Charles - I very much appreciate this essay and know that what you are describing is what we should all hope for and work toward.
I am confident I am not enlightening you on anything here but I want to be specific about one thing:
Both sides of this are not equal. It is not as if we both need our little stories to soothe us at the end of this, convincing us it was OUR side that was right.
My husband and I are both in health care. We have always gladly gotten all vaccines we had to have to work at the hospital and even ones we didn’t have to have.
When the Covid vaccines were first made available though something seemed off. Different. It is too long to go through here and it is ground well tread elsewhere but from health care and medical ethics standpoint, I had grave and growing concerns.
Fast forward to this fall. Mandates came and thank God we were granted exemptions. Certain extended family members were furious with us. We were informed we deserved to lose our jobs and basically be put under house arrest.
Please understand that in my extended family we have business executives, an attorney, several nurses, a doctor, an engineer, a pilot, etc. These are educated people.
This is my point:
If my husband and I had been in control of the pandemic response, everyone would have been provided vaccines AFTER they had been provided a rigorous informed consent. Safety issues would have been investigated thoroughly. Honest reporting would have been done about what we know, what we suspect but do not know, and what we absolutely have no ability to know. We would have progressed with recommendations to prevent infection, not mandates, lockdowns, etc., much like we recommend ways to prevent other infectious diseases. In other words, these people would have been able to do whatever they want, go out or stay home, work or not. They would have been left to decide what was best for you them and their household.
If THEY had gotten their way, people like my husband and I would be left with NO income, NO health insurance, and limited ability to shop. We would have been left unable to leave our homes to do pretty much anything.
I am Christian and therefore I am required to forgive the people who voted for and advocated for my destruction. Because that is what that was.
But it must be understood that our opinions and political viewpoints were NOT “opposite, but equal.”
People who advocate for the destruction of others must be forever seen as capable of doing just that. This was not a case of a misunderstanding or a “we were just trying to save lives” issue. They will move on to the next issue once this one dies down.
In the meantime I will be happy to eat with them and I must love them. But something has changed permanently. I will forever watch them like a hawk. Their instincts are dangerous and they will strike again.
Lena - While I agree with everything you've laid-out here, I think Charles' point is more geared towards navigating the fact that both sides on this issue see one another as an existential threat, and that there's got to be some way forward to tamp-down those feelings.
As someone who's 100% on your "side," I recognize that I've got to find some way of reconciling the fact that I care for and love a great many people who are pushing for policies that I see as tantamount to Apartheid, mass murder - including of children - and fundamentalist, and religious-style adherence to a dogma that presents itself as "science" but is a gross perversion of both science and medicine.
I find myself getting so angry at people that I'm willing to torpedo friendships over it. I think THAT is what Charles is getting at here: that regardless of who's actually "right," we must find a way of addressing the covid/vaccine problem without letting the heated temperature of differences burn our relationships to the ground.
Don't get me wrong: I absolutely hear you that this issue presents an existential threat, but I do think it helps to remember that people on the "other side" see it the same way, and that they're not >setting out< to be cruel on purpose, even if we can look on in horror as they endorse cruel policies.
I like to think of them as misled by their instincts, institutional trust, and poor information/manufactured consent.
I hate what "they" think - but I realize now that I have to make a daily effort to not let that hate metastasize into hate towards >them<. I'm with you - so much is at stake here - but allowing ourselves to be swept in hatred does nothing but fan the flames of the hysteria that's gripped the globe since this started.
It's tricky, but know that I and others support you in your desire to forgive - and that I support you from a place of knowing that it's extremely difficult to do.
So first, I thank you for your thoughtful response. I hope you do not interpret what I am saying to you here as argumentative - I simply want to respond to your thoughts in complete good will.
As far as both sides viewing each other as an existential threat: The people who are supporting vaccine mandates should have grasped by mid summer this year that the vaccines were not preventing transmission at all. The evidence was all around us and the CDC openly admitted the same. So in light of that reality, how do the vaccine mandates they are demanding protect them from the existential threat they claim they are facing?
They don’t. And yet these people are still demanding it. Saby - we look around the world and we see many countries that are passing laws that allow people to be fired from their jobs for not being vaccinated. People are being prohibited from traveling, from seeing family members, from entering stores, hospitals, even grocery stores.
If we believe that the people who continue to advocate for vaccine mandates are not “setting out” to be cruel on purpose, that they are simply misled, uninformed, and victims of institutional trust, we have to believe that these people, many of whom are quite educated and in influential positions do not understand the consequences of:
1. prohibiting people from working and earning a living
2. rendering it impossible for people in many countries to get health insurance
3. prohibiting people from entering shops
4. prohibiting people from entering grocery stores
5. permitting people who either test positive for COVID or were exposed to COVID to be forcibly removed from their homes and sent to “quarantine camps."
Saby - that is not credible. These people know EXACTLY what they are doing. They know EXACTLY what it will do to people who can no longer pay their mortgage. They FULLY UNDERSTAND what happens to people health-wise who no longer can afford to go to a doctor. And they ABSOLUTELY GRASP what it will mean to people, especially parents, who are unable to enter grocery stores.
There is no evidence, none, that they can lean on to justify their stated belief that they face an existential threat. The vaccines were never going to prevent transmission. Never. Everyone knows someone who did everything right, isolated, got vaccinated, maybe even boosted, wore two masks, whatever, and they still got COVID. Now we are seeing an avalanche of news reports of people who were fully vaccinated who still contracted the omicron version of COVID. Yet these people persist in demanding vaccines.
Saby - When you realize that these people know exactly what it is they are supporting, even demanding, and when you realize that there is no data point, no piece of evidence, no article, no study, no debate, NO NOTHING that will make them “see the light” or realize how misled they have been, you must then conclude that they ARE doing this to be cruel. To control others. To score an enormous political victory. Whatever. We know this to be true because there is no evidence to support banning people from grocery stores. How does it promote public health to advocate for starving people into submission?? Yet they persist.
I used to believe as you do - that these people were well meaning, just misled. Just misinformed. I no longer believe that and it pains me because it means that these people whom I love are not who I thought they were.
So what do we do? How do we handle our interactions with these people? My heart and my faith in Jesus Christ tells me that I must do exactly as described by Janet in her response to my post in this thread. Janet is 100% right. But my brain tells me these people are dangerous and they absolutely intend tremendous harm, harm to children, harm to innocent people. We have a duty to stop evil, to interfere when we see it. I believe now that had we stopped seeing these people as well meaning but misinformed and misled a long time ago, we would not be in the position we are today. We stop evil by calling it what it is and not shying away from telling people who are supporting it that we see them, we see what they are doing, and we don’t tolerate it.
Believe me when I tell you that I struggle mightily with this as you clearly do. I am not at ease anymore. Peace is long, long gone. It would have been so much simpler, less lonely, less taxing, for me to have kept quiet and maintained my relationship with the people who advocated for my destruction. It would have been easier to shrug it off, ignore it. But my husband and I are ok. At least for now. Others are not. And yet the people who supported this feel free to continue on supporting that which is destroying others. God help me, as long as I have anything to say about it, they will NOT be permitted to advocate for this evil unchallenged. I can still love them as God demands and forgive them but that does not require me to sit quietly by, trying to understand how they feel as they continue to support harming others.
If you mean "these people" the decisionmakers, I agree completely. But if you mean family, friends and neighbors, here's my question for you: so many of them are willing to subject their OWN CHILDREN to the risks of the jab - is that out of a malicious desire to harm their own kids? Of course not. Which means something else is at work here that requires a more complex emotional response than simply viewing "them" as one in the same with the people in power responsible for putting people in this position. The pharma CEO that KNOWS the risks involved and KNOWS their companies are lying through their teeth, that person isn't the same as your aunt sitting across from you at Thanksgiving who trusts at the altars of "science" and "medicine" so much that she's willing to entertain ideas that the unvaccinated should be put on box cars without even grasping that she would serve as a willing and happy accomplice to a new Holocaust, and that her offhanded comments of the nasty scent of the same unfortunate human urge that leads to things like ethnic cleansing. That person -- and there are a lot more of them than there are of us -- is to be viewed with caution given the situation, sure, but I see them more as people to be pitied. I don't feel the same way about the people responsible. Your family members and lifelong friends aren't the ones responsible.
Saby - I know YOU understand that this is evil. I do not doubt that.
But I do believe our neighbors, friends and family are partially responsible.
If this were back in June of this year, I would feel as you do. But we have reached a point that by now, the average person should have observed enough for them to come to the conclusion that mandates are unethical.
When you see an interview with a nurse who is a single mom who is willing to be fired rather than be injected, people should be asking questions.
When you hear of a cardiac oncologist who is willing to walk away from a career that took him 12+ years of university level training to achieve, people should be wondering what is going on.
When Fauci promised last December that the pandemic was nearly over with the advent of the vaccines and you hear of several states ans countries that have 80% of all people aged 12 and up vaccinated and yet cases and hospitalizations are stratospheric, people should ask “what is going on?”
When you witness pilots basically shut down thousands of flights in a week due to mandates, perhaps it is time to do some research. It takes years of dedication to become a commercial pilot. Surely these people aren’t tossing it all away on a whim.
When you go to work or church or school and notice that either no one is talking or those that do all oddly have the exact same pro vax opinion and you see the CDC and your government and media personnel and physicians all talk about the news to shut down websites and people who have a different opinion, somewhere down deep there should have been some questions.
And now when there are stories about the camps, when we learn that Canadian citizens are prohibited from leaving their country unless they have been jabbed, when we learn that Austria and Germany are actively preparing to forcibly inject people, perhaps those pieces of information should give people pause.
Saby - I fully understand not wanting to share my opinion here. But what I am saying to you is that at this time, after all that we have learned, what else must happen before you would expect them to put the brakes on their support for mandates?
I am not against them choosing vacvination for themselves or their kids - it is just as a nurse I am alarmed that they were not provided nearly enough information to truly be informed.
But that is not what this is about. They are supporting coercion. They are supporting forcing you and me and others to either undergo a medical intervention or suffer impoverishment.
I guess what I would ask you Saby is what would it take for you to finally agree that they have reached the point where they should have understood what they are advocating? When their sister and her family are turned out on the street because they can’t pay their mortgage?
When they find out that their brother has to hope that his parents are willing to go but him and his family food because he can no longer enter a grocery store?
Or what about this? A citizen of a country can’t leave the country because they are not vaccinated but that same country lets hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to come in, unvaxxed but given free health care, free food, public assistance and so on?
Why do these people have to see the devastation right in front of them before they are finally on the hook for being responsive for what they support? Why can’t they be expected to understand right this minute that firing someone who does not consent to a medical intervention is unethical because it nullifies informed consent which is a bedrock in western medicine AND because the health, social and economic consequences of millions of people losing their jobs because they refuse to be injected with something will be far, far worse given that 98% of people survive Covid and the vaccines don’t permit transmission anyway?
I didn't see this yesterday for some reason -- I agree a hundred THOUSAND percent with everything you're saying. I mean you just basically laid out the argument for all of us to TRY to use when dealing with these people in our lives, but my point is that it ties up a lot of energy and appears to be futile, so that energy is best conserved and directed at people in positions to make decisions. I suspect there's going to be a profound reckoning among people who went along with this, but that's their karma.
Bravo and amen. I agree with you completely. My sisters are just fine with the fact I'm not allowed to visit our mother in the care home (she's 101 and I've been ostracized for her last two birthdays). My daughter and ex-spouse are evidently fine with my exclusion from restaurants and local social and cultural events.
Now, various locales in the world are testing the waters of arbitrarily arresting and detaining anyone not "vaccinated" or who is deemed to have been exposed somehow to any given variant of "covid". I have asked my family members (and some former friends) if they'll stand up for me when they come to take me to the gulag.
They only scoff. And the real horror is, I don't think that they would. Their minds and souls have been that poisoned.
Joanie - I am so very sorry. This is just incredible to read.
The scoff. These are the people who have perfected the scoff.
Now the whole edifice appears to be crashing down around them. As El Gato Malo has correctly pointed out, lots of people are running for cover, changing their jerseys and acting as if they always were sane, always understood that the vaccines and mandates would be destructive. My response to that is to confront them directly. All of these months did they speak to nursing home administration to help push them to allow visitation? Did your sisters consider what your mom might want? Did they call / write letters to their govt representatives demanding an end to the mandates?
If one person says to me they were just trying to save lives, I swear to you I will tell them I do not want to hear what is the modern day equivalent of “I was just trying to save lives.”
Ask them if we should be able to coerce everyone who reaches the age of 70 to have blanket DNR orders. You know - old people take up lots and lots of space in our hospitals. They cost a lot to take care of. So wouldn’t it “be the best for everyone” if we “encourage them” to just give up if they run into a little bit of a health problem after age 70 so we don’t waste a lot of time and resources on someone who, even if they get better, might only have a handful of years left?
Seriously - are they ok with that? Because if we are able to mandate INJECTING someone with a substance that was so briefly studied, believe me we can mandate withdrawing care as well. Why? Because they did not blink an eye when it was obvious the vaccines did not prevent transmission - they just migrated to - “we can mandate this because the unvaccinated are taking up beds in the hospitals.”
THAT is the standard THEY set. That is what they stood on to make their evil claims. Fine.
Joanie - I am a nurse. Miraculously I was granted an exemption so I have been fine. But I am so enraged at my colleagues. For not thinking. For being so confident about controlling what others must do. I will never view all of these people in the same light. Never.
Thanks for this, Lena. As before, I agree with all you've said.
Re-reading the essay, I'm most irked by Eisenstein's 9th paragraph that starts out with "I have a premonition about how the Covid rift in society will heal. The season of storms will end with a whimper. Neither side will admit they were wrong. Instead, everyone will quietly decide it wasn’t that important. Mandates will peter out.”
Is he kidding... "wasn't that important"???? The uncountable family tragedies of suicides, lost livelihoods, deaths from medical malpractice and neglect, or from the "vaccines"??? Children forever harmed, socially stunted by the insanity of face muzzles, plexiglass partitions, forced distancing from their playmates? Does he have a clue what's been happening these past two years?
And finally, his statement "For this to happen, people will have to let go of the goal of humiliating the other side." Is that what we're about, a one-up game of cleverness??? He is so off-base with this it's mystifying. Trying to reason with those we care about is a desperate plea for common sense, for our very life and liberty. It has nothing at all to do with ego.
Musings such as Charles's are part of the problem, not in any way a solution.
Yes. And I really like him and value his insights. But too many good people don’t grasp that stopping evil requires being unwilling to look away, shrug our shoulders and say “hey, let’s agree that these issues aren’t that important anymore - let’s move on.”
Stopping evil requires force. It requires naming things and activities as evil. It takes sustained effort.
I know people don’t want this to get uglier than it already has but my goodness these people will not stop until they control everything.
Lena - Let me be clear: I think what's going on is unquestionably, 100% E-V-I-L and I agree that we need to recognize that. However, what I find most evil about this whole thing is that people who otherwise not driven by malicious intentions or an interest in hurting other people are being convinced to perpetuate this evil. That's what's most scary and difficult to reconcile about this whole thing. We all know too many people who are close to who are onboard with this, and the ones I know simply can't be described as malicious by any measure. That's what Charles is getting at -- I didn't interpret his post as a call to equivocate or be any less vigilant, only to pick our battles.
I don't think for those who believe the most strongly in the mandates that it's a matter of logic. For them it's a talisman. It's not even necessary that it be logical. It fact, it's probably better if their beliefs are not logical. Read Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism. It's all laid out. A society full of discontent, anomie, and anxiety is ripe totalitarianism. For a more recent description of this phenomenon look up Mattias Desmet. Great interview of him here: https://www.peakprosperity.com/mattias-desmet-on-mass-formation/
I just learned about Desmet in the past couple of days. I must listen to his interview.
As for the talisman, I agree. The mask business - how is it any different than rubbing a rabbit’s foot? Honestly - it is every bit as unscientific as venerating a sliver of wood that is believed to be from the cross of Christ.
I would give far more credence in the ability of one’s belief in the power of that sliver of wood to heal them than one’s unfounded belief in the efficacy of the masks.
Winston! I was just thinking about Mattias Desmet and watched an interview with him this morning. As he points out, people are willing to participate in this ritual for a sense of belonging even to the point that it ensures THEIR OWN destruction.
Saby, I appreciate your thoughtful contemplation and also the sharing around what Charles has attempted to convey with this article.
In Buddhism there’s a definition of good thought - a thought of renunciation of non ill will and harmlessness. ‘Good’ translated from the ancient language Pali can be confusing. It’s also a wise thought or a complete thought. If we drop that, if we let go of discernment between a right thought and a harmful thought it is hell!
This is a point that comes through this article which myself, Lena and others are pointing to. That it’s not just about who’s got the right view but what is in an existential way a thought that is leading to a world of friendship. People who see me as an existential threat because I’m not interested in taking a vaccination and are willing to tape my body in the name of their views should be challenged and faced with this. Just dropping it is not going to lead to any change, any healing nor any friendship. Just shoving the problem under the rag. And we’ve been there way too long to be able to do that again.
I can forgive those who blamed me for being a murderer but if I’m forced with a substance on my body (which living in Switzerland seems to become the reality now every day, following Austria and Germany) is a crime that should be held accountable. And forgiveness is simple not relevant to that conversation.
I’m also blessed with a family that in spite of the different choices and views is not fighting around the table or banning members from family gatherings. And there are people in my circle, not close friends though, that I have or they have taken a distance. Honestly, I don’t think there’s a problem with that. Because when there’s genuine friendship it survives all those upheavals. Which brings me back to my starting point — we need to have guidelines for wise thought (rather than play with political agendas and views) so our word we take a turn towards friendship as a core principle of sharing life together. Until then, I think, in my view, that I ought to keep speaking up for the wrong doing in getting lost in fear and the ramifications of that.
Shelly - I completely get where you're coming from and don't disagree. Watching otherwise well-intentioned people who don't mean to be malicious go along with this whole thing has been really chilling. As I responded to Lena above, though, I don't take Charles's post as a call to be less vigilant, but only to be careful about where we direct our oppositional energy. There are way too many people I've known for a long time who are going along with this hook line and sinker and there's no way in hell that these people I know have malicious intentions. I get extremely angry with them and judgmental as well, and I think that's where the trap is. We do need to separate policymakers from our friends and neighbors. As I see it, getting wrapped up in frustrating arguments with people who can't cut through their blindness only burns up our energy. The fact of the matter is, people we know have been convinced through fear and other means to go along with something that's positively monstrous. To make matters more complicated, they view what we're doing in exactly the same light and would also use the word murderous to describe it. This puts everyone in a very difficult position. Again, I don't think Charles meant to say that we should be passive about what we're seeing, only that the people that are Thanksgiving Day table aren't the ones making policy and to burn up calories pushing against them is kind of a waste. I would suggest tactically speaking to the people who seem like they have it in them to be convinced and finding a way to just step around the people who don't.
Saby stated: "There are way too many people I've known for a long time who are going along with this hook line and sinker and there's no way in hell that these people I know have malicious intentions".
I'm sorry, but I can't not repeat the hackneyed maxim; "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."
So, what's the difference, if the outcome is the same?
I think that their, yes, obstinate refusal to demand actual evidence to back up the propaganda they're worshipping, is in its own sense, evil, and especially as they see fit to ignore all glaring evidence to the contrary.
Saby—Thank you for this perspective. Incredibly paradoxical moment in “time” to navigate in this bizarre culture. Along with Charles, your words constructed a helpful tool belt to maintain a healthy nervous system when dealing with such polarity. Or duality? Can’t figure that one out...
Thank you Lena. I feel what you are saying, and have felt, and may still have times when I feel similarly, in waves. I hope you find my sharing helpful... My thoughts that follow have helped me humbly deal with and heal what feels and felt like betrayal by those I hold dear and love. (I walk a Christian mystic path.)
Recall Saul in the New Testament who actively persecuted Christians. We subsequently know him as Paul, after his (unexpected) spiritual conversion to Christianity. My wish is that each of us have a "road to Damascus" enlightening experience so that we move forward in a beautiful heartful way we all know is possible. Until such time, I remind myself of Jesus' teaching to "forgive them for they know not what they do". Whenever I (as aggressor or vicitm) experience the destructiveness of "othering", and wishing or being wished harm, I clearly at that point do not know what I am doing - because if I were to be of clear mind I would recognise that what I do to my brother, sister and the planet, I do to myself. No one who "knows what they are doing" harms another-themself. Forgiveness (a loving healing practice of letting go), opens and softens my heart, and sets me free. Centered in my heart in (God's) Love, I feel flow, ease and grace return, and I am a sweet fragrance and blessing to myself and others.
I don't mean in my above sharings that all need to become Christians to experience the Love that Jesus taught about (i.e. to love God, love one another, and to love our enemies). Many Christians are not yet deep enough in their practice and hence don't display this Great Love for God, and all.
My point is that miracles and enlightment are possible... in any of the great traditions that involve walking a path of the heart, which is Love. (One only has to read for example the poetry of the famous Sufi, Rumi, to witness this, and the teachings of the Dalai Lama on compassion.)
The nature of Love is that it heals and unifies. We are all One in (God who is) Love.
Thank you for your response. I responded to Saby above and address you in it as well.
It would be easy to conclude that I must not take what God tells us in the Bible seriously or otherwise I would not feel the way I do about this issue. I get it.
What I struggle with Janet is what do we do in the face of evil? Let it wash over us and keep repeating to ourselves that we must love and forgive others? Or do we step in? I believe we must step in. We must act. I think sometimes about when Jesus went into the temple and spoke and acted in anger. Did He love the people who had done wrong? Yes. And He forgave them. But He was adamant, some would say violent even, in His reaction.
Janet - I am struggling obviously. And my heart knows you are right. But I think of the verses in Ecclesiastes where we are told there is a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. God is clearly telling us that there are appropriate times for different activities within God's plan. I DO NOT assume to know God's plans!! Not at all. But I think there is a time to talk about forgiveness and God's healing love and a time to step in and call evil what is evil.
Janet. We are facing a living, breathing evil. Right now. Right this minute. I never truly believed that until the past two years - before I always thought of evil as a concept, as an idea, not something that is active, or alive - but evil is coursing through the world and it has to be named and countered.
What is outside of the Creator? Evil is a characterization given to those acting in fear and who lack a closer relationship to each other and the Creator. By calling others or their action evil we wedge open the separation further. We are all of the Creator...by definition.
I absolutely believe we must step in, but part of being in a fight is picking your battles, conserving energy and identifying the right targets. I mean, I understand that when you're playing chess you do have to occupy yourself with the pawns for awhile, but those aren't ultimately the ones that you need to make moves against.
Also, Lena - the pro-vax fundamentalism crowd is falling into the terrible human tendency to scapegoat the "other." Charles has written about this in a previous post, and he absolutely does not end underestimate the danger or horror of this way of thinking. I think that even though covid vax-skeptical crowd is in a minority here, we absolutely must not fall into the same trap of demonizing people. If we want to out pharmacy CEOs and public health policymakers as doing evil, I'm all 100% onboard. These people need to be charged with crimes against humanity and if they met their end at the hands of angry mobs, I would say that that was their karma. But we can't direct the anger we feel at them to the people in our close circles. That's where this extremely challenging SOCIAL contagion becomes an uncontrollable wildfire. We have to find a way to rise above the volatility rather than matching fire with fire -- not, I would argue, out of nobility or even out of a Christian sense of forgiveness. We have to do that because it's the most practical thing to do. If you're in a forest that's on fire, you don't start taking a torch to the trees closest to you. You have to get away from the fire first then figure out a way to contain it and then think about holding the people responsible accountable. But if you find out that some of the people in your own family were also holding matches, that's something to resolve once we get to safety. That's how I'm thinking about this.
Ok I 100% agree with your take here. I can not not find fault with this. I must say though it is telling to me that you acknowledge that some of our family and friends were found to be holding matches. Saby - you would not say that unless somewhere down deep you believe too that it is way past time for our friends, family and neighbors to stop supporting the mandates. They are no longer innocents. They are no longer victims of the fear mongering of others. No longer under the spell of institutional trust.
I can’t begin to tell you how much I have enjoyed talking about all of this with you. Truly. I can’t talk much about this with most people because frankly nurses are supposed to be 110% pro vax. Also other people were troubled by all of the mandates but they choose not to focus much on it. Nothing in my life has infuriated me more than what has happened over the past two years. I am so very, very angry at the fear mongering, the abandonment of people in nursing homes and hospitals, the coercion, all of it. So it is good to unload with others who are thinking about the same issues.
Anyway thank you. It is good to know there are others out there.
I don't believe it "deep down" -- I believe it flat-out that they're complicit, but if they're incapable of seeing it, I'm not going to try up energy trying to convince them. I have a ton of animosity towards the people in my life who can't get out of their closed-circuit thinking -- and unlike you I don't think it's anyone's right to do this to their children. I think it's unconscionable, but again we're in a really dire situation and this battle isn't going to be won fighting mindless foot soldiers.
Good points, an authoritarian tendency has been revealed in liberal/progressive land as seen in the suppression in much of the media and social media of information and discussion in not only the Covid realm but in other topics and issues. Also the advocating of vaccination or else! is ominous. Again I am thankful for the decentralized American federal system. I know of people in my state California choosing to leave to other states over vaccination. It is interesting to see the continued mis- representation of the governor of Florida and what is happening in that state as it exercises state rights.
DeSantis whatever you think of him, lied about the COVID death rates in Florida. You cannot change this fact. You are misrepresenting him which makes me question your honest and integrity
Produce the evidence or it didn’t happen. You are making this claim. It is therefore incumbent on you to produce evidence, not opinion, here.
You wish to permanently discredit DeSantis based on what you claim is a lie he participated in. About a month ago, Biden told us on television that the vaccines prevent you from getting Covid. We have known that to be a lie for many many months. Even the CDC says they do not prevent transmission.
So tell me: why are we supposed to discredit DeSantis but continue to have faith in the federal govt, the CDC, the FDA, Psaki, the mainstream media, on and on, when such a bold lie like that is told and none of them call him out on it?
I think the vaccine is supposed to greatly lessen the severity of Covid-19 - not prevent it. The reason to have people vaccinated is to allow the ICU wards in hospitals to be able to keep up with the rate of admissions, that can easily get out of hand by people infected with Covid showing up in emergency wards in need of medical assistance. Also by keeping the amount of people being admitted because of a Covid infection at a manageable rate it allow for other life threatening operations and procedures to proceed because the doctors and nurses would not be tied up with Covid patients.A final thought here: if someone decides not to get vaccinated - that is a personal choice - but with every choice we make we have to be prepared to accept the consequences of those choices , good or bad. I was thinking the other day that if two people show up in an emergency ward and one has a severe reaction to a Covid infection, and they chose not to get the vaccine and another shows up with another life threatening condition and the ward can only deal with one of them (because they are over run with the amount of Covid patients being treated) - then in this scenario one is there because of a choice they made not to get vaccinated and did not avail themselves of a vaccine that has been proven to greatly lessen the effects of the virus and the other is there because of something that was completely out of their control - who should be treated first - the one who in this case made the wrong decision by not taking a free vaccine or the other that had no choice?
Greg. I am a critical care RN. I work at a large medical center. I very much understand how this works. I do it for a living.
You need to be very, very careful making the argument. EVERY SINGLE DAY we admit patients, lots and lots of patients, who made less than ideal decisions for themselves. Decisions that directly led to their admission. So if we are going to play this game of “we have one room left in the ICU - who was most virtuous?” for Covid, we need to do it for all diseases.
Whose BMI is the worst? Which patient skipped a doctor’s appointment this past year? Who is still smoking? Did you engage in illicit drug use in the past? Did you have unprotected sex???? Well we are sorry but you didn’t live quite right. You didn’t make the right decisions. We are not going to provide you with medical care.
Greg. I distinctly recall the public getting its panties in a wad because the ICUs were 85% at capacity back in the beginning of the pandemic. I nearly died laughing. Pre-Covid had i walked into the hospital and learned that we had a single ICU floor that was only at 85% capacity I would have been elated. Pre-Covid they were always full. Daily we had to wait hours to get many patients into an ICU bed.
The reason the hospitals are so full is NOT because of Covid in most circumstances. Covid challenged us for short periods of time and then it would fade off. I work in a hospital with approximately 1000 beds. At no time did we ever have more Covid patients than we had patients who were there due to a life time of obesity and poorly controlled hypertension.
When hospitals do get dangerously overwhelmed with patients and yes that does happen, we go on diversion. We can transfer patients to nearby hospitals to open up space. And we can open beds in day surgery centers. There are options.
But there is another problem: Staffing. Pre-Covid we had a shortage of nurses. Now? It’s worse. And our fabulous public health and political leadership have hit bottom and purchased shovels to dig deeper. It is not enough to be dealing with a severe nursing shortage. No. We need to fire nurses who do not get a vaccine that does not prevent transmission.
Greg. I work in a unit that has had far more doctors and nurses contract Covid AFTER they were vaccinated (and yes they were infectious, they had fevers, chills, cough and were out for two weeks) than unvaccinated staff who got Covid (who did not get vaccinated either due to choice or because it was last year and no vaccine was available).
The bottom line is this: unless we have a case fatality rate that is multiple times higher than Covid, absolutely no one should ever be forced into undergoing any medical intervention against their will. Informed consent means something. Our patients are not cattle, there to have things done TO them. We want our patients to WANT our help and to choose it freely.
You have no evidence DeSantis lied because there is none. Whoever told you he lied is the liar. The problem we all face, even political leaders, is the information itself is unreliable, both from incompetent collection and analysis, and from purposeful manipulation by corrupt bureaucrats. It persists because so many miseducated people are unable to determine the truth, or don't want to.
Reason i suggest this is because, who doesn't want to know how to quickly heal from an infection? And Dr. Levy asks in the book why all this info is not mainstream and why vaccines are being pushed as the only solution. So it is a low-key way of getting people to think about the vax issue.
Another thing is, if someone is very provax I will ask them to at least check the lot number in VAERS before they get jabbed. 100% of all deaths are concentrated in 5% of the lot numbers. They might start wondering why that is. No quality control?
Also mention about Japan finding 1.6 million vials from Moderna that were magnetic. Moderna didn't investigate. They just said "don't worry, it's safe." So people need to check their vials for magnetism before they get the jab.
I mentioned these issues to a provax pharmacist and he was at a loss for words.
Thank you for your comment Lena. It makes me feel seen and heard.
I’m afraid that this article misses a lot. I too have a family that fortunately is not making its difference the cutting knife. But I do t think, just like pointed out, that we’re equal in any way.
Just as I wrote this my husband got a call from his school to inform him that from now on students must present a certificate to be allowed in class, and just like that the mandates made my husband the capo. If these long standing wounds that drive people to inflict wound on others are not dealt with I’m afraid I’ll hover with you like a hawk
I am sorry your husband is having to go through this. There is zero excuse for this. There is no public health benefit from any of this.
I have lost count of how many people I know who got vaccinated and then later contracted Covid. There is zero scientific or ethical basis for mandating the vaccines.
If this is ever over, we must always remember that the “we were just trying to save lives” excuse is the sister to the “I was just following orders” excuse.
Patients must ALWAYS be free to refuse any proposed medical intervention. Our job as health care providers is to OFFER assistance and TEACH patients what all of their options are.
We should never promote compulsion and should be endlessly vocal against coercing others (such as professors/teachers, for example) to enforce unethical mandates that are so thoroughly divorced from scientific evidence.
Please convey my sympathy to your poor husband. It is inexcusable he has been placed on this position and there should be everlasting shame in the medical community for not vociferously standing up against this.
Lena, I had the same impression reading the article, Charles misses the disillusionment(?) when recognizing beloved ore esteemed ones giving way to very bad and authoritative ideas.
The fact that someone simply "forget's" the most basic notions of mercy - just because she may be personally endangered - is not easy to take. I do not know how to kope that, how to just continue a "happy marriage", a "happy family", independent of the external decrease of paranoic pressure.
I'm afraid just not talking about "this" will not really help.
One more thing I'll say here is that the adherents of "trust the science" are unwitting participants in a form of fundamentalism that dates back to when science separated itself from the church by adopting a rationalist-materialist model of the universe as a cold lifeless machine. This deadening cosmological outlook goes back hundreds of years and lends itself all too well to the machinations of relentless industrial "growth," which functions as a kind of quasi-religious principle.
Scientists basically installed themselves as the new clergy and have operated that way ever since. Throw mega-scale capitalism into the mix and what you get is an oligarchy that uses scientists as its front spokespeople -- the exact same way that priests existed to fatten the massive coffers of a Catholic Church during the Middle Ages.
What I'm getting at is that people have been known to do all sorts of horrific things and commit atrocities in the name of religion. People who are religious fundamentalists but don't even know it are probably more dangerous. These people trust scientific and medical authorities to the point that they would put their own children at risk for this vaccine. Whatever you feel like your blindly pro-vax friends and relatives are doing to you personally, let's not lose sight of the phone that they were willing to subject THEMSELVES to these risks too.
The famous phrase from the Bible "Lord forgive them, for they know not what they do" has come to mind so many times for me lately.
Your point about science taking over where the catholic clergy left off - yes. A thousand times yes. These people ridicule Christianity but they are religious fundamentalists - their religion is just science, not God.
What you say in this post could be turned into an entire book. It is so so true.
The solution is the trifurcation. Not all humans are part of the same human family. Some will part ways because they changed their dna. They will be sent elsewhere to live their life and yes they likely will have edited memories of what crisis was solved by what solution. Earth will trifurcate into 3 paths.
Truly I am not. But through all of this I have realized that Gods real. I believe I will see Him some day and have to answer for what I have done and it done in this life of mine. Yes I feel utterly betrayed but He did as well while He was on this earth
It’s funny but their is a verse in the Bible: For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” – Matthew 11.28-30.
I think about it. The rules He asks us to honor are so much easier to follow than the endless, intrusive, ever changing dictates our government keeps suffocating us with. So I prefer the lighter yoke. It is where I will find rest.
Sounds more to me she’s just a realist with a compassionate heart, trying to do her best navigating all the insanity around these medical mandates, forced jabs and other ridiculous and authoritarian moves by “healthcare” and government officials who refuse to recognize the emerging science behind these too often, dangerous products.
Paranoid could be defined as, "An unrealistic distrust of others or a feeling of being persecuted."
I don't feel what Lena described was "unrealistic distrust". Humans en masse unfortunately don't have the greatest track record, in history, or of late.
Christians are called to be love "centered" rather than fear based. Called to love God (who is everywhere), to love one another, and to love our enemies.
Christians are also called to use discernment.
Lena did not mention it, but some also consider these times a spiritual war. We are challenged in our relationship with self and with others, to be loving, and to have discernment.
We are each unique, and I like to believe we are work in progress. Times like these amplify challenges and learnings...
Much gratitude to Charles for his sharings, and to all of you for the engaging reflections. A rich opportunity indeed.
1. The article you sent me was the first article that appears in a Google search about DeSantis, Covid and misrepresentation. Is that the level of research you conducted?
2. The evidence you sent me about public health is from a climate change law journal. That is odd.
3. I do not see any date associated with this journal entry. When was this published?
4. It references a Sun Sentinel article that was published all the way back in Dec of 2020. The article also is behind a pay wall so it can’t be read to examine the evidence.
5. On March 30, 2021, this was reported by Alex Nazaryan (hint: none of these people are remotely impressed with the claim that DeSantis covered up anything).
Lauren Rossen, a statistician at the National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who has analyzed excess deaths, told Yahoo News that she saw nothing exceptionally suspicious in the state’s excess death numbers.
“Florida doesn’t stand out to me,” she said.
Other critics of Tatar’s findings described Florida as neither a glowing success nor an unmitigated disaster but rather a state that has handled the pandemic with some successes and some failures, with the excess death data reflecting that mixed record.
Jason Salemi, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of South Florida, told Yahoo News that it was wrong to assume that every excess death during the period in question should be attributed directly to those who contracted the coronavirus, especially since people who were never infected may still have been fearful of seeking care for other conditions while the pandemic surged and hospitals filled with COVID-19 patients.
“You could’ve never gotten the coronavirus, delayed needed health care, and died from diabetes-related complications. That’s still indirectly tied to the pandemic,” Salemi told Yahoo News, describing Florida’s statistics regarding all-cause excess deaths and the coronavirus as “kind of middle-of-the-pack.”
Excess deaths were at 21 percent nationwide for 2020, according to the CDC; Florida saw a 15.5 percent rate of excess deaths for the period that Tatar studied. California’s excess death rate was also 15 percent, despite that state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, having enacted much more stringent restrictions than did DeSantis in Florida.
Salemi runs a Florida-focused coronavirus dashboard and frequently talks to state epidemiologists. “I don’t think there’s anything egregious going on with the data,” he told Yahoo News. “I would know. I am just constantly in these data.”
6. I believe the evidence you want to find has to do with a Ms. Rebekah Jones. She is the woman who used to work at the FL DOH who claimed without evidence that she was instructed to delete the number of deaths due to Covid.
Jones admitted later on in a Tweet that she was ever asked to delete Covid deaths. I am happy to send you a snap shot of that tweet if you like.
Here is a link to the NY Post article about Ms. Jones. It is not behind a paywall and it has names, dates, sources and links about what is being reported so it can be assessed by everyone.
Stephanie - I sincerely doubt you will forget. This has gone on for two years and the damage has been extensive. Life altering. Once you realize that you can’t trust someone, everything else that comes out of their mouth is suspect. And that makes everything they do suspect.
Nice essay, wonderful thoughts. The problem is there is a predator class out there that wont leave us alone. These organizations aka "the state" are filled with people who wont put family first , or who wont forgive and forget. These groups are hell bent on dominating others. They use weapons of propaganda, blackmail, and fear to divide families and pit different groups in society which otherwise could coexist peacefully , against each other. These groups are relentless. They wont leave us alone. Every day it seems there is a new real or proposed depredation foisted upon us. Eventually the oppression and tyranny will become so great that the society will collapse and everyone will have to pick a side.
yes but we still have to protect ourselves and we all have to set boundaries. Forcing my children to wear a face diaper, compelling me to accept experimental medication and injections and gun confiscation are non starters. its bad enough I have to surrender over 40% of my productive labor efforts to the regime so they can bribe their friends and keep power.
Every action I take is a choice. Each individual, including myself, chooses. Perhaps this means choosing exclusion, prison, or even leaving life in this body as a result of my choices. I can only be true to what feels like my own heart, and know that this love ripples out in ways I have no control over or perhaps will never see. As Charles wrote, The Rehearsal is Over.
I am seeing in small cracks , where the light comes in - to quote Leonard Cohen , in spite of the oppression and tyranny , a desire to connect beyond what is being forced on us , beyond segregation , separation, the place where we meet in our humanity . It’s not everywhere of course , it’s a minority but these connections in spite of it all are very strong , very powerful . It’s worth focusing on them , this energy will grow . It has the ability to turn everything around , very slowly from the inside out. This is the reunion ♥️
I have had the very same thought or premonition as you have called it .
It moved through me like an electric whisp of wind; an illuminated nano second where I could see and feel this possibility as a true reality not based on wishful thinking but based on actual experience .
I thought ‘this could actually be the very thing that helps our conditioned societies to connect in our humanity despite our stark differences in choices, sides of arguments , world views , lifestyle . Our human connection is more than that’
I have finally seen and felt that we can transcend the tribal restrictions and connect with love for our fellow man.
Wow! Who would have though that this increasingly shocking situation would give birth to something we strive for and rarely seem to truly manage .
But I feel it with my friends . I feel it with my family and it moves me as our love for each other is richly felt in our recent meetings and larger gatherings. I have mentioned it . I have noted it . We are accepting each other’s choices and views and we connect in absolute joy it seems beyond that place. The love between us is palpable . We appreciate our togetherness. We see each other more deeply it seems and feel our mutual respect for traversing this terrain.
Whilst I am aware that some families are being torn apart over their responses to our current global situation , lives are being turned upside down , some people have lost their entire friendship groups , I realised my own experience can’t be isolated.
So this very uplifting piece that you have written harmoniously resonates with the elevated thought that moved through me and it landed within me as a heart - bursting yes! Yes, I know what you’re describing , Yes, I share your premonition despite what our media is so voraciously attempting to create.
I recall Ram Dass saying our differences don’t have to separate us . We can see the differences and love and connect despite and beyond that .
I always sensed that was idealistic and perhaps possible for an enlightened/ evolved few but now I see, I feel , I have experienced that is well within our beautiful human capabilities.
Withstanding this collective trauma together has the ability to smash apart all those views that acted as barriers and obstacles keeping our daily tribal warfare fuelled .
We can feel what matters .
We have been set up to fight .
I don’t want to fight
I want to love
I do love
And I have real hope for something I never thought would be possible .
me too! It came to me in Fall of 2020 and hasn't left me. The term that came to me was a "love revolution". I certainly haven't always been able to get my heart to where it needs to be for this, but the idea keeps coming back again and again, and now here too. I guess it's really the whole basis of Christianity isn't it? Love people anyway...
I feel aligned with you once again Charles, I just finished a new spoken-word piece called "What will be will be" (to be shared soon I think). I also love that you shared the picture of your family at dinner. That warmed my smile.
I know there is both real harm happening and real distress being experienced across the world during this time. And I know your words are not meant to diminish these perspectives. But whilst we make important and significant choices for ourselves - whether to jab or not to jab, to resist measures or comply, if we can do so without "othering" those who choose differently, we can avoid the conflicts lasting long into the future once natural conclusions become played out. Resentment closes ears, minds and hearts. We all have to do as we must - each of us, but we don't have to embrace hatred in order to do so.
The real conflict is not the vax, or the virus, or the treatments, but the oppression of demanding that the tribe conform to a central command. We can argue about the basis for the commands, and those arguments may indeed decline. But as long as the tyranny of command remains, the conflict will not end.
And it is progressively getting worse. I live in Canada. I have been put on unpaid leave since November 1st. I have a doctor’s letter of exemption due to my health. It was rejected by my employer who periodically sets up meetings to confirm my non-compliance. Each time, because I attempt to establish why I cannot comply, I am disciplined with suspension for insubordination. At some point I will be fired for repeated insubordination. I have no means to provide for myself. Most jobs now require you to be vaxxed. I am 62 and a widow. Employment insurance rules have been changed recently so that, if you are fired for not receiving the vax, you cannot qualify. It is illegal for unvaxxed to gather in any place. This, to me, is not about whether I can sit across the table from my family and appreciate the harmony despite opposing views. I am begging for help in the fight against tyranny. In one province it is now possible for the unvaxxed to be shut out of grocery stores. I, thankfully, don’t live in that one, though It won’t matter soon. I won’t be able to afford groceries. And now, in Calgary, where I live, a family returning from Egypt, parent fully vaxxed, was arrested at the airport and put in quarantine until they receive results from PCR tests, although they tested negative in Cairo and Frankfurt. Once they receive the results, they will still have to quarantine at home for 14 days, with the threat of a $750,000 fine for breaking quarantine. What kind of madness is this? I have no problem with who wants to be vaxxed. I need people to stand up and fight. Soon we will all be in the same boat no matter our stance on COVID or our vaccination status. This is an attack on our very lives and I am down on my knees, begging for help.
Begging never works. It's like paying taxes or playing slot machines -- at some point you do the cost-benefit math and pay the bill or cash out. Governments and their complicit corporations have abused us since the dawn of time. We usually force them back in line, eventually. The need to fight oppressors is part of the human condition. The cost of the fight is always high so we tend to tolerate oppression for a while. The oppressor tries to gradually increase the pressure, to benefit from our complacency. But there's a time to fight in the open, and a time to retreat and regroup. When government and corporations conspire to abuse us, it's better to comply, survive, and apply all our energies toward punishing our oppressors.
Revenge for this travesty is certain. We should make lists.
How do I comply? I cannot risk my health for a shot that doesn't work in order to keep my job. There is no liability. I suppose I will have to get creative. I feel like I am speaking to people who have a lot of resources and do not understand what it is like to be backed into a corner. I will take being homeless to being compliant, possibly injured and part of the problem. God give me strength and courage to stand.
I would be risking my health if I complied. Yes, I am emotional. I am also a survivor. This is going to go one of two ways. I have nothing to gain by complying and everything to gain when it all comes crumbling down. I just need to last that long.
I’m struggling with this one. I totally subscribe on a political arena where our shared humanity is the core principle and motivator and drive towards action.
Firstly, as someone who’s not vaccinated and is not interested in taking a vaccine I suffered a lot of blaming and shaming from those who see me as a danger to society. I didn’t have the experience (and it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist) that people who are not vaccinated shame and blame the vaxed.
Sencond, I can easily see how those who are marching with their righteousness will for sure drop their accusations and say “it doesn’t matter, we got vaccinated and that was the solution and we can move back to normal, which is all we wanted”. (The political heads only need to bring up the next narrative). Yet for me, who’s living in Europe and facing the threat of joining Austria and Germany where vax is mandatory and there’s a real violation of people’s liberty - carried by the hands of people - I find it very difficult to subscribe to the idea of just dropping the argument. Not because I care about acceptance or wanting to be right, because justice does mean something to me!
When you’re forced to lock in your home for your choices (which initially are not political but where colonised by politics), when you’re suffering loss of livelihood and living day to day under imminent threat, when the people are the arm of political parties and their verdict, we’re looking at a crack very similar to what happened after the Holocaust. Coming from a Jewish family and working with many German people I can tell you that the trauma goes deep and just dropping the argument won’t cut it. Because we need to learn how to create a society that appreciates one another for our shared humanity, which makes me wonder what would be the point in politics in such a world at all?!
Beautiful sentiment, and one I wholeheartedly agree with. Maybe one day we will get there but the human race is as far away from that point as it ever was. All we can do is show love and compassion and hope it's infectious as any so-called pandemic.
Beautiful! This left me with a practical question though... how did those in your family who are ardently pro-vax accept to be in the same room with those who are not vaccinated? I want for the same scenario to be possible in my family, however it would require the vaxed among us to drop their requirement for others in their presence to be vaxed. Or for some other condition to be met like a 2-week quarantine beforehand or a negative test. How was that issue resolved in your family?
Does the requirement for others in their presence to be vaxxed make sense when the vax does not prevent transmission or infection? It only claims to reduce severity of disease in the vaxxed, a benefit they will surely experience no matter who is in their presence.
Right, existential and political decisions still had to be made. One side had to compromise for it to happen. Perhaps it was a real compromise with everyone getting tested or perhaps it wasn’t and the vaccinated folks just gave in. Either way, there is no avoiding politics.
Just started a vacation with family and best advice from this article is focus on the family and give those other things NO energy....not even going to clarify in this comment.
Thanks, this is exactly what I needed to hear right now.
"Hey, remember when you guys wanted us stripped of our jobs, freedoms, and right to Healthcare? Remember rounding some of us into camps and shuttering others under police or military guard in their homes?
Remember when you forced us to shoot up our kids if we wanted them to get an education? Remember when they wore masks for no reason for 2 years straight, and collectively lost 22 IQ points? Remember the ones that died from that shot they never needed?"
"Ho-ho, I guess we were both a little wrong there. Kind of silly and trivial, now that I think about it! I wonder why I got so worked up about your desire for a global totalitarian state. Geez, I cringe just thinking about how I made it my identity to resist that!
"Anyway, who cares about any of that, fellow human! ❤"
Hi :) I find myself thinking like this too and try to remember that when I show someone compassion no matter what they have done their heart can open and they can see things clearly for themselves. I have been at the other end of receiving this compassion when i did not deserve it. It melted my heart and helped me to understand my mistakes and seek forgiveness.
Maybe they can open their heart, but they usually don't. A mistake that kind people often make is projecting their kindness on the evil. Never works. Graveyards are full of people who turned the other cheek.
Charles always writes compellingly, but here I'd argue he's skirted some deeply unpalatable truths.
There is a class of people on this earth who have no desire to reconcile themselves with the rest of humanity. They see themselves as the rightful rulers of a domain that is theirs to tinker with as they see fit. All of it.
We play no part in their plans, other than as agents of their will.
This really ought to be very clear by now.
Healing and reconciliation can only mean anything once there's been a reckoning - and a mighty big one is looming ever closer.
This Thanksgiving I flew from California to Texas to be with dear friends because my family declined my offer to share Thanksgiving with them - despite my post covid status.
Charles - this article, like all of your articles, is gorgeous and contains many nuggets. However, how can it be said that these times will just fade from view? Has the Holocaust softened with time into a mere difference of opinion? What about South Africa's apartheid? No! We must remember these tyrannies long enough to correct and heal the ways of thinking and the dysfunctional systems that allow them to occur over and over and over again.
At the very least, a national discussion needs to be had about our health care system and the people running it. RFK Jr.'s book, The Real Anthony Fauci, demonstrates in excruciating detail a long standing pattern of suppressing therapeutics to the detriment of those suffering the disease and just like with covid, many died as a result. It's a disturbing yet very enlightening read.
Had I been welcomed by my family of origin without a double vaccine PLUS a mask, it may have been a family time much like you described, where, despite our different sensibilities, we we gratefully united and rejoiced at being a together. But when we are excluded because of our beliefs (and in my opinion due to a stubborn resistance to learn about the actual risks of covid, natural immunity, etc.) how can we feel a part of, and secure in, the family bond?
I am so very glad for you Charles; however, for many people around the globe, particularly Australia, Austria and now Germany, the tide has not turned.
Now that is a post I can resonate with. I don't always agree with your perspective but I always am willing to read your posts. Your family is a testament to what possible when love and compassion are more important than defending one's position or opinion. Well done brother, thank you tor standing for harmony.
It is a beautiful and higher thinking piece, that exhibits the best of human compassion and love. We all have the capacity to reach this level of compassion.
However, I think the opportunity to achieve this "hive mind like" unspoken agreement to simple get on with living instead of winning the argument, has passed.
Too many have and continue to die or be permanently damaged in the name of public health. I don't think the teenagers that have had their hearts damaged will simply shrug their shoulders and go "meh". The depravity goes even further, to now deny them acknowledgment, by fabricating new diagnosis- "cold weather heart attacks"! PPSTD- "post pandemics stress disorder"!
The tally of quality of life years lost to these willfully misguided public health measures, for large swathes of people, has not been quantified and quite frankly I don't think anyone has ( in the next 20years at least), the stomach for it, because as a guess, I think we will find that humanity has just eclipsed ALL of our previous atrocities records combined.
Charles - I very much appreciate this essay and know that what you are describing is what we should all hope for and work toward.
I am confident I am not enlightening you on anything here but I want to be specific about one thing:
Both sides of this are not equal. It is not as if we both need our little stories to soothe us at the end of this, convincing us it was OUR side that was right.
My husband and I are both in health care. We have always gladly gotten all vaccines we had to have to work at the hospital and even ones we didn’t have to have.
When the Covid vaccines were first made available though something seemed off. Different. It is too long to go through here and it is ground well tread elsewhere but from health care and medical ethics standpoint, I had grave and growing concerns.
Fast forward to this fall. Mandates came and thank God we were granted exemptions. Certain extended family members were furious with us. We were informed we deserved to lose our jobs and basically be put under house arrest.
Please understand that in my extended family we have business executives, an attorney, several nurses, a doctor, an engineer, a pilot, etc. These are educated people.
This is my point:
If my husband and I had been in control of the pandemic response, everyone would have been provided vaccines AFTER they had been provided a rigorous informed consent. Safety issues would have been investigated thoroughly. Honest reporting would have been done about what we know, what we suspect but do not know, and what we absolutely have no ability to know. We would have progressed with recommendations to prevent infection, not mandates, lockdowns, etc., much like we recommend ways to prevent other infectious diseases. In other words, these people would have been able to do whatever they want, go out or stay home, work or not. They would have been left to decide what was best for you them and their household.
If THEY had gotten their way, people like my husband and I would be left with NO income, NO health insurance, and limited ability to shop. We would have been left unable to leave our homes to do pretty much anything.
I am Christian and therefore I am required to forgive the people who voted for and advocated for my destruction. Because that is what that was.
But it must be understood that our opinions and political viewpoints were NOT “opposite, but equal.”
People who advocate for the destruction of others must be forever seen as capable of doing just that. This was not a case of a misunderstanding or a “we were just trying to save lives” issue. They will move on to the next issue once this one dies down.
In the meantime I will be happy to eat with them and I must love them. But something has changed permanently. I will forever watch them like a hawk. Their instincts are dangerous and they will strike again.
Lena - While I agree with everything you've laid-out here, I think Charles' point is more geared towards navigating the fact that both sides on this issue see one another as an existential threat, and that there's got to be some way forward to tamp-down those feelings.
As someone who's 100% on your "side," I recognize that I've got to find some way of reconciling the fact that I care for and love a great many people who are pushing for policies that I see as tantamount to Apartheid, mass murder - including of children - and fundamentalist, and religious-style adherence to a dogma that presents itself as "science" but is a gross perversion of both science and medicine.
I find myself getting so angry at people that I'm willing to torpedo friendships over it. I think THAT is what Charles is getting at here: that regardless of who's actually "right," we must find a way of addressing the covid/vaccine problem without letting the heated temperature of differences burn our relationships to the ground.
Don't get me wrong: I absolutely hear you that this issue presents an existential threat, but I do think it helps to remember that people on the "other side" see it the same way, and that they're not >setting out< to be cruel on purpose, even if we can look on in horror as they endorse cruel policies.
I like to think of them as misled by their instincts, institutional trust, and poor information/manufactured consent.
I hate what "they" think - but I realize now that I have to make a daily effort to not let that hate metastasize into hate towards >them<. I'm with you - so much is at stake here - but allowing ourselves to be swept in hatred does nothing but fan the flames of the hysteria that's gripped the globe since this started.
It's tricky, but know that I and others support you in your desire to forgive - and that I support you from a place of knowing that it's extremely difficult to do.
Hi Saby -
So first, I thank you for your thoughtful response. I hope you do not interpret what I am saying to you here as argumentative - I simply want to respond to your thoughts in complete good will.
As far as both sides viewing each other as an existential threat: The people who are supporting vaccine mandates should have grasped by mid summer this year that the vaccines were not preventing transmission at all. The evidence was all around us and the CDC openly admitted the same. So in light of that reality, how do the vaccine mandates they are demanding protect them from the existential threat they claim they are facing?
They don’t. And yet these people are still demanding it. Saby - we look around the world and we see many countries that are passing laws that allow people to be fired from their jobs for not being vaccinated. People are being prohibited from traveling, from seeing family members, from entering stores, hospitals, even grocery stores.
If we believe that the people who continue to advocate for vaccine mandates are not “setting out” to be cruel on purpose, that they are simply misled, uninformed, and victims of institutional trust, we have to believe that these people, many of whom are quite educated and in influential positions do not understand the consequences of:
1. prohibiting people from working and earning a living
2. rendering it impossible for people in many countries to get health insurance
3. prohibiting people from entering shops
4. prohibiting people from entering grocery stores
5. permitting people who either test positive for COVID or were exposed to COVID to be forcibly removed from their homes and sent to “quarantine camps."
Saby - that is not credible. These people know EXACTLY what they are doing. They know EXACTLY what it will do to people who can no longer pay their mortgage. They FULLY UNDERSTAND what happens to people health-wise who no longer can afford to go to a doctor. And they ABSOLUTELY GRASP what it will mean to people, especially parents, who are unable to enter grocery stores.
There is no evidence, none, that they can lean on to justify their stated belief that they face an existential threat. The vaccines were never going to prevent transmission. Never. Everyone knows someone who did everything right, isolated, got vaccinated, maybe even boosted, wore two masks, whatever, and they still got COVID. Now we are seeing an avalanche of news reports of people who were fully vaccinated who still contracted the omicron version of COVID. Yet these people persist in demanding vaccines.
Saby - When you realize that these people know exactly what it is they are supporting, even demanding, and when you realize that there is no data point, no piece of evidence, no article, no study, no debate, NO NOTHING that will make them “see the light” or realize how misled they have been, you must then conclude that they ARE doing this to be cruel. To control others. To score an enormous political victory. Whatever. We know this to be true because there is no evidence to support banning people from grocery stores. How does it promote public health to advocate for starving people into submission?? Yet they persist.
I used to believe as you do - that these people were well meaning, just misled. Just misinformed. I no longer believe that and it pains me because it means that these people whom I love are not who I thought they were.
So what do we do? How do we handle our interactions with these people? My heart and my faith in Jesus Christ tells me that I must do exactly as described by Janet in her response to my post in this thread. Janet is 100% right. But my brain tells me these people are dangerous and they absolutely intend tremendous harm, harm to children, harm to innocent people. We have a duty to stop evil, to interfere when we see it. I believe now that had we stopped seeing these people as well meaning but misinformed and misled a long time ago, we would not be in the position we are today. We stop evil by calling it what it is and not shying away from telling people who are supporting it that we see them, we see what they are doing, and we don’t tolerate it.
Believe me when I tell you that I struggle mightily with this as you clearly do. I am not at ease anymore. Peace is long, long gone. It would have been so much simpler, less lonely, less taxing, for me to have kept quiet and maintained my relationship with the people who advocated for my destruction. It would have been easier to shrug it off, ignore it. But my husband and I are ok. At least for now. Others are not. And yet the people who supported this feel free to continue on supporting that which is destroying others. God help me, as long as I have anything to say about it, they will NOT be permitted to advocate for this evil unchallenged. I can still love them as God demands and forgive them but that does not require me to sit quietly by, trying to understand how they feel as they continue to support harming others.
Well said. These people are not innocent. They are the perpetrators or supporters of a crime against a minority, and too many of them are enjoying it.
If you mean "these people" the decisionmakers, I agree completely. But if you mean family, friends and neighbors, here's my question for you: so many of them are willing to subject their OWN CHILDREN to the risks of the jab - is that out of a malicious desire to harm their own kids? Of course not. Which means something else is at work here that requires a more complex emotional response than simply viewing "them" as one in the same with the people in power responsible for putting people in this position. The pharma CEO that KNOWS the risks involved and KNOWS their companies are lying through their teeth, that person isn't the same as your aunt sitting across from you at Thanksgiving who trusts at the altars of "science" and "medicine" so much that she's willing to entertain ideas that the unvaccinated should be put on box cars without even grasping that she would serve as a willing and happy accomplice to a new Holocaust, and that her offhanded comments of the nasty scent of the same unfortunate human urge that leads to things like ethnic cleansing. That person -- and there are a lot more of them than there are of us -- is to be viewed with caution given the situation, sure, but I see them more as people to be pitied. I don't feel the same way about the people responsible. Your family members and lifelong friends aren't the ones responsible.
Saby - I know YOU understand that this is evil. I do not doubt that.
But I do believe our neighbors, friends and family are partially responsible.
If this were back in June of this year, I would feel as you do. But we have reached a point that by now, the average person should have observed enough for them to come to the conclusion that mandates are unethical.
When you see an interview with a nurse who is a single mom who is willing to be fired rather than be injected, people should be asking questions.
When you hear of a cardiac oncologist who is willing to walk away from a career that took him 12+ years of university level training to achieve, people should be wondering what is going on.
When Fauci promised last December that the pandemic was nearly over with the advent of the vaccines and you hear of several states ans countries that have 80% of all people aged 12 and up vaccinated and yet cases and hospitalizations are stratospheric, people should ask “what is going on?”
When you witness pilots basically shut down thousands of flights in a week due to mandates, perhaps it is time to do some research. It takes years of dedication to become a commercial pilot. Surely these people aren’t tossing it all away on a whim.
When you go to work or church or school and notice that either no one is talking or those that do all oddly have the exact same pro vax opinion and you see the CDC and your government and media personnel and physicians all talk about the news to shut down websites and people who have a different opinion, somewhere down deep there should have been some questions.
And now when there are stories about the camps, when we learn that Canadian citizens are prohibited from leaving their country unless they have been jabbed, when we learn that Austria and Germany are actively preparing to forcibly inject people, perhaps those pieces of information should give people pause.
Saby - I fully understand not wanting to share my opinion here. But what I am saying to you is that at this time, after all that we have learned, what else must happen before you would expect them to put the brakes on their support for mandates?
I am not against them choosing vacvination for themselves or their kids - it is just as a nurse I am alarmed that they were not provided nearly enough information to truly be informed.
But that is not what this is about. They are supporting coercion. They are supporting forcing you and me and others to either undergo a medical intervention or suffer impoverishment.
I guess what I would ask you Saby is what would it take for you to finally agree that they have reached the point where they should have understood what they are advocating? When their sister and her family are turned out on the street because they can’t pay their mortgage?
When they find out that their brother has to hope that his parents are willing to go but him and his family food because he can no longer enter a grocery store?
Or what about this? A citizen of a country can’t leave the country because they are not vaccinated but that same country lets hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to come in, unvaxxed but given free health care, free food, public assistance and so on?
Why do these people have to see the devastation right in front of them before they are finally on the hook for being responsive for what they support? Why can’t they be expected to understand right this minute that firing someone who does not consent to a medical intervention is unethical because it nullifies informed consent which is a bedrock in western medicine AND because the health, social and economic consequences of millions of people losing their jobs because they refuse to be injected with something will be far, far worse given that 98% of people survive Covid and the vaccines don’t permit transmission anyway?
I didn't see this yesterday for some reason -- I agree a hundred THOUSAND percent with everything you're saying. I mean you just basically laid out the argument for all of us to TRY to use when dealing with these people in our lives, but my point is that it ties up a lot of energy and appears to be futile, so that energy is best conserved and directed at people in positions to make decisions. I suspect there's going to be a profound reckoning among people who went along with this, but that's their karma.
Bravo and amen. I agree with you completely. My sisters are just fine with the fact I'm not allowed to visit our mother in the care home (she's 101 and I've been ostracized for her last two birthdays). My daughter and ex-spouse are evidently fine with my exclusion from restaurants and local social and cultural events.
Now, various locales in the world are testing the waters of arbitrarily arresting and detaining anyone not "vaccinated" or who is deemed to have been exposed somehow to any given variant of "covid". I have asked my family members (and some former friends) if they'll stand up for me when they come to take me to the gulag.
They only scoff. And the real horror is, I don't think that they would. Their minds and souls have been that poisoned.
Joanie - I am so very sorry. This is just incredible to read.
The scoff. These are the people who have perfected the scoff.
Now the whole edifice appears to be crashing down around them. As El Gato Malo has correctly pointed out, lots of people are running for cover, changing their jerseys and acting as if they always were sane, always understood that the vaccines and mandates would be destructive. My response to that is to confront them directly. All of these months did they speak to nursing home administration to help push them to allow visitation? Did your sisters consider what your mom might want? Did they call / write letters to their govt representatives demanding an end to the mandates?
If one person says to me they were just trying to save lives, I swear to you I will tell them I do not want to hear what is the modern day equivalent of “I was just trying to save lives.”
Ask them if we should be able to coerce everyone who reaches the age of 70 to have blanket DNR orders. You know - old people take up lots and lots of space in our hospitals. They cost a lot to take care of. So wouldn’t it “be the best for everyone” if we “encourage them” to just give up if they run into a little bit of a health problem after age 70 so we don’t waste a lot of time and resources on someone who, even if they get better, might only have a handful of years left?
Seriously - are they ok with that? Because if we are able to mandate INJECTING someone with a substance that was so briefly studied, believe me we can mandate withdrawing care as well. Why? Because they did not blink an eye when it was obvious the vaccines did not prevent transmission - they just migrated to - “we can mandate this because the unvaccinated are taking up beds in the hospitals.”
THAT is the standard THEY set. That is what they stood on to make their evil claims. Fine.
Joanie - I am a nurse. Miraculously I was granted an exemption so I have been fine. But I am so enraged at my colleagues. For not thinking. For being so confident about controlling what others must do. I will never view all of these people in the same light. Never.
Thanks for this, Lena. As before, I agree with all you've said.
Re-reading the essay, I'm most irked by Eisenstein's 9th paragraph that starts out with "I have a premonition about how the Covid rift in society will heal. The season of storms will end with a whimper. Neither side will admit they were wrong. Instead, everyone will quietly decide it wasn’t that important. Mandates will peter out.”
Is he kidding... "wasn't that important"???? The uncountable family tragedies of suicides, lost livelihoods, deaths from medical malpractice and neglect, or from the "vaccines"??? Children forever harmed, socially stunted by the insanity of face muzzles, plexiglass partitions, forced distancing from their playmates? Does he have a clue what's been happening these past two years?
And finally, his statement "For this to happen, people will have to let go of the goal of humiliating the other side." Is that what we're about, a one-up game of cleverness??? He is so off-base with this it's mystifying. Trying to reason with those we care about is a desperate plea for common sense, for our very life and liberty. It has nothing at all to do with ego.
Musings such as Charles's are part of the problem, not in any way a solution.
Yes. And I really like him and value his insights. But too many good people don’t grasp that stopping evil requires being unwilling to look away, shrug our shoulders and say “hey, let’s agree that these issues aren’t that important anymore - let’s move on.”
Stopping evil requires force. It requires naming things and activities as evil. It takes sustained effort.
I know people don’t want this to get uglier than it already has but my goodness these people will not stop until they control everything.
Lena - Let me be clear: I think what's going on is unquestionably, 100% E-V-I-L and I agree that we need to recognize that. However, what I find most evil about this whole thing is that people who otherwise not driven by malicious intentions or an interest in hurting other people are being convinced to perpetuate this evil. That's what's most scary and difficult to reconcile about this whole thing. We all know too many people who are close to who are onboard with this, and the ones I know simply can't be described as malicious by any measure. That's what Charles is getting at -- I didn't interpret his post as a call to equivocate or be any less vigilant, only to pick our battles.
"Good Germans" all of them.
Too true.
I don't think for those who believe the most strongly in the mandates that it's a matter of logic. For them it's a talisman. It's not even necessary that it be logical. It fact, it's probably better if their beliefs are not logical. Read Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism. It's all laid out. A society full of discontent, anomie, and anxiety is ripe totalitarianism. For a more recent description of this phenomenon look up Mattias Desmet. Great interview of him here: https://www.peakprosperity.com/mattias-desmet-on-mass-formation/
I just learned about Desmet in the past couple of days. I must listen to his interview.
As for the talisman, I agree. The mask business - how is it any different than rubbing a rabbit’s foot? Honestly - it is every bit as unscientific as venerating a sliver of wood that is believed to be from the cross of Christ.
I would give far more credence in the ability of one’s belief in the power of that sliver of wood to heal them than one’s unfounded belief in the efficacy of the masks.
Winston! I was just thinking about Mattias Desmet and watched an interview with him this morning. As he points out, people are willing to participate in this ritual for a sense of belonging even to the point that it ensures THEIR OWN destruction.
Close cousin of Stockholm Syndrome.
Saby, I appreciate your thoughtful contemplation and also the sharing around what Charles has attempted to convey with this article.
In Buddhism there’s a definition of good thought - a thought of renunciation of non ill will and harmlessness. ‘Good’ translated from the ancient language Pali can be confusing. It’s also a wise thought or a complete thought. If we drop that, if we let go of discernment between a right thought and a harmful thought it is hell!
This is a point that comes through this article which myself, Lena and others are pointing to. That it’s not just about who’s got the right view but what is in an existential way a thought that is leading to a world of friendship. People who see me as an existential threat because I’m not interested in taking a vaccination and are willing to tape my body in the name of their views should be challenged and faced with this. Just dropping it is not going to lead to any change, any healing nor any friendship. Just shoving the problem under the rag. And we’ve been there way too long to be able to do that again.
I can forgive those who blamed me for being a murderer but if I’m forced with a substance on my body (which living in Switzerland seems to become the reality now every day, following Austria and Germany) is a crime that should be held accountable. And forgiveness is simple not relevant to that conversation.
I’m also blessed with a family that in spite of the different choices and views is not fighting around the table or banning members from family gatherings. And there are people in my circle, not close friends though, that I have or they have taken a distance. Honestly, I don’t think there’s a problem with that. Because when there’s genuine friendship it survives all those upheavals. Which brings me back to my starting point — we need to have guidelines for wise thought (rather than play with political agendas and views) so our word we take a turn towards friendship as a core principle of sharing life together. Until then, I think, in my view, that I ought to keep speaking up for the wrong doing in getting lost in fear and the ramifications of that.
Shelly - I completely get where you're coming from and don't disagree. Watching otherwise well-intentioned people who don't mean to be malicious go along with this whole thing has been really chilling. As I responded to Lena above, though, I don't take Charles's post as a call to be less vigilant, but only to be careful about where we direct our oppositional energy. There are way too many people I've known for a long time who are going along with this hook line and sinker and there's no way in hell that these people I know have malicious intentions. I get extremely angry with them and judgmental as well, and I think that's where the trap is. We do need to separate policymakers from our friends and neighbors. As I see it, getting wrapped up in frustrating arguments with people who can't cut through their blindness only burns up our energy. The fact of the matter is, people we know have been convinced through fear and other means to go along with something that's positively monstrous. To make matters more complicated, they view what we're doing in exactly the same light and would also use the word murderous to describe it. This puts everyone in a very difficult position. Again, I don't think Charles meant to say that we should be passive about what we're seeing, only that the people that are Thanksgiving Day table aren't the ones making policy and to burn up calories pushing against them is kind of a waste. I would suggest tactically speaking to the people who seem like they have it in them to be convinced and finding a way to just step around the people who don't.
Saby stated: "There are way too many people I've known for a long time who are going along with this hook line and sinker and there's no way in hell that these people I know have malicious intentions".
I'm sorry, but I can't not repeat the hackneyed maxim; "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."
So, what's the difference, if the outcome is the same?
I think that their, yes, obstinate refusal to demand actual evidence to back up the propaganda they're worshipping, is in its own sense, evil, and especially as they see fit to ignore all glaring evidence to the contrary.
Saby—Thank you for this perspective. Incredibly paradoxical moment in “time” to navigate in this bizarre culture. Along with Charles, your words constructed a helpful tool belt to maintain a healthy nervous system when dealing with such polarity. Or duality? Can’t figure that one out...
E.B. - You're welcome! Glad I could say something that struck a chord.
Thank you Lena. I feel what you are saying, and have felt, and may still have times when I feel similarly, in waves. I hope you find my sharing helpful... My thoughts that follow have helped me humbly deal with and heal what feels and felt like betrayal by those I hold dear and love. (I walk a Christian mystic path.)
Recall Saul in the New Testament who actively persecuted Christians. We subsequently know him as Paul, after his (unexpected) spiritual conversion to Christianity. My wish is that each of us have a "road to Damascus" enlightening experience so that we move forward in a beautiful heartful way we all know is possible. Until such time, I remind myself of Jesus' teaching to "forgive them for they know not what they do". Whenever I (as aggressor or vicitm) experience the destructiveness of "othering", and wishing or being wished harm, I clearly at that point do not know what I am doing - because if I were to be of clear mind I would recognise that what I do to my brother, sister and the planet, I do to myself. No one who "knows what they are doing" harms another-themself. Forgiveness (a loving healing practice of letting go), opens and softens my heart, and sets me free. Centered in my heart in (God's) Love, I feel flow, ease and grace return, and I am a sweet fragrance and blessing to myself and others.
I don't mean in my above sharings that all need to become Christians to experience the Love that Jesus taught about (i.e. to love God, love one another, and to love our enemies). Many Christians are not yet deep enough in their practice and hence don't display this Great Love for God, and all.
My point is that miracles and enlightment are possible... in any of the great traditions that involve walking a path of the heart, which is Love. (One only has to read for example the poetry of the famous Sufi, Rumi, to witness this, and the teachings of the Dalai Lama on compassion.)
The nature of Love is that it heals and unifies. We are all One in (God who is) Love.
May Great Love and Great Wisdom prevail.
Hi Janet -
Thank you for your response. I responded to Saby above and address you in it as well.
It would be easy to conclude that I must not take what God tells us in the Bible seriously or otherwise I would not feel the way I do about this issue. I get it.
What I struggle with Janet is what do we do in the face of evil? Let it wash over us and keep repeating to ourselves that we must love and forgive others? Or do we step in? I believe we must step in. We must act. I think sometimes about when Jesus went into the temple and spoke and acted in anger. Did He love the people who had done wrong? Yes. And He forgave them. But He was adamant, some would say violent even, in His reaction.
Janet - I am struggling obviously. And my heart knows you are right. But I think of the verses in Ecclesiastes where we are told there is a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. God is clearly telling us that there are appropriate times for different activities within God's plan. I DO NOT assume to know God's plans!! Not at all. But I think there is a time to talk about forgiveness and God's healing love and a time to step in and call evil what is evil.
Janet. We are facing a living, breathing evil. Right now. Right this minute. I never truly believed that until the past two years - before I always thought of evil as a concept, as an idea, not something that is active, or alive - but evil is coursing through the world and it has to be named and countered.
What is outside of the Creator? Evil is a characterization given to those acting in fear and who lack a closer relationship to each other and the Creator. By calling others or their action evil we wedge open the separation further. We are all of the Creator...by definition.
I absolutely believe we must step in, but part of being in a fight is picking your battles, conserving energy and identifying the right targets. I mean, I understand that when you're playing chess you do have to occupy yourself with the pawns for awhile, but those aren't ultimately the ones that you need to make moves against.
Also, Lena - the pro-vax fundamentalism crowd is falling into the terrible human tendency to scapegoat the "other." Charles has written about this in a previous post, and he absolutely does not end underestimate the danger or horror of this way of thinking. I think that even though covid vax-skeptical crowd is in a minority here, we absolutely must not fall into the same trap of demonizing people. If we want to out pharmacy CEOs and public health policymakers as doing evil, I'm all 100% onboard. These people need to be charged with crimes against humanity and if they met their end at the hands of angry mobs, I would say that that was their karma. But we can't direct the anger we feel at them to the people in our close circles. That's where this extremely challenging SOCIAL contagion becomes an uncontrollable wildfire. We have to find a way to rise above the volatility rather than matching fire with fire -- not, I would argue, out of nobility or even out of a Christian sense of forgiveness. We have to do that because it's the most practical thing to do. If you're in a forest that's on fire, you don't start taking a torch to the trees closest to you. You have to get away from the fire first then figure out a way to contain it and then think about holding the people responsible accountable. But if you find out that some of the people in your own family were also holding matches, that's something to resolve once we get to safety. That's how I'm thinking about this.
Ok I 100% agree with your take here. I can not not find fault with this. I must say though it is telling to me that you acknowledge that some of our family and friends were found to be holding matches. Saby - you would not say that unless somewhere down deep you believe too that it is way past time for our friends, family and neighbors to stop supporting the mandates. They are no longer innocents. They are no longer victims of the fear mongering of others. No longer under the spell of institutional trust.
I can’t begin to tell you how much I have enjoyed talking about all of this with you. Truly. I can’t talk much about this with most people because frankly nurses are supposed to be 110% pro vax. Also other people were troubled by all of the mandates but they choose not to focus much on it. Nothing in my life has infuriated me more than what has happened over the past two years. I am so very, very angry at the fear mongering, the abandonment of people in nursing homes and hospitals, the coercion, all of it. So it is good to unload with others who are thinking about the same issues.
Anyway thank you. It is good to know there are others out there.
I don't believe it "deep down" -- I believe it flat-out that they're complicit, but if they're incapable of seeing it, I'm not going to try up energy trying to convince them. I have a ton of animosity towards the people in my life who can't get out of their closed-circuit thinking -- and unlike you I don't think it's anyone's right to do this to their children. I think it's unconscionable, but again we're in a really dire situation and this battle isn't going to be won fighting mindless foot soldiers.
Or, I should say "shouting at mindless foot soldiers whose ears are closed and brains are shut-down to persuasion."
And you're quite welcome! I think the comments you've made really do a great deal of good, so thank you as well.
Okay, this last input from you resonates. Still, though. Lena's response below articulates my own caveat.
Good points, an authoritarian tendency has been revealed in liberal/progressive land as seen in the suppression in much of the media and social media of information and discussion in not only the Covid realm but in other topics and issues. Also the advocating of vaccination or else! is ominous. Again I am thankful for the decentralized American federal system. I know of people in my state California choosing to leave to other states over vaccination. It is interesting to see the continued mis- representation of the governor of Florida and what is happening in that state as it exercises state rights.
DeSantis whatever you think of him, lied about the COVID death rates in Florida. You cannot change this fact. You are misrepresenting him which makes me question your honest and integrity
Produce the evidence or it didn’t happen. You are making this claim. It is therefore incumbent on you to produce evidence, not opinion, here.
You wish to permanently discredit DeSantis based on what you claim is a lie he participated in. About a month ago, Biden told us on television that the vaccines prevent you from getting Covid. We have known that to be a lie for many many months. Even the CDC says they do not prevent transmission.
So tell me: why are we supposed to discredit DeSantis but continue to have faith in the federal govt, the CDC, the FDA, Psaki, the mainstream media, on and on, when such a bold lie like that is told and none of them call him out on it?
I think the vaccine is supposed to greatly lessen the severity of Covid-19 - not prevent it. The reason to have people vaccinated is to allow the ICU wards in hospitals to be able to keep up with the rate of admissions, that can easily get out of hand by people infected with Covid showing up in emergency wards in need of medical assistance. Also by keeping the amount of people being admitted because of a Covid infection at a manageable rate it allow for other life threatening operations and procedures to proceed because the doctors and nurses would not be tied up with Covid patients.A final thought here: if someone decides not to get vaccinated - that is a personal choice - but with every choice we make we have to be prepared to accept the consequences of those choices , good or bad. I was thinking the other day that if two people show up in an emergency ward and one has a severe reaction to a Covid infection, and they chose not to get the vaccine and another shows up with another life threatening condition and the ward can only deal with one of them (because they are over run with the amount of Covid patients being treated) - then in this scenario one is there because of a choice they made not to get vaccinated and did not avail themselves of a vaccine that has been proven to greatly lessen the effects of the virus and the other is there because of something that was completely out of their control - who should be treated first - the one who in this case made the wrong decision by not taking a free vaccine or the other that had no choice?
Greg. I am a critical care RN. I work at a large medical center. I very much understand how this works. I do it for a living.
You need to be very, very careful making the argument. EVERY SINGLE DAY we admit patients, lots and lots of patients, who made less than ideal decisions for themselves. Decisions that directly led to their admission. So if we are going to play this game of “we have one room left in the ICU - who was most virtuous?” for Covid, we need to do it for all diseases.
Whose BMI is the worst? Which patient skipped a doctor’s appointment this past year? Who is still smoking? Did you engage in illicit drug use in the past? Did you have unprotected sex???? Well we are sorry but you didn’t live quite right. You didn’t make the right decisions. We are not going to provide you with medical care.
Greg. I distinctly recall the public getting its panties in a wad because the ICUs were 85% at capacity back in the beginning of the pandemic. I nearly died laughing. Pre-Covid had i walked into the hospital and learned that we had a single ICU floor that was only at 85% capacity I would have been elated. Pre-Covid they were always full. Daily we had to wait hours to get many patients into an ICU bed.
The reason the hospitals are so full is NOT because of Covid in most circumstances. Covid challenged us for short periods of time and then it would fade off. I work in a hospital with approximately 1000 beds. At no time did we ever have more Covid patients than we had patients who were there due to a life time of obesity and poorly controlled hypertension.
When hospitals do get dangerously overwhelmed with patients and yes that does happen, we go on diversion. We can transfer patients to nearby hospitals to open up space. And we can open beds in day surgery centers. There are options.
But there is another problem: Staffing. Pre-Covid we had a shortage of nurses. Now? It’s worse. And our fabulous public health and political leadership have hit bottom and purchased shovels to dig deeper. It is not enough to be dealing with a severe nursing shortage. No. We need to fire nurses who do not get a vaccine that does not prevent transmission.
Greg. I work in a unit that has had far more doctors and nurses contract Covid AFTER they were vaccinated (and yes they were infectious, they had fevers, chills, cough and were out for two weeks) than unvaccinated staff who got Covid (who did not get vaccinated either due to choice or because it was last year and no vaccine was available).
The bottom line is this: unless we have a case fatality rate that is multiple times higher than Covid, absolutely no one should ever be forced into undergoing any medical intervention against their will. Informed consent means something. Our patients are not cattle, there to have things done TO them. We want our patients to WANT our help and to choose it freely.
You have no evidence DeSantis lied because there is none. Whoever told you he lied is the liar. The problem we all face, even political leaders, is the information itself is unreliable, both from incompetent collection and analysis, and from purposeful manipulation by corrupt bureaucrats. It persists because so many miseducated people are unable to determine the truth, or don't want to.
Although the time is sort of past for this, we can be smart about how we try to deprogram people if that is our goal. I suggest giving people a copy of the book Rapid Virus Recovery by Thomas Levy. Or the pdf which is here https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.files.wordpress.com/2021/04/rapidvirusrecovery.pdf
Reason i suggest this is because, who doesn't want to know how to quickly heal from an infection? And Dr. Levy asks in the book why all this info is not mainstream and why vaccines are being pushed as the only solution. So it is a low-key way of getting people to think about the vax issue.
Another thing is, if someone is very provax I will ask them to at least check the lot number in VAERS before they get jabbed. 100% of all deaths are concentrated in 5% of the lot numbers. They might start wondering why that is. No quality control?
https://theexpose.uk/2021/10/31/100-percent-of-covid-19-vaccine-deaths-caused-by-just-5-percent-of-the-batches-produced/
Also mention about Japan finding 1.6 million vials from Moderna that were magnetic. Moderna didn't investigate. They just said "don't worry, it's safe." So people need to check their vials for magnetism before they get the jab.
I mentioned these issues to a provax pharmacist and he was at a loss for words.
Civ-Hoax: Thanks for this!!!!
Thank you for your comment Lena. It makes me feel seen and heard.
I’m afraid that this article misses a lot. I too have a family that fortunately is not making its difference the cutting knife. But I do t think, just like pointed out, that we’re equal in any way.
Just as I wrote this my husband got a call from his school to inform him that from now on students must present a certificate to be allowed in class, and just like that the mandates made my husband the capo. If these long standing wounds that drive people to inflict wound on others are not dealt with I’m afraid I’ll hover with you like a hawk
I am sorry your husband is having to go through this. There is zero excuse for this. There is no public health benefit from any of this.
I have lost count of how many people I know who got vaccinated and then later contracted Covid. There is zero scientific or ethical basis for mandating the vaccines.
If this is ever over, we must always remember that the “we were just trying to save lives” excuse is the sister to the “I was just following orders” excuse.
Patients must ALWAYS be free to refuse any proposed medical intervention. Our job as health care providers is to OFFER assistance and TEACH patients what all of their options are.
We should never promote compulsion and should be endlessly vocal against coercing others (such as professors/teachers, for example) to enforce unethical mandates that are so thoroughly divorced from scientific evidence.
Please convey my sympathy to your poor husband. It is inexcusable he has been placed on this position and there should be everlasting shame in the medical community for not vociferously standing up against this.
Lena, I had the same impression reading the article, Charles misses the disillusionment(?) when recognizing beloved ore esteemed ones giving way to very bad and authoritative ideas.
The fact that someone simply "forget's" the most basic notions of mercy - just because she may be personally endangered - is not easy to take. I do not know how to kope that, how to just continue a "happy marriage", a "happy family", independent of the external decrease of paranoic pressure.
I'm afraid just not talking about "this" will not really help.
One more thing I'll say here is that the adherents of "trust the science" are unwitting participants in a form of fundamentalism that dates back to when science separated itself from the church by adopting a rationalist-materialist model of the universe as a cold lifeless machine. This deadening cosmological outlook goes back hundreds of years and lends itself all too well to the machinations of relentless industrial "growth," which functions as a kind of quasi-religious principle.
Scientists basically installed themselves as the new clergy and have operated that way ever since. Throw mega-scale capitalism into the mix and what you get is an oligarchy that uses scientists as its front spokespeople -- the exact same way that priests existed to fatten the massive coffers of a Catholic Church during the Middle Ages.
What I'm getting at is that people have been known to do all sorts of horrific things and commit atrocities in the name of religion. People who are religious fundamentalists but don't even know it are probably more dangerous. These people trust scientific and medical authorities to the point that they would put their own children at risk for this vaccine. Whatever you feel like your blindly pro-vax friends and relatives are doing to you personally, let's not lose sight of the phone that they were willing to subject THEMSELVES to these risks too.
The famous phrase from the Bible "Lord forgive them, for they know not what they do" has come to mind so many times for me lately.
Your point about science taking over where the catholic clergy left off - yes. A thousand times yes. These people ridicule Christianity but they are religious fundamentalists - their religion is just science, not God.
What you say in this post could be turned into an entire book. It is so so true.
The solution is the trifurcation. Not all humans are part of the same human family. Some will part ways because they changed their dna. They will be sent elsewhere to live their life and yes they likely will have edited memories of what crisis was solved by what solution. Earth will trifurcate into 3 paths.
“ I am Christian and therefore I am required to forgive the people who voted for and advocated for my destruction. Because that is what that was”
I do not forgive them. Not one of them. You are a better person than I …
Truly I am not. But through all of this I have realized that Gods real. I believe I will see Him some day and have to answer for what I have done and it done in this life of mine. Yes I feel utterly betrayed but He did as well while He was on this earth
It’s funny but their is a verse in the Bible: For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” – Matthew 11.28-30.
I think about it. The rules He asks us to honor are so much easier to follow than the endless, intrusive, ever changing dictates our government keeps suffocating us with. So I prefer the lighter yoke. It is where I will find rest.
You say are a Christian but you sound paranoid it is a contradiction in my view
Sounds more to me she’s just a realist with a compassionate heart, trying to do her best navigating all the insanity around these medical mandates, forced jabs and other ridiculous and authoritarian moves by “healthcare” and government officials who refuse to recognize the emerging science behind these too often, dangerous products.
Paranoid could be defined as, "An unrealistic distrust of others or a feeling of being persecuted."
I don't feel what Lena described was "unrealistic distrust". Humans en masse unfortunately don't have the greatest track record, in history, or of late.
Christians are called to be love "centered" rather than fear based. Called to love God (who is everywhere), to love one another, and to love our enemies.
Christians are also called to use discernment.
Lena did not mention it, but some also consider these times a spiritual war. We are challenged in our relationship with self and with others, to be loving, and to have discernment.
We are each unique, and I like to believe we are work in progress. Times like these amplify challenges and learnings...
Much gratitude to Charles for his sharings, and to all of you for the engaging reflections. A rich opportunity indeed.
I don't see paranoia in what she has written and can't help to think that projection is at hand.
Aidawedo - the beauty of being Christian is that I am only required to be concerned about God’s opinion of me.
We await your rock solid evidence that DeSantis falsified numbers. Evidence. Not opinion.
https://climate.law.columbia.edu/content/covid-19-data-misrepresented-florida-governor Will this do? Probably not, why would you trust any authorities or even scientists?
1. The article you sent me was the first article that appears in a Google search about DeSantis, Covid and misrepresentation. Is that the level of research you conducted?
2. The evidence you sent me about public health is from a climate change law journal. That is odd.
3. I do not see any date associated with this journal entry. When was this published?
4. It references a Sun Sentinel article that was published all the way back in Dec of 2020. The article also is behind a pay wall so it can’t be read to examine the evidence.
5. On March 30, 2021, this was reported by Alex Nazaryan (hint: none of these people are remotely impressed with the claim that DeSantis covered up anything).
Lauren Rossen, a statistician at the National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who has analyzed excess deaths, told Yahoo News that she saw nothing exceptionally suspicious in the state’s excess death numbers.
“Florida doesn’t stand out to me,” she said.
Other critics of Tatar’s findings described Florida as neither a glowing success nor an unmitigated disaster but rather a state that has handled the pandemic with some successes and some failures, with the excess death data reflecting that mixed record.
Jason Salemi, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of South Florida, told Yahoo News that it was wrong to assume that every excess death during the period in question should be attributed directly to those who contracted the coronavirus, especially since people who were never infected may still have been fearful of seeking care for other conditions while the pandemic surged and hospitals filled with COVID-19 patients.
“You could’ve never gotten the coronavirus, delayed needed health care, and died from diabetes-related complications. That’s still indirectly tied to the pandemic,” Salemi told Yahoo News, describing Florida’s statistics regarding all-cause excess deaths and the coronavirus as “kind of middle-of-the-pack.”
Excess deaths were at 21 percent nationwide for 2020, according to the CDC; Florida saw a 15.5 percent rate of excess deaths for the period that Tatar studied. California’s excess death rate was also 15 percent, despite that state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, having enacted much more stringent restrictions than did DeSantis in Florida.
Salemi runs a Florida-focused coronavirus dashboard and frequently talks to state epidemiologists. “I don’t think there’s anything egregious going on with the data,” he told Yahoo News. “I would know. I am just constantly in these data.”
Link: https://www.yahoo.com/now/florida-covid-numbers-face-new-scrutiny-090058319.html
6. I believe the evidence you want to find has to do with a Ms. Rebekah Jones. She is the woman who used to work at the FL DOH who claimed without evidence that she was instructed to delete the number of deaths due to Covid.
Jones admitted later on in a Tweet that she was ever asked to delete Covid deaths. I am happy to send you a snap shot of that tweet if you like.
Here is a link to the NY Post article about Ms. Jones. It is not behind a paywall and it has names, dates, sources and links about what is being reported so it can be assessed by everyone.
https://nypost.com/2021/05/13/how-rebekah-jones-peddled-lies-about-florida-covid-19-deaths/
Stephanie - I sincerely doubt you will forget. This has gone on for two years and the damage has been extensive. Life altering. Once you realize that you can’t trust someone, everything else that comes out of their mouth is suspect. And that makes everything they do suspect.
Nice essay, wonderful thoughts. The problem is there is a predator class out there that wont leave us alone. These organizations aka "the state" are filled with people who wont put family first , or who wont forgive and forget. These groups are hell bent on dominating others. They use weapons of propaganda, blackmail, and fear to divide families and pit different groups in society which otherwise could coexist peacefully , against each other. These groups are relentless. They wont leave us alone. Every day it seems there is a new real or proposed depredation foisted upon us. Eventually the oppression and tyranny will become so great that the society will collapse and everyone will have to pick a side.
"They" are part of our family, too, even though they may not realize it. All we can do is stay true to our own hearts and radiate that love out <3
yes but we still have to protect ourselves and we all have to set boundaries. Forcing my children to wear a face diaper, compelling me to accept experimental medication and injections and gun confiscation are non starters. its bad enough I have to surrender over 40% of my productive labor efforts to the regime so they can bribe their friends and keep power.
Every action I take is a choice. Each individual, including myself, chooses. Perhaps this means choosing exclusion, prison, or even leaving life in this body as a result of my choices. I can only be true to what feels like my own heart, and know that this love ripples out in ways I have no control over or perhaps will never see. As Charles wrote, The Rehearsal is Over.
I am seeing in small cracks , where the light comes in - to quote Leonard Cohen , in spite of the oppression and tyranny , a desire to connect beyond what is being forced on us , beyond segregation , separation, the place where we meet in our humanity . It’s not everywhere of course , it’s a minority but these connections in spite of it all are very strong , very powerful . It’s worth focusing on them , this energy will grow . It has the ability to turn everything around , very slowly from the inside out. This is the reunion ♥️
I have had the very same thought or premonition as you have called it .
It moved through me like an electric whisp of wind; an illuminated nano second where I could see and feel this possibility as a true reality not based on wishful thinking but based on actual experience .
I thought ‘this could actually be the very thing that helps our conditioned societies to connect in our humanity despite our stark differences in choices, sides of arguments , world views , lifestyle . Our human connection is more than that’
I have finally seen and felt that we can transcend the tribal restrictions and connect with love for our fellow man.
Wow! Who would have though that this increasingly shocking situation would give birth to something we strive for and rarely seem to truly manage .
But I feel it with my friends . I feel it with my family and it moves me as our love for each other is richly felt in our recent meetings and larger gatherings. I have mentioned it . I have noted it . We are accepting each other’s choices and views and we connect in absolute joy it seems beyond that place. The love between us is palpable . We appreciate our togetherness. We see each other more deeply it seems and feel our mutual respect for traversing this terrain.
Whilst I am aware that some families are being torn apart over their responses to our current global situation , lives are being turned upside down , some people have lost their entire friendship groups , I realised my own experience can’t be isolated.
So this very uplifting piece that you have written harmoniously resonates with the elevated thought that moved through me and it landed within me as a heart - bursting yes! Yes, I know what you’re describing , Yes, I share your premonition despite what our media is so voraciously attempting to create.
I recall Ram Dass saying our differences don’t have to separate us . We can see the differences and love and connect despite and beyond that .
I always sensed that was idealistic and perhaps possible for an enlightened/ evolved few but now I see, I feel , I have experienced that is well within our beautiful human capabilities.
Withstanding this collective trauma together has the ability to smash apart all those views that acted as barriers and obstacles keeping our daily tribal warfare fuelled .
We can feel what matters .
We have been set up to fight .
I don’t want to fight
I want to love
I do love
And I have real hope for something I never thought would be possible .
Lesley I also had the same premonition
😍 it’s in the ether to be absorbed
Yes!!!!!
me too! It came to me in Fall of 2020 and hasn't left me. The term that came to me was a "love revolution". I certainly haven't always been able to get my heart to where it needs to be for this, but the idea keeps coming back again and again, and now here too. I guess it's really the whole basis of Christianity isn't it? Love people anyway...
I feel aligned with you once again Charles, I just finished a new spoken-word piece called "What will be will be" (to be shared soon I think). I also love that you shared the picture of your family at dinner. That warmed my smile.
I know there is both real harm happening and real distress being experienced across the world during this time. And I know your words are not meant to diminish these perspectives. But whilst we make important and significant choices for ourselves - whether to jab or not to jab, to resist measures or comply, if we can do so without "othering" those who choose differently, we can avoid the conflicts lasting long into the future once natural conclusions become played out. Resentment closes ears, minds and hearts. We all have to do as we must - each of us, but we don't have to embrace hatred in order to do so.
Thank you. I am striving to rise above my own self righteousness. I'm hoping for the whimper you foresee.
The real conflict is not the vax, or the virus, or the treatments, but the oppression of demanding that the tribe conform to a central command. We can argue about the basis for the commands, and those arguments may indeed decline. But as long as the tyranny of command remains, the conflict will not end.
agreed, i really like the message Charles is conveying here, but we can't ignore the control grab that is still in progress.
And it is progressively getting worse. I live in Canada. I have been put on unpaid leave since November 1st. I have a doctor’s letter of exemption due to my health. It was rejected by my employer who periodically sets up meetings to confirm my non-compliance. Each time, because I attempt to establish why I cannot comply, I am disciplined with suspension for insubordination. At some point I will be fired for repeated insubordination. I have no means to provide for myself. Most jobs now require you to be vaxxed. I am 62 and a widow. Employment insurance rules have been changed recently so that, if you are fired for not receiving the vax, you cannot qualify. It is illegal for unvaxxed to gather in any place. This, to me, is not about whether I can sit across the table from my family and appreciate the harmony despite opposing views. I am begging for help in the fight against tyranny. In one province it is now possible for the unvaxxed to be shut out of grocery stores. I, thankfully, don’t live in that one, though It won’t matter soon. I won’t be able to afford groceries. And now, in Calgary, where I live, a family returning from Egypt, parent fully vaxxed, was arrested at the airport and put in quarantine until they receive results from PCR tests, although they tested negative in Cairo and Frankfurt. Once they receive the results, they will still have to quarantine at home for 14 days, with the threat of a $750,000 fine for breaking quarantine. What kind of madness is this? I have no problem with who wants to be vaxxed. I need people to stand up and fight. Soon we will all be in the same boat no matter our stance on COVID or our vaccination status. This is an attack on our very lives and I am down on my knees, begging for help.
Begging never works. It's like paying taxes or playing slot machines -- at some point you do the cost-benefit math and pay the bill or cash out. Governments and their complicit corporations have abused us since the dawn of time. We usually force them back in line, eventually. The need to fight oppressors is part of the human condition. The cost of the fight is always high so we tend to tolerate oppression for a while. The oppressor tries to gradually increase the pressure, to benefit from our complacency. But there's a time to fight in the open, and a time to retreat and regroup. When government and corporations conspire to abuse us, it's better to comply, survive, and apply all our energies toward punishing our oppressors.
Revenge for this travesty is certain. We should make lists.
How do I comply? I cannot risk my health for a shot that doesn't work in order to keep my job. There is no liability. I suppose I will have to get creative. I feel like I am speaking to people who have a lot of resources and do not understand what it is like to be backed into a corner. I will take being homeless to being compliant, possibly injured and part of the problem. God give me strength and courage to stand.
Apparently you're risking your health by resisting. The threshold should be determined as unemotionally as possible.
I would be risking my health if I complied. Yes, I am emotional. I am also a survivor. This is going to go one of two ways. I have nothing to gain by complying and everything to gain when it all comes crumbling down. I just need to last that long.
I’m struggling with this one. I totally subscribe on a political arena where our shared humanity is the core principle and motivator and drive towards action.
Firstly, as someone who’s not vaccinated and is not interested in taking a vaccine I suffered a lot of blaming and shaming from those who see me as a danger to society. I didn’t have the experience (and it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist) that people who are not vaccinated shame and blame the vaxed.
Sencond, I can easily see how those who are marching with their righteousness will for sure drop their accusations and say “it doesn’t matter, we got vaccinated and that was the solution and we can move back to normal, which is all we wanted”. (The political heads only need to bring up the next narrative). Yet for me, who’s living in Europe and facing the threat of joining Austria and Germany where vax is mandatory and there’s a real violation of people’s liberty - carried by the hands of people - I find it very difficult to subscribe to the idea of just dropping the argument. Not because I care about acceptance or wanting to be right, because justice does mean something to me!
When you’re forced to lock in your home for your choices (which initially are not political but where colonised by politics), when you’re suffering loss of livelihood and living day to day under imminent threat, when the people are the arm of political parties and their verdict, we’re looking at a crack very similar to what happened after the Holocaust. Coming from a Jewish family and working with many German people I can tell you that the trauma goes deep and just dropping the argument won’t cut it. Because we need to learn how to create a society that appreciates one another for our shared humanity, which makes me wonder what would be the point in politics in such a world at all?!
Beautiful sentiment, and one I wholeheartedly agree with. Maybe one day we will get there but the human race is as far away from that point as it ever was. All we can do is show love and compassion and hope it's infectious as any so-called pandemic.
Beautiful! This left me with a practical question though... how did those in your family who are ardently pro-vax accept to be in the same room with those who are not vaccinated? I want for the same scenario to be possible in my family, however it would require the vaxed among us to drop their requirement for others in their presence to be vaxed. Or for some other condition to be met like a 2-week quarantine beforehand or a negative test. How was that issue resolved in your family?
Does the requirement for others in their presence to be vaxxed make sense when the vax does not prevent transmission or infection? It only claims to reduce severity of disease in the vaxxed, a benefit they will surely experience no matter who is in their presence.
Unfortunately, that's just not how my family members see it :(
Right, existential and political decisions still had to be made. One side had to compromise for it to happen. Perhaps it was a real compromise with everyone getting tested or perhaps it wasn’t and the vaccinated folks just gave in. Either way, there is no avoiding politics.
Just started a vacation with family and best advice from this article is focus on the family and give those other things NO energy....not even going to clarify in this comment.
Thanks, this is exactly what I needed to hear right now.
"Hey, remember when you guys wanted us stripped of our jobs, freedoms, and right to Healthcare? Remember rounding some of us into camps and shuttering others under police or military guard in their homes?
Remember when you forced us to shoot up our kids if we wanted them to get an education? Remember when they wore masks for no reason for 2 years straight, and collectively lost 22 IQ points? Remember the ones that died from that shot they never needed?"
"Ho-ho, I guess we were both a little wrong there. Kind of silly and trivial, now that I think about it! I wonder why I got so worked up about your desire for a global totalitarian state. Geez, I cringe just thinking about how I made it my identity to resist that!
"Anyway, who cares about any of that, fellow human! ❤"
Hi :) I find myself thinking like this too and try to remember that when I show someone compassion no matter what they have done their heart can open and they can see things clearly for themselves. I have been at the other end of receiving this compassion when i did not deserve it. It melted my heart and helped me to understand my mistakes and seek forgiveness.
Maybe they can open their heart, but they usually don't. A mistake that kind people often make is projecting their kindness on the evil. Never works. Graveyards are full of people who turned the other cheek.
Charles always writes compellingly, but here I'd argue he's skirted some deeply unpalatable truths.
There is a class of people on this earth who have no desire to reconcile themselves with the rest of humanity. They see themselves as the rightful rulers of a domain that is theirs to tinker with as they see fit. All of it.
We play no part in their plans, other than as agents of their will.
This really ought to be very clear by now.
Healing and reconciliation can only mean anything once there's been a reckoning - and a mighty big one is looming ever closer.
This Thanksgiving I flew from California to Texas to be with dear friends because my family declined my offer to share Thanksgiving with them - despite my post covid status.
Charles - this article, like all of your articles, is gorgeous and contains many nuggets. However, how can it be said that these times will just fade from view? Has the Holocaust softened with time into a mere difference of opinion? What about South Africa's apartheid? No! We must remember these tyrannies long enough to correct and heal the ways of thinking and the dysfunctional systems that allow them to occur over and over and over again.
At the very least, a national discussion needs to be had about our health care system and the people running it. RFK Jr.'s book, The Real Anthony Fauci, demonstrates in excruciating detail a long standing pattern of suppressing therapeutics to the detriment of those suffering the disease and just like with covid, many died as a result. It's a disturbing yet very enlightening read.
Had I been welcomed by my family of origin without a double vaccine PLUS a mask, it may have been a family time much like you described, where, despite our different sensibilities, we we gratefully united and rejoiced at being a together. But when we are excluded because of our beliefs (and in my opinion due to a stubborn resistance to learn about the actual risks of covid, natural immunity, etc.) how can we feel a part of, and secure in, the family bond?
I am so very glad for you Charles; however, for many people around the globe, particularly Australia, Austria and now Germany, the tide has not turned.
Now that is a post I can resonate with. I don't always agree with your perspective but I always am willing to read your posts. Your family is a testament to what possible when love and compassion are more important than defending one's position or opinion. Well done brother, thank you tor standing for harmony.
Beautifully expressed and beautiful timing. I am witnessing the “whimper” as you speak(and your words give it clarity and traction).
It is a beautiful and higher thinking piece, that exhibits the best of human compassion and love. We all have the capacity to reach this level of compassion.
However, I think the opportunity to achieve this "hive mind like" unspoken agreement to simple get on with living instead of winning the argument, has passed.
Too many have and continue to die or be permanently damaged in the name of public health. I don't think the teenagers that have had their hearts damaged will simply shrug their shoulders and go "meh". The depravity goes even further, to now deny them acknowledgment, by fabricating new diagnosis- "cold weather heart attacks"! PPSTD- "post pandemics stress disorder"!
The tally of quality of life years lost to these willfully misguided public health measures, for large swathes of people, has not been quantified and quite frankly I don't think anyone has ( in the next 20years at least), the stomach for it, because as a guess, I think we will find that humanity has just eclipsed ALL of our previous atrocities records combined.