“I pledge allegiance to the Fear,
that Corona Virus brings,
and to the new Order
for which it pines,
One narrative, oversold,
with suspicion and distrust for all.”
“I pledge allegiance to the Fear,
that Corona Virus brings,
and to the new Order
for which it pines,
One narrative, oversold,
with suspicion and distrust for all.”
Fear.
It is the one motivator that easily crosses culture, race, even species. It’s not easy to change the way people think and behave. Except by fear.
Fear is the greatest human emotion and is nearly instantaneous, life altering, and enduring. It has been used by conquering armies, tyrants, and governments across the globe for millennia. It can keep us from success, or drive us to it.
Fear also comes in handy for preserving ones own personal safety, and avoiding that other behavior controlling mechanism, pain. This can be good, and when experienced at a certain intensity, pain can evoke respect for certain situations. I personally have learned, although slowly, that respect for animals that outweigh me 8-10 to 1, can hurt me. Smaller animals with long teeth can also inflict pain, and tiny insects that fly can inflict massive pain.
These experiences have taught me respect for these sources of discomfort; even at times, still evoking enough short lived fear to overcome my waning athletic abilities, in order to avoid broken bones, stitches and assorted contusions.
But I have learned to overcome that initial fear, and practice respect. Fear would dictate that repeated (or even one) encounters with four legged mammals (who, though they may not eat humans, may/have/can still do massive damage to ones earthly abode) could even kill you.
I have also learned that fear will result in one of three responses in both animals and humans:
Fight, Flight, or Freeze (more prevalent in humans than animals). All three may be the correct reaction to preserve ones own safety in a given situation, but all three can also result in injury or death. Paralysis can keep you from being detected by an enemy or predator, but if not controlled (psychological discipline) can more often result in bad outcomes.
I have experienced all three. I have struck out in fear, ran in fear, and frozen in fear. Paralytic fear that most people experience is social. Stage fright, for instance. Fear of public humiliation trumps fear of death for many. They would rather be the one in the casket than the one giving the eulogy.
But Fear is not healthy if allowed to govern your life. I’ve been hurt by enough livestock that I could be afraid enough of them to find another career path (or maybe I’m just sadistic, or dim witted). On the other hand, I love what I do; not all cows have tried to kill me. Not all horses have snuck up behind me and grabbed me in his teeth by the shoulder, kicked, stomped, bucked me off, or gotten me hung in a stirrup fighting for my life to get free. Not all bobcats have looked me in the eye and advanced on my position, while standing in full view of him.
How is it then, that I continue in a dangerous career? How is it the fighter pilot continues in a dangerous career? The soldier? The logger? The Law enforcement officer? The Firefighter? The answer for all is to understand the situation and determine if the risk is worth the potential outcome.
Situational awareness.
Placing ones self in a situation of risk is common, and done by every person every day. Every time you get into any machine for transportation, you are knowingly and willingly placing yourself in a situation that could end your life. Is it necessary? Sometimes, yes, if we want to continue to keep our families economic status viable by going to work to earn a paycheck. Sometimes, no, it’s simply a pleasure, or “non-essential” (to us) trip that will probably result in spending money that will help another person provide economic stability for their own family. (See where I’m going with this?)
Risk assessment.
Is the risk greater than the potential gain? Is the risk of riding a horse, with no prior history of causing injury, getting tangled in brambles and falling, slamming you into the ground resulting in concussion, worth taking? It happened to me. Yes, it’s worth getting back on and riding for another 25 years (and counting).
Is it worth the risk of being bitten by a poisonous snake while hunting morel mushrooms in the woods? You better believe it!
Is it worth the risk of death by crashing from 5 miles high, to get inside an aluminum tube with wings with 100 other people and travel to a vacation paradise?
Is it worth having children at the risk of losing one to SIDS, or some other tragedy? I can’t tell you how much it is worth that risk!
Fear of CV19 is now driving people to do some strange and even dangerous things. I have personally seen people driving, alone, in their car with the windows rolled up, with masks on. In grocery stores folks are hesitant to go down an aisle if someone else is there. Yes, those are small things and I’m not judging; just illustrating how fear is altering behavior.
The Governor of Michigan ordered that residents can leave the state, but can not travel to a second residence within the state. The fine, $1000. Also, since you are stuck at home, you can’t go to the store and get gardening supplies in order to plant that garden that will not only help you maintain some sanity and serve as a distraction, but will also feed your family next winter! Michigan is not alone, as other governors in other states are using draconian and yes, unconstitutional methods of controlling peoples movements, mostly due to fear.
