:

“Today I told my supervisor I have not gotten the vaccine and that I will not get the vaccine.”

I don’t share this lightly. It’s a private matter. I would have preferred to keep it that way. Alas, I don’t get to choose the intellectual health of the society in which I live.

I reluctantly shared my situation to give hope to those who need it. People need to know their pain is not borne in isolation. Pain shared hurts, pain in isolation kills.

Propaganda is meant to isolate us. “News” reports only a handful of knuckle dragging, illiterate, dolts are “hesitant”. This, of course, is false. As with all things human, there are infinite and varied reasons for individuals to make infinite and varied life choices. Each adult must consider their specific circumstances; anathema to those who would manipulate us en masse. “Fake News” reduces the infinite to “those who disagree are few, evil, and stupid”. It’s propaganda.

Here’s what’s true. Centralized bureaucratic powers always seek to dominate. This is true with every bureaucracy (government or otherwise). It is true when a public school uses a six year old as fiscal feedstock. It is true when a college encourages young adults to accept debt for a useless degree. It is true when Silicon Valley software spies on you. It is true when a hospital calculates rate of return on your deathbed.

To be fully human, you must make decisions for you… not for the bureaucracy. They attempt to thwart this. You are told, as if in an old sci-fi plot, “resistance is futile.” Your defeat is guaranteed; you have no hope to prevail.

This is not true. The human spirit matters. Your loss is not inevitable. Their win is not certain.

They know this. Whenever we remove ourselves from propaganda, we know it too. Centralized power appears to have the upper hand but appearance isn’t reality. They seek oppression with a system built to serve. In so doing they’ve overextended and ground to a halt. They can’t do much of anything. They can’t deliver food to Des Moines. They can’t keep the power grid stable in California. The military can’t win; it couldn’t even arrange an orderly retreat. Congress creates inflation it can’t counteract. States can’t maintain civil peace when their cities erupt in chaos.

Consider two small failures; they can’t remove the trash in New York and they can’t teach kids fractions in Virginia without a shitstorm of indoctrination. How incompetent can you get? Anyone with a truck can haul trash. Anyone with an average IQ can teach fractions without adding Marx. The collective might of bureaucracy fails on both counts.

That’s why everything is unstable. The wheels are falling off. Panic is palpable. Egomaniacs would rule rather than serve. They’re walking caricatures of failure.

Another limitation; they’ve no idea how to change course. Witness how desperately they cling to “Armageddon by pandemic”. It’s two years into the “black death with a 99.7% survival rate” and only the true Kool-Aid drinkers are still worried. The Amish never noticed but the woke are terrorized (then again they’re always terrorized). The sane middle relaxed and began behaving like normal people. They went to football games where they started chanting Let’s Go Brandon.

Meanwhile various bureaucracies and government layers are whipping the dead horse. They seem to think this it will help them. It won’t. Bludgeoning Americans to line up like cattle at the inoculation chute will do… what exactly? Balance the budget? Rescue people from Afghanistan? Control inflation? Find someone to work at McDonalds? Restore supply chains? Control lawless cities? Generate heating fuel?

If the President had a magic wand to make us all vaccinated on Tuesday… he’d still be losing control on Wednesday.

He missed a beautiful moment where a humble man could enjoy a big win. By June, everyone who wanted the vaccination had it. Yay team! The government turned “we happily provide you with what you want” to “we’re going to forcefully shove it up your ass if you don’t take it”. A noble accomplishment became divisive chaos. Instead of uniting behind a voluntary triumph we’re now in a mandatory knife fight. Dumbass!

Damn! I was trying to stay mellow and failed. What I wrote sounded overwrought didn’t it?

Oh well, it’s truth. When the times are mad, an honest assessment sounds crazy.

Don’t let normalcy bias rob you of your senses. You are on the cusp of change as much as a Jew in Germany. 1938 was not a fluke… it’s a historic pattern.

Here’s the good news, we’re not going quietly into that dark night… at least not all of us.

What’s next? I have no clue. The future is not yet written, especially yours. All that matters is this; if you seek to remain whole, you are not alone. Even if you’re the last person standing, you’re never alone.