I've read the work of Hughes, Kyrie, and Broudy which is critical of some of the conclusions that Desmet makes in his book, The Psychology of Totalitarianism, but I came away a bit unsatisfied with the numerous claims made--the least of which isn't the lack coconspritors identified by the authors and who claim are certain to exist. Granted, I don't want to use the fallacy logic of stating that a lack of evidence (of names, in this case) is the same as evidence of the lack of the same. I have a few minor objections to other claims made but may be simply the sort of simple misrepresentations of Desmet's positions, positions that may simply require some amplification on his part.
I'm certain that both Desmet and the authors, if given enough time and space, could produce a credible list; however, I'd argue that this exercise might not alter the credible conclusions drawn in Desmet's work--a work, it should also should be said, was written well in advance of a growing body of evidence surrounding the "atrocity side" of the mass formation phenomenon which was described in The Psychology of Totalitarianism. To accuse Desmet of simply "blaming the victims" with what he's posited in the book tends to miss the mark. Moreover, if Breggen and Breggen would have done more than taken that that rather narrow view of the book, they too would have been more persuassive. Hughes, Kylie, and Boudy should be allowed to debate freely with Desmet but, without the benefit of a defense from the accused, the criticisms lose some substance with this reader. Atrocities aside, authoritarianism definitely gained an insurmountable position within humanity's fabric. That's not to say that the well-defined and formidable 30% (not a "fleeting" reference in his book, imo) who make up the resistance in the theory described in The Psychology of Totalitarianism cannot effectively put up a fight. Livesvwill be lost and more will be ruined but Totalitarianism is destined to fail. The challenge will be fought on a spiritual as much as--if not more--on a rational level.
As always, you make really good points, Reggie. The Psychology of Totalitarianism certainly resonated with many, many people who were seeing the truth and were both appalled and befuddled that the majority of people were going along with it. There's no question that there's a psychology at work that we've never seen in our lifetimes. And you make an excellent point that much of what we know today wasn't known at that time.
There seem to be two sides and I don't fully identify with either. You're way ahead of me in having the read the book but what I remember from the animation (Academy of Ideas?) was some disdain for the people who followed blindly. It didn't seem to acknowledge that those people are us, in different circumstances.
The other side seems to be obsessed with evil and a religious condemnation of the perpetrators, which Desmet doesn't do enough of. I think those people are also me, in other circumstances.
The question that I'd like to ask someone who wouldn't feel attacked by the question is "What would it mean to see a connection between the vaccine and this bad thing that's happened to you or someone you love?" Desmet shows why there is a vulnerability to manipulation, but the other half is how that vulnerability is exploited. That's where I'd like to see both sides come together. Thanks for your thoughtful response, and I agree completely with your last two sentences in particular.
Well, as someone who has suffered a lacunar infart from from a thrombogenic incident (clot) in the small vessels located in the ventral posterolateral thalamus from an alleged vax injury (per my medical team anyway--who cannot be identified for obvious reasons), I can speak to part of your question (my immediate family can answer the other). I hold no grudges. I made as much as an informed decision as I could have at the time (similar to Robert Malone's circumstances) and agreed to get jabbed. I had an overseas trip scheduled and took the path of least resistance (travel ease). Blaming myself, a sinister cabal, or a pyschpathic trioka made up of Big Pharma, Big Tech, and Big Govt reps doesn't much matter to me. Maybe it's all part of a spiritual commitment to leave judgment to Others (capital "O" deliberate) or, more probably, I scored a "1" on a scale of 0 to 42 on the NIH stroke scale (42 being the worst) and recovered almost completely--six months out. Bad batch, too: Pfizer EN6204 (howbadismybatch.com: 103 deaths per a VAERS readout; 38 for my second jab). And I'm giving Desmet and authors Hughes, Kyrie, and Boundy (sp?) the benefit of the doubt: their opinions are up for context, amplification, and vociferous defense. Placing blame is secondary, imo. Preventing an expansion of the totalitarianism that spawned this atrocity is job #1. Mattias Desmet (and Arhent, et al) are pro'ly right: eliminating the elite responsible for this will simply result in them being replaced. From what we've seen from our world's judicial systems over the past century or so, what guarantees does humanity have that the guilty parties will get their just deserts (sp?)? Jus' sayin'. One man's opinion. Don't make too much of it.
And not to sound too unempathetic, people are fooled every day. I'm taking as much stock in that as being central to the issue of totalitarianism, as I would if we were to argue about 1950s cigarette ads or 35,000 kids dying daily from starvation...although I do admit to getting worked up about that. Befuddlement, bewilderment, even bemusement will be part of this vax fiasco for future generations too, I suppose.
Or the scam that cholesterol and fats cause heart disease...
That one got me even when I was questioning jabs and meds.
Cholesterol lowering statins and their side effects is what woke me up to that sham.
The convid vaccines are doing the same for many people and it gives me hope, though I'm angry at the pain and suffering that so many have gone through in the hands of big industry!
I just saw a great takedown of Dr. Attia's attack of the authors who chastised the medical community for using relative risk reduction stats as opposed to absolute risk reduction numbers in the statin game foisted on us. Interesting comment. Thanks! Psychopharmapaths are dangerous!
Cool. I'll be on the lookout. I've been having some back-and-forth with friends privately who have been watching the attacks on Desmet and his work (two different things, one might add..as did Waters) and are surprised to see some of their conformation bias fade away after reading The Psychology of Totalitarianism. That's just how our human minds work so I'm not impressed by that phenomenon. Pretty typical. Flows nicely with the work that Tversky and Kahneman and then, later, Kahneman individually with his Thinking Fast and Slow.
Plenty to discuss. This reaction to the pandemic sure stirred the pot, eh? Ah, humanity. It's a beautiful thing!
"The lockdowns gave us a taste of slowing down, expanding time, having leisurely talks and walks—it wasn’t altogether a bad thing. If it had been intentional, as a way of families, neighborhoods and then communities taking care of each other, it could have revived worlds within world, the intimate worlds that are dying from neglect."
With all due respect, Tereza, I really don't think that lockdowns, or the idea of lockdowns, can ever possibly be redeemed as something good on balance, even in the very best of all possible worlds. It flies completely in the face of human nature for these anti-human abominations to lead to anything good that cannot be achieved otherwise.
Nothing even remotely approaching utopia in all of history, anywhere, has ever been achieved by lockdowns. Ever. A far more likely result would be a dystopia akin to Susan Cooper's dystopian novel "Mandrake". And that's with even the very best of intentions. Even if there are some short-term benefits initially, as the weeks turn into months and the months turn into years, those benefits evaporate while the harms just keep on accumulating.
It may sound like I am merely boxing ghosts right now in 2023 to continue to belabor this point. But we need to collectively say "NEVER AGAIN!" (and mean it!) to the whole entire package deal (gene therapy jabs, masks, any mandates of either, antisocial distancing, business closures, school closures, travel restrictions, gathering bans or restrictions, and of course lockdowns), lest they try that crap again in the future thinking they could get away with it. That includes any future attempts to impose "climate lockdowns" as well, something the Davos gang apparently seems to be cynically salivating over as we speak.
Well-made point, Ajax, and you're right that lockdowns are not something that's ever good because it's imposed from above. I agree that we need to reject that entire way of thinking because they're planning to continue as long as they can get away with it.
I need a different term to describe what I mean and, at the same time, provide an alternative vision to counter the next manufactured crisis. At the beginning of 2020, under my economic model, I talked about young people delivering groceries to those who wanted to sequester, and health care volunteers in each neighborhood planning regular visits. If households had stayed apart for two weeks, blocks could have socialized for another two, neighborhoods opened up to help each other for two more, and communities interact for a couple more. Parks, beaches, walking neighborhoods, food sharing, home medical visits, postponement of mortgages and rents and business leases during the time they were closed. We could have used the opportunity to help each other stay safe, and find a way to live less stressful lives.
For some of us, we were lucky in the lockdowns. For the vast majority, not so much.
True overall, but even then, what about the next wave, and the next? Would it have been repeated under your economic model? What would be the off button? The virus would not possibly have been eradicated even under your economic model, as it was already ubiquitous and slow burning for months before. Herd immunity (or more accurately, endemicity) of course would have been reached much sooner without the jabs (which actually worked against natural immunity), and lockdowns only delayed that process at best. The only way out of a pandemic is through. Sweden had the right idea overall, as did the handful of other countries (and 12 states) who eschewed lockdowns.
Also, what about all of the "essential" workers? There would be no way to keep them all home, not even for just two weeks. I should know, because I was (and still am) one of them myself.
Thanks for the reply, Ajax. Under my economic model, each community would have determined their own response and had the means of suspending or deferring debt payments, since those would have been to their own community bank denominated in a community credit system I call the caret. They'd have the power to issue carets for any purpose they chose like paying essential workers hazard pay or thanking volunteers or paying UBI to everyone.
When the vaccine became available, doctors could have prescribed it but with careful follow-up and tracking. Without the censorship and data manipulation, I think it would only have taken weeks for the truth to come out.
I'm in agreement with you about the only way being 'through'. I wouldn't personally choose to sequester and, like I said, I don't think it should have been mandated. But at least having communities choose their own policies and focusing on helping rather than mandating would have given us data to compare.
Teresa, On WORDS & CULTURE, LANGUAGE & POLYGLOTISM.
I've had the privilege over my life of knowing a dozen Polyglots over my 71 years. Four of the Polyglots speak & understand some 16 Languages each. Two friends are proficient in 8-10 First Nation languages as well as 8-10 international languages. I've had a number of Polyglots live with me over many years so can attest to their proficiency & cultural habits. They all learn culturally through immersion or osmosis from being immersed. All shy away from most formal grammar learning because that is not the way their minds compose language. One studied at MIT with Chomsky, but didn't have a good impression of Noam's methodology. Universities & language schools have difficulty achieving this level of proficiency because imposed Grammar tends to dumb-down the human mind's natural structuring of language systems. I'm bilingual just in French, English, rusty in Sign Language & the ability to follow some meaning in Spanish, some other Latin Languages & Russian spoken, but have always enjoyed words, syllabics & etymologies from a very young age.
CULTURAL PROXIMITY: I live 35 years now, in a Housing development with 3500 people living in ~830 Multihome-Dwelling housing (780 Apartments & 50 Townhouses) units on 40 acres, 33 acres of which was built as a Garden City (see concepts of Frederick Olmsted) in 1955. Canadian Mortgage & Housing Corporation CMHC provided funding for a non-profit corporation which failed in financial & physical management, as did this one, then sold to private interests, who've done a pretty good job of maintenance overall. The social & livelihood goals of the complex, as almost all such 1950s institutional experiments, were never realized due to a lack of understanding of Cultural Economy & organization.
CULTURAL POLYGLOTISM: I'm impressed here by the international cultures of the neighbourhood, with 450 Slav (Russian, Ukrainian, Polish etc.), 450 Spanish, 450 Arabic, 500 French, 450 English, 50 Swahili & Hausa, 50 Hindi-Gujarati, 50 Italian-Romanian & some others. The greatest cultural force is some 1000 people of extended families = ~30% of our residents, living in proximity for social & economic collaboration. The average across Turtle-Island / N. America is about 20% of Extended families in Multihomes. The older generation individuals tend to have talents for multiple languages. The younger generations play together, so I will often hear kids speaking 3 or more languages in their talks with each other, beginning in one language & switching mid stream. I know some youth each speaking 7 languages supported by their parents natural language understandings & guidance. Such a blessing but the local schools are not recognizing or helping they youth further develop their inherent self-taught talents.
PLANDEMIC SCAM LOW UPTAKE: Multihomes as walking, talking & sharing communities, have the LOWEST UPTAKE on the Plan-demic mRNA mass untested, uninformed, uninsured, unmonitored, unreported & untreated silent-suffering orchestrated Eugenics event. Cultural Communities, precisely because of positive, proactive intimate, intergenerational, female-male, interdisciplinary, critical-mass, economies-of-scale interactions among extended families cultivate healthy lifestyles. I see these multiple generations walking, talking & interacting in mutual-aid, at a rate 10 times over what one finds in the detached highway sprawl suburbs. When people intentionally interact in complementary livelihood, they talk, share & see through these multiple nefarious Oligarch population-control scams.
I come from a medical family of MDs Surgeons, Dentists & researchers of 4 generations, so I understand how in order to support consumptive lifestyles, they buy into being purveyors of IATROGENIC ILLNESS. From my contacts with those members of my suburban extended family, brothers, sisters, cousins etc, most got the shot in order to fit-in to the mainstream. Those in my own family, sons, partner & some nieces & nephews did not, but we are the rare ones. Without positive cultural proximity & relationship meaning, cultivated daily in our lives, my birth family become lonely & prone in our artificial lives of mechanical travel, always going somewhere, but nowhere, institutional learning & artificial events.
WHY DON'T ACTIVIST ORGANIZATIONS (fixated on institutional 'change') UNDERSTAND THESE UNIVERSAL CULTURAL ROOTS?
Indigenous / First Nation Culturally Distributed human power starts in the 1) intimate, intergenerational, female-male, critical-mass, economies-of-scale of the ~100 (50-150) person Multihome-Dwelling-Complex (eg. Longhouse-apartment, Pueblo-townhouse & Kanata-village), where collective Domestic 'economy' (Greek 'oikos' = 'home' + 'namein' = 'care-&-nurture') of mostly women is primary while industry & commerce (mostly men) is a subset.
CULTURING THE POSITIVE ELIMINATES THE NEGATIVE
1) Multihomes along with 2) time-based equivalency accounting & 3) Council-Process are the positive proactive process foundations of indigenous law worldwide called the 'Great-Good-Way-of-Kindness' aka 'Great-Law-of-Peace' aka 'Constitution'. Contrast these with the negative, fake 'money' (Greek 'mnemosis' = 'memory') Oligarch commanded colonial Thou-shalt-not Noahide laws, 10 Commandments etc. of perpetual war, extraction, exploitation, scarcity & poverty.
20% of Multihome-dwellers are extended-families living intentionally in proximity for social & economic collaboration. Multihome-extended-family contribute 2trillion$ of the most individually appropriate goods, services, sharing caring/year, as Turtle-Island, N-America's largest essential Economic sector, albeit unrecognized by government, education & institutions.
UNDERSTANDING HISTORIC ROOTS OF OUR LANGUAGE HERITAGE LOSS
Much of this thinking on the Great-Good-Way comes from my involvement in coordinating TST-TETSIONITIOTIAKON, SUSTAINABILITY ROOTED IN HERITAGE a 1998-2000 Geographic Information System GIS Mapping of 105 Mohawk, Wendat & Algonquian Placenames under the auspices of 36 elders at the Kahnawake-Kanehsatake Onkwawen:na Language Centre. Some 40 students (PhD, Post-Doc, Masters, Bachelor & College) & a couple of Profs from McGill University, Universite de Provence in Marseille, France & a local college. Elders understand the importance of language in culture, ecology & economy as well as the Multihome cultural method of learning & transmission. Indigenous languages are cultural repositories of ecological, economic knowledge. A dozen Quebec & Canadian politicians helped contribute at the time, Our hope was to establish an online repository (accessible to inputs by 1st Nations rural & urban) for compiling the distributed language & placename knowledge to include those 50% of First Nations living in the Urban milieu. This urban Placename mapping is very rare across Turtle-Island because mapping is a key component of establishing the presence of cultural sovereignty. My Anthropology & Archaeology friends are amazed we got this far.
Regardless of over 100 contacts with various possible language & other departments, ESRI software company & other contacts, we did not get cultural buy-in. Even the younger 1st Nation generation has had trouble with what they have adopted as an institutional value system. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/a-home/5-tiohtiake-mohawk-placenames
You cover so many points in this one, I should have taken some notes. I’ll try and remember some of the points I wanted to respond to.
‘Balkanization’ has always struck me as a weird put down word and not just because I’m from the Balkans. 😂 it truly was a move in the right direction for all those people to have their own land that they can call home and govern how they wish to govern. Except Kosovo drew the short end and got landlocked.
When you were talking about the way language is used to evoke a certain military element, it made me think of Gary Sharpe and his post about how we’re constantly ‘fighting’ disease and how our rhetoric reflects a ‘control’ mindset. And ain’t that the truth. We’re out there waging war on terror, and war on drugs, and war on viruses and if we just get that pesticide right, or that chemotherapy tuned up, we’ll get on top. A bunch of bollocks.
There were more things that came up, but I just remember now one final one: I heard that there was/is a tribe whose language doesn’t use the past tense and physically, the people in that tribe age slower. That since they tend to live in the present moment, their bodies whither at a different pace.
Really great stuff here. I see you published it New Year’s Day. I’m sorry to have missed it.
I forgot you were from the Balkans! Did I mention that in this episode or in the comment that led to it? I know I just wrote about wanting to do an episode on that. Steiner writes about the war of the Balkans from that time period and gives a very different perspective. So yes, it's become a shorthand for saying that local self-government is primitive and backwards and ends in disaster.
I've been loving reading Gary. I know a couple of people with Parkinson's and I haven't had the courage (or right moment) to bring him up but it feels like he's learning hard lessons for all of us.
And very interesting about the tribe with no past tense! I have a vague memory that Ursula KlG wrote about something similar but her father was an anthropologist so it would make sense. Thanks for listening/ reading, Tonika!
Yes, I had a rare moment of solitude and quiet to be able to watch, so I only watched the video, hope I'm not missing out on not reading the body of the post. I usually read though and have less of an opportunity to watch. Although your vibe is lovely to take in visually. Looking forward to an episode about Steiner's take on the Balkans.
I'm honored when you can do either, Tonika. This was a good one to watch. I record about half of them first, and then transcribe or recreate it in text form. And the others I write first and then read or paraphrase. But whichever I do second I find boring because I'm ready to move on to a new topic. So sometimes I cheat and just post the quotes. This worked better in video, I thought, and thank you for the kind compliment on my vibe ;-)
I’m really glad you offer a multi prong approach to your content. Gives me a choice in the way I want to consume it at any particular time. But I imagine a lot of time and energy goes into it.
I've put a lot of time and energy into other things with far less satisfying results. Some of them make me exhausted just to think about. Now, instead of haranguing people who don't want to listen, I put my thoughts together and post to almost 2000 people between the two venues, all of whom have chosen to hear from me!
I post something before bed and by morning, 100 people may have watched my video and hundreds opened the email. It's like Christmas to wake up to the kind of conversations I've wanted all my life, with smart kind people like you! A dream come true, as my daughter says.
Hoo-boy, do I resonate with that. Thank you and right back atcha! I really enjoy Substack at this level of mass adaptation. Kinda don’t want too many people finding out about it. 😬
I've read the work of Hughes, Kyrie, and Broudy which is critical of some of the conclusions that Desmet makes in his book, The Psychology of Totalitarianism, but I came away a bit unsatisfied with the numerous claims made--the least of which isn't the lack coconspritors identified by the authors and who claim are certain to exist. Granted, I don't want to use the fallacy logic of stating that a lack of evidence (of names, in this case) is the same as evidence of the lack of the same. I have a few minor objections to other claims made but may be simply the sort of simple misrepresentations of Desmet's positions, positions that may simply require some amplification on his part.
I'm certain that both Desmet and the authors, if given enough time and space, could produce a credible list; however, I'd argue that this exercise might not alter the credible conclusions drawn in Desmet's work--a work, it should also should be said, was written well in advance of a growing body of evidence surrounding the "atrocity side" of the mass formation phenomenon which was described in The Psychology of Totalitarianism. To accuse Desmet of simply "blaming the victims" with what he's posited in the book tends to miss the mark. Moreover, if Breggen and Breggen would have done more than taken that that rather narrow view of the book, they too would have been more persuassive. Hughes, Kylie, and Boudy should be allowed to debate freely with Desmet but, without the benefit of a defense from the accused, the criticisms lose some substance with this reader. Atrocities aside, authoritarianism definitely gained an insurmountable position within humanity's fabric. That's not to say that the well-defined and formidable 30% (not a "fleeting" reference in his book, imo) who make up the resistance in the theory described in The Psychology of Totalitarianism cannot effectively put up a fight. Livesvwill be lost and more will be ruined but Totalitarianism is destined to fail. The challenge will be fought on a spiritual as much as--if not more--on a rational level.
As always, you make really good points, Reggie. The Psychology of Totalitarianism certainly resonated with many, many people who were seeing the truth and were both appalled and befuddled that the majority of people were going along with it. There's no question that there's a psychology at work that we've never seen in our lifetimes. And you make an excellent point that much of what we know today wasn't known at that time.
There seem to be two sides and I don't fully identify with either. You're way ahead of me in having the read the book but what I remember from the animation (Academy of Ideas?) was some disdain for the people who followed blindly. It didn't seem to acknowledge that those people are us, in different circumstances.
The other side seems to be obsessed with evil and a religious condemnation of the perpetrators, which Desmet doesn't do enough of. I think those people are also me, in other circumstances.
The question that I'd like to ask someone who wouldn't feel attacked by the question is "What would it mean to see a connection between the vaccine and this bad thing that's happened to you or someone you love?" Desmet shows why there is a vulnerability to manipulation, but the other half is how that vulnerability is exploited. That's where I'd like to see both sides come together. Thanks for your thoughtful response, and I agree completely with your last two sentences in particular.
Well, as someone who has suffered a lacunar infart from from a thrombogenic incident (clot) in the small vessels located in the ventral posterolateral thalamus from an alleged vax injury (per my medical team anyway--who cannot be identified for obvious reasons), I can speak to part of your question (my immediate family can answer the other). I hold no grudges. I made as much as an informed decision as I could have at the time (similar to Robert Malone's circumstances) and agreed to get jabbed. I had an overseas trip scheduled and took the path of least resistance (travel ease). Blaming myself, a sinister cabal, or a pyschpathic trioka made up of Big Pharma, Big Tech, and Big Govt reps doesn't much matter to me. Maybe it's all part of a spiritual commitment to leave judgment to Others (capital "O" deliberate) or, more probably, I scored a "1" on a scale of 0 to 42 on the NIH stroke scale (42 being the worst) and recovered almost completely--six months out. Bad batch, too: Pfizer EN6204 (howbadismybatch.com: 103 deaths per a VAERS readout; 38 for my second jab). And I'm giving Desmet and authors Hughes, Kyrie, and Boundy (sp?) the benefit of the doubt: their opinions are up for context, amplification, and vociferous defense. Placing blame is secondary, imo. Preventing an expansion of the totalitarianism that spawned this atrocity is job #1. Mattias Desmet (and Arhent, et al) are pro'ly right: eliminating the elite responsible for this will simply result in them being replaced. From what we've seen from our world's judicial systems over the past century or so, what guarantees does humanity have that the guilty parties will get their just deserts (sp?)? Jus' sayin'. One man's opinion. Don't make too much of it.
And not to sound too unempathetic, people are fooled every day. I'm taking as much stock in that as being central to the issue of totalitarianism, as I would if we were to argue about 1950s cigarette ads or 35,000 kids dying daily from starvation...although I do admit to getting worked up about that. Befuddlement, bewilderment, even bemusement will be part of this vax fiasco for future generations too, I suppose.
Or the scam that cholesterol and fats cause heart disease...
That one got me even when I was questioning jabs and meds.
Cholesterol lowering statins and their side effects is what woke me up to that sham.
The convid vaccines are doing the same for many people and it gives me hope, though I'm angry at the pain and suffering that so many have gone through in the hands of big industry!
I just saw a great takedown of Dr. Attia's attack of the authors who chastised the medical community for using relative risk reduction stats as opposed to absolute risk reduction numbers in the statin game foisted on us. Interesting comment. Thanks! Psychopharmapaths are dangerous!
Hi again, Reggie. I just posted the video in which I mention you and respond (somewhat) to the John Waters essay along with this one that I mentioned: https://jimreagen.substack.com/p/on-the-psychology-of-totalitarianism. I'll likely get it up on Substack with text tomorrow but if you'd like a preview. It's called Ideology is Everything: https://youtu.be/KDrgnom5_NM.
Cool. I'll be on the lookout. I've been having some back-and-forth with friends privately who have been watching the attacks on Desmet and his work (two different things, one might add..as did Waters) and are surprised to see some of their conformation bias fade away after reading The Psychology of Totalitarianism. That's just how our human minds work so I'm not impressed by that phenomenon. Pretty typical. Flows nicely with the work that Tversky and Kahneman and then, later, Kahneman individually with his Thinking Fast and Slow.
Plenty to discuss. This reaction to the pandemic sure stirred the pot, eh? Ah, humanity. It's a beautiful thing!
I dont remember the majority of people demanding restrictions and lock downs. That came from the top, not the bottom
"The lockdowns gave us a taste of slowing down, expanding time, having leisurely talks and walks—it wasn’t altogether a bad thing. If it had been intentional, as a way of families, neighborhoods and then communities taking care of each other, it could have revived worlds within world, the intimate worlds that are dying from neglect."
With all due respect, Tereza, I really don't think that lockdowns, or the idea of lockdowns, can ever possibly be redeemed as something good on balance, even in the very best of all possible worlds. It flies completely in the face of human nature for these anti-human abominations to lead to anything good that cannot be achieved otherwise.
Nothing even remotely approaching utopia in all of history, anywhere, has ever been achieved by lockdowns. Ever. A far more likely result would be a dystopia akin to Susan Cooper's dystopian novel "Mandrake". And that's with even the very best of intentions. Even if there are some short-term benefits initially, as the weeks turn into months and the months turn into years, those benefits evaporate while the harms just keep on accumulating.
It may sound like I am merely boxing ghosts right now in 2023 to continue to belabor this point. But we need to collectively say "NEVER AGAIN!" (and mean it!) to the whole entire package deal (gene therapy jabs, masks, any mandates of either, antisocial distancing, business closures, school closures, travel restrictions, gathering bans or restrictions, and of course lockdowns), lest they try that crap again in the future thinking they could get away with it. That includes any future attempts to impose "climate lockdowns" as well, something the Davos gang apparently seems to be cynically salivating over as we speak.
Well-made point, Ajax, and you're right that lockdowns are not something that's ever good because it's imposed from above. I agree that we need to reject that entire way of thinking because they're planning to continue as long as they can get away with it.
I need a different term to describe what I mean and, at the same time, provide an alternative vision to counter the next manufactured crisis. At the beginning of 2020, under my economic model, I talked about young people delivering groceries to those who wanted to sequester, and health care volunteers in each neighborhood planning regular visits. If households had stayed apart for two weeks, blocks could have socialized for another two, neighborhoods opened up to help each other for two more, and communities interact for a couple more. Parks, beaches, walking neighborhoods, food sharing, home medical visits, postponement of mortgages and rents and business leases during the time they were closed. We could have used the opportunity to help each other stay safe, and find a way to live less stressful lives.
For some of us, we were lucky in the lockdowns. For the vast majority, not so much.
True overall, but even then, what about the next wave, and the next? Would it have been repeated under your economic model? What would be the off button? The virus would not possibly have been eradicated even under your economic model, as it was already ubiquitous and slow burning for months before. Herd immunity (or more accurately, endemicity) of course would have been reached much sooner without the jabs (which actually worked against natural immunity), and lockdowns only delayed that process at best. The only way out of a pandemic is through. Sweden had the right idea overall, as did the handful of other countries (and 12 states) who eschewed lockdowns.
Also, what about all of the "essential" workers? There would be no way to keep them all home, not even for just two weeks. I should know, because I was (and still am) one of them myself.
Thanks for the reply, Ajax. Under my economic model, each community would have determined their own response and had the means of suspending or deferring debt payments, since those would have been to their own community bank denominated in a community credit system I call the caret. They'd have the power to issue carets for any purpose they chose like paying essential workers hazard pay or thanking volunteers or paying UBI to everyone.
When the vaccine became available, doctors could have prescribed it but with careful follow-up and tracking. Without the censorship and data manipulation, I think it would only have taken weeks for the truth to come out.
I'm in agreement with you about the only way being 'through'. I wouldn't personally choose to sequester and, like I said, I don't think it should have been mandated. But at least having communities choose their own policies and focusing on helping rather than mandating would have given us data to compare.
Teresa, On WORDS & CULTURE, LANGUAGE & POLYGLOTISM.
I've had the privilege over my life of knowing a dozen Polyglots over my 71 years. Four of the Polyglots speak & understand some 16 Languages each. Two friends are proficient in 8-10 First Nation languages as well as 8-10 international languages. I've had a number of Polyglots live with me over many years so can attest to their proficiency & cultural habits. They all learn culturally through immersion or osmosis from being immersed. All shy away from most formal grammar learning because that is not the way their minds compose language. One studied at MIT with Chomsky, but didn't have a good impression of Noam's methodology. Universities & language schools have difficulty achieving this level of proficiency because imposed Grammar tends to dumb-down the human mind's natural structuring of language systems. I'm bilingual just in French, English, rusty in Sign Language & the ability to follow some meaning in Spanish, some other Latin Languages & Russian spoken, but have always enjoyed words, syllabics & etymologies from a very young age.
CULTURAL PROXIMITY: I live 35 years now, in a Housing development with 3500 people living in ~830 Multihome-Dwelling housing (780 Apartments & 50 Townhouses) units on 40 acres, 33 acres of which was built as a Garden City (see concepts of Frederick Olmsted) in 1955. Canadian Mortgage & Housing Corporation CMHC provided funding for a non-profit corporation which failed in financial & physical management, as did this one, then sold to private interests, who've done a pretty good job of maintenance overall. The social & livelihood goals of the complex, as almost all such 1950s institutional experiments, were never realized due to a lack of understanding of Cultural Economy & organization.
CULTURAL POLYGLOTISM: I'm impressed here by the international cultures of the neighbourhood, with 450 Slav (Russian, Ukrainian, Polish etc.), 450 Spanish, 450 Arabic, 500 French, 450 English, 50 Swahili & Hausa, 50 Hindi-Gujarati, 50 Italian-Romanian & some others. The greatest cultural force is some 1000 people of extended families = ~30% of our residents, living in proximity for social & economic collaboration. The average across Turtle-Island / N. America is about 20% of Extended families in Multihomes. The older generation individuals tend to have talents for multiple languages. The younger generations play together, so I will often hear kids speaking 3 or more languages in their talks with each other, beginning in one language & switching mid stream. I know some youth each speaking 7 languages supported by their parents natural language understandings & guidance. Such a blessing but the local schools are not recognizing or helping they youth further develop their inherent self-taught talents.
PLANDEMIC SCAM LOW UPTAKE: Multihomes as walking, talking & sharing communities, have the LOWEST UPTAKE on the Plan-demic mRNA mass untested, uninformed, uninsured, unmonitored, unreported & untreated silent-suffering orchestrated Eugenics event. Cultural Communities, precisely because of positive, proactive intimate, intergenerational, female-male, interdisciplinary, critical-mass, economies-of-scale interactions among extended families cultivate healthy lifestyles. I see these multiple generations walking, talking & interacting in mutual-aid, at a rate 10 times over what one finds in the detached highway sprawl suburbs. When people intentionally interact in complementary livelihood, they talk, share & see through these multiple nefarious Oligarch population-control scams.
I come from a medical family of MDs Surgeons, Dentists & researchers of 4 generations, so I understand how in order to support consumptive lifestyles, they buy into being purveyors of IATROGENIC ILLNESS. From my contacts with those members of my suburban extended family, brothers, sisters, cousins etc, most got the shot in order to fit-in to the mainstream. Those in my own family, sons, partner & some nieces & nephews did not, but we are the rare ones. Without positive cultural proximity & relationship meaning, cultivated daily in our lives, my birth family become lonely & prone in our artificial lives of mechanical travel, always going somewhere, but nowhere, institutional learning & artificial events.
WHY DON'T ACTIVIST ORGANIZATIONS (fixated on institutional 'change') UNDERSTAND THESE UNIVERSAL CULTURAL ROOTS?
Indigenous / First Nation Culturally Distributed human power starts in the 1) intimate, intergenerational, female-male, critical-mass, economies-of-scale of the ~100 (50-150) person Multihome-Dwelling-Complex (eg. Longhouse-apartment, Pueblo-townhouse & Kanata-village), where collective Domestic 'economy' (Greek 'oikos' = 'home' + 'namein' = 'care-&-nurture') of mostly women is primary while industry & commerce (mostly men) is a subset.
CULTURING THE POSITIVE ELIMINATES THE NEGATIVE
1) Multihomes along with 2) time-based equivalency accounting & 3) Council-Process are the positive proactive process foundations of indigenous law worldwide called the 'Great-Good-Way-of-Kindness' aka 'Great-Law-of-Peace' aka 'Constitution'. Contrast these with the negative, fake 'money' (Greek 'mnemosis' = 'memory') Oligarch commanded colonial Thou-shalt-not Noahide laws, 10 Commandments etc. of perpetual war, extraction, exploitation, scarcity & poverty.
Today 70% of people live in Multihomes within an average of 32 dwelling units = ~100 people. Multihomes are the 1st Fractal of collaborative 'economic' Livelihood. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/c-relational-economy/1-extending-our-welcome-participatory-multihome-cohousing
20% of Multihome-dwellers are extended-families living intentionally in proximity for social & economic collaboration. Multihome-extended-family contribute 2trillion$ of the most individually appropriate goods, services, sharing caring/year, as Turtle-Island, N-America's largest essential Economic sector, albeit unrecognized by government, education & institutions.
DO-WE-KNOW-WHO-WE-ARE-? http://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/d-participatory-structure/9-do-we-know-who-we-are web-based Community-Circular-Economy software supports individuals, family, extended-family & community recognition of each person & entity's contribution, experience, expertise & decision-making-acumen:
A) CATALOGUE complementary talents, goods, services, resources & dreams intake form. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/a-home/7-membership
B) MAP local proximal collaborative relations for complementary economic concertation. Historical Eg. Baseline mapping of 105 Mohawk, Wendat & Algonquian Placenames in Tiohtiake, greater Montreal archipelago https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/a-home/5-tiohtiake-mohawk-placenames
C) ACCOUNT for collective contributions, buying, selling & co-investment. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/c-relational-economy
D) BOTH-SIDES-NOW, Equal-time, Recorded & Published Dialogues https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/d-participatory-structure/1-both-sides-now-equal-time-recorded-dialogues
UNDERSTANDING HISTORIC ROOTS OF OUR LANGUAGE HERITAGE LOSS
Much of this thinking on the Great-Good-Way comes from my involvement in coordinating TST-TETSIONITIOTIAKON, SUSTAINABILITY ROOTED IN HERITAGE a 1998-2000 Geographic Information System GIS Mapping of 105 Mohawk, Wendat & Algonquian Placenames under the auspices of 36 elders at the Kahnawake-Kanehsatake Onkwawen:na Language Centre. Some 40 students (PhD, Post-Doc, Masters, Bachelor & College) & a couple of Profs from McGill University, Universite de Provence in Marseille, France & a local college. Elders understand the importance of language in culture, ecology & economy as well as the Multihome cultural method of learning & transmission. Indigenous languages are cultural repositories of ecological, economic knowledge. A dozen Quebec & Canadian politicians helped contribute at the time, Our hope was to establish an online repository (accessible to inputs by 1st Nations rural & urban) for compiling the distributed language & placename knowledge to include those 50% of First Nations living in the Urban milieu. This urban Placename mapping is very rare across Turtle-Island because mapping is a key component of establishing the presence of cultural sovereignty. My Anthropology & Archaeology friends are amazed we got this far.
Regardless of over 100 contacts with various possible language & other departments, ESRI software company & other contacts, we did not get cultural buy-in. Even the younger 1st Nation generation has had trouble with what they have adopted as an institutional value system. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/a-home/5-tiohtiake-mohawk-placenames
https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/a-home/5-mapping-ecological-indigenous-heritage
Such important work, Douglas. I hope it comes to fruition.
You cover so many points in this one, I should have taken some notes. I’ll try and remember some of the points I wanted to respond to.
‘Balkanization’ has always struck me as a weird put down word and not just because I’m from the Balkans. 😂 it truly was a move in the right direction for all those people to have their own land that they can call home and govern how they wish to govern. Except Kosovo drew the short end and got landlocked.
When you were talking about the way language is used to evoke a certain military element, it made me think of Gary Sharpe and his post about how we’re constantly ‘fighting’ disease and how our rhetoric reflects a ‘control’ mindset. And ain’t that the truth. We’re out there waging war on terror, and war on drugs, and war on viruses and if we just get that pesticide right, or that chemotherapy tuned up, we’ll get on top. A bunch of bollocks.
There were more things that came up, but I just remember now one final one: I heard that there was/is a tribe whose language doesn’t use the past tense and physically, the people in that tribe age slower. That since they tend to live in the present moment, their bodies whither at a different pace.
Really great stuff here. I see you published it New Year’s Day. I’m sorry to have missed it.
I forgot you were from the Balkans! Did I mention that in this episode or in the comment that led to it? I know I just wrote about wanting to do an episode on that. Steiner writes about the war of the Balkans from that time period and gives a very different perspective. So yes, it's become a shorthand for saying that local self-government is primitive and backwards and ends in disaster.
I've been loving reading Gary. I know a couple of people with Parkinson's and I haven't had the courage (or right moment) to bring him up but it feels like he's learning hard lessons for all of us.
And very interesting about the tribe with no past tense! I have a vague memory that Ursula KlG wrote about something similar but her father was an anthropologist so it would make sense. Thanks for listening/ reading, Tonika!
Yes, I had a rare moment of solitude and quiet to be able to watch, so I only watched the video, hope I'm not missing out on not reading the body of the post. I usually read though and have less of an opportunity to watch. Although your vibe is lovely to take in visually. Looking forward to an episode about Steiner's take on the Balkans.
I'm honored when you can do either, Tonika. This was a good one to watch. I record about half of them first, and then transcribe or recreate it in text form. And the others I write first and then read or paraphrase. But whichever I do second I find boring because I'm ready to move on to a new topic. So sometimes I cheat and just post the quotes. This worked better in video, I thought, and thank you for the kind compliment on my vibe ;-)
I’m really glad you offer a multi prong approach to your content. Gives me a choice in the way I want to consume it at any particular time. But I imagine a lot of time and energy goes into it.
I've put a lot of time and energy into other things with far less satisfying results. Some of them make me exhausted just to think about. Now, instead of haranguing people who don't want to listen, I put my thoughts together and post to almost 2000 people between the two venues, all of whom have chosen to hear from me!
I post something before bed and by morning, 100 people may have watched my video and hundreds opened the email. It's like Christmas to wake up to the kind of conversations I've wanted all my life, with smart kind people like you! A dream come true, as my daughter says.
Hoo-boy, do I resonate with that. Thank you and right back atcha! I really enjoy Substack at this level of mass adaptation. Kinda don’t want too many people finding out about it. 😬
Very well-said, Tereza. Happy New Year!