Then there are cases where neighbors are calling authorities on people who are out walking or playing in their own yards. A dad is handcuffed for playing ball in a park with his daughter. Dad and son lifting weights out on the front lawn visited by police after a neighbor called them for “breaking shelter in place”. I saw a news story this morning about police using drones to monitor people’s outside activities. It’s getting crazy. People are becoming paranoid. Ever hear of Gestapo? This kind of fear breaks down trust in a society.
One strength (and, arguably, one weakness) of American society is that we are the most trusting people on the planet. I was told by an Arab once, “You Americans, you trust everyone.” I’ve spoken with numerous people from Islamic countries, some Muslim, some ex-Muslims, and to a person, they described a level of distrust that caused them to lie and deceive almost incessantly, not just to non-Muslims (permissible), but to everyone because your neighbors may be report you for some infraction of Sharia, or to gain favor of local authorities. One Egyptian woman told me the hardest thing for her after coming to America was breaking her habit of lying. She said she was living in fear constantly. Watch the docudrama “The Stoning of Soroya M” to see how fear and distrust affects a society.
If we allow fear to dictate how we live, we are no longer Free. Life is full of risk! Take the proper precautions, yes, but seriously, shutting yourself inside 4 walls indefinitely, is not physically, or mentally, healthy.
According to a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a 1% increase in the country’s unemployment rate is correlated with a 3.6% rise in opioid deaths. That’s just opioids. Unemployment claims increased to 17 Million from March 15-April 4, up from 280 thousand the week ending 3/14. It’s my understanding that furloughed workers are not counted in the “unemployed” numbers, as their employers will, through CARE legislation, be helped by the Federal government to pay them. 17 million people, plus furloughed employees, classified as “non-essential”. What are the emotional and psychological possibilities for increased substance addiction, domestic violence/abuse, increase in crime rates due to either boredom, frustration, or simple desperation to survive?
I recently had a conversation with a close friend who is a retired Army Officer. He said the civilian population is going to be exposed to and experience PTSD symptoms due to this current situation. He added, “We need to start talking about this now!” Indeed.
Fear, if allowed to proliferate, will be the disease that kills America. It will not be a virus. The basic premise of the above meme, inspired by the experience of a friend of mine, is already taking place. Let’s all just calm down.
A very famous American President once proclaimed, “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself!”
The following entry is not a DTN original, but we are pleased to include it here.
The Author, pseudonym Publius Cato Minor, occasionally addresses current events from a career military background and resides somewhere in the outback of the Great American Northwest…
-“You’re guilty, well I think it’s you.”
“You were in the same house as a punch bowl in 1982 and, because… I said so!”
Or as James Carville observed in Defense of Bill Clinton that it’s amazing what happens when you drag a $20 bill through a trailer court. Looks like Avenatti has a few spare $20s, huh. I’m just sayin………..
Back when Peter Strzok was being grilled in the House over his credibility and integrity. One of the Republican members of the panel commented that there was no reason to believe his oath because he had betrayed and lied to his wife in the high profile adulterous relationship with Lisa Page. The observation was on the order of you betrayed and lied to your wife, so why should we believe you? All of the allegations against him were documented and he and Page had both acknowledged the affair and their behavior. The Democrats were outraged and called for censure.
So along come the confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh. Clearly unfounded allegations against Kavanaugh are placed and the Democrats change directions and demand to convict even in the absence of evidence of anything.
I suppose that it is worth noting to people who have turned themselves into everyone they hated in high school (50 years later!) that we are blessed with the diligence of Senator Sheldon Whitehouse for revealing that Kavanaugh and a couple of his school “buds” wrote some silly comments in a yearbook about farting. They also drank beer!
Kinda wish things were going differently for Dr. Ford, but the truth is that there is no evidence of her allegations (or those of the others). Furthermore, whether or not anyone likes the statute of limitations, it precludes anything being done about this in terms of criminal charges. The fact is that Ford’s (and the others’) allegations against Kavanaugh are allegations of felony acts. The lawyers who enabled her in this embarrassment should be disbarred for malfeasance.
There is a truth that must be considered closely by all: The law is and must remain absolutely cold-blooded. Any effort through law that attempts to grant more weight or advantage to one over another destroys the law in general. Once you go there, you have no right to stop and the end state is chaos. The political weaponization of the law is a travesty that promotes that degeneracy.
It is disturbing that the entire notion that an allegation alone is proof has been seen throughout history. Summary executions were conducted in the streets of Germany if a person was thought to be less than loyal to the Reich. It was seen in the Spanish Inquisition and in the fall of Rome and literally throughout history and continues today. No proof was, or is, needed for anything. Our system is supposedly better than that. It requires evidence for allegation and proof through the evidence of guilt before conviction.
I for one do not give a damn who believes what or who finds whom “credible.” No one asked any of these people what they believe or what their opinion is regarding anything and that’s because it doesn’t matter because THEY don’t matter. The only thing that does matter is that there is no evidence of anything and so there is no suggestion of guilt ANYWHERE!
Understand one thing very clearly regarding an investigation: If there is no evidence of the legitimacy of an allegation, there is no investigation. I’ve been involved in a few of these. You don’t investigate a person. You investigate evidence. The evidence details the event and identifies the people involved. If you have no evidence you have nothing.
The most dangerous aspect of this entire matter is that the people are actually considering that opinion and even partial memory is the equivalent of evidence. Proof of guilt is becoming a matter of opinion.
Caution: When you go there, you have no rights.-
Antifa Conference, Berlin, 1932
I’ve been studying some history of the Bolshevik Revolution in the early 20th Century. Now reading “Red Victory”, a very well documented account beginning in 1917 with the “February Revolution” followed by “Red Oktober” which developed into Lenin’s “Red Terror” policy.
It seems that Karl Marx’s Utopian ideal of “no borders” and “no economic classes”, where the collective holds “all property in common” and all labor is organized for the “common interest”, cannot be obtained, even according to Vladimir Lenin, except by the Revolution using the power of the state enforced by the gun through tyranny.
Communist revolutions around the world have all come to that same conclusion, that Marx’s Utopia which eliminates war is only attainable through terrorizing and eliminating their opposition. Classic information paradox.
Then you have Fascism… and National Socialism.
These two are hard to differentiate, and in all practicality, when allowed to play out, all 3 systems result in almost the same death, destruction, and dehumanization of it’s opposition. Practical definitions are as follows:
Communism:
a. A system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy and a single, often authoritarian party holds power, claiming to make progress toward a higher social order in which all goods are equally shared by the people.
b. The Marxist-Leninist doctrine advocating revolution to overthrow the capitalist system and establish a dictatorship of the proletariat that will eventually evolve into a perfectly egalitarian and communal society.
Fascism:
2. a system of government characterized by rigid one-party dictatorship, forcible suppression of opposition, private economic enterprise under centralized governmental control, belligerent nationalism, racism, and militarism, etc.
Nazism (National Socialism):
The ideology and practice of the Nazis, especially the policy of racist nationalism, national expansion, and state control of the economy.
1. The ideology of (Adolf Hitler’s NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers’ Party), including a Fuhrer’s) totalitarian government, ethnic nationalism, nationalist territorial expansion and state control of the (war) economy.
(All definitions from www.yourdictionary.com)
Antifaschistische Aktion
I was curious about the self appointed “racial justice” group called Antifa. This group finds its origins in Weimar Germany in the 1930’s run up to WW2. “Antifaschistische Aktion” were the “Black Shirts” Communist opposition to the Nazi’s “Brown Shirts”. These two factions duked it out on Germany’s streets as they both vied for political and social power, of course the Nazi’s finally gaining the upper hand. Their modern resurgence is relatively new on the shores of America, but now that I think about it, before Charlottesville when was the last time you saw a torch bearing march of neo-Nazis on the news?
In actuality these groups only have a few thousand “comrades” nation wide, and travel long distances on short notice to do their deeds. The adventure seeking sympathizers who have a idyllic perception of “the cause” represented are often sucked into the vortex of the group, much like ISIS has attracted many of its followers who later live (if they’re lucky) to regret their decision. Others are simply opposed to one group or the other, but fail to consider with whom they are aligning themselves. If you oppose neo-Nazi racists it may not be the best choice to line up with a bunch of club wielding Communists to make your point. Likewise, if you oppose those Communist flag waving black hooded thugs, it might not put you in a favorable position to be standing next to a guy in a white pointed hood or a Nazi flag waver.
But on the other hand, if a person voices opposition to one ideology, it does not necessarily make you a party to the other. This is not an “either/or” discussion, and I’m sick of FB posts and news commentary that drive that narrative.
Symbolism
Just for some historical perspective, I found above photo from Antifa’s conference in Berlin in 1932. Notice the Antifa logo flanked by the two Soviet flags. The Antifa logo, a circle containing two flags, the red flag is, of course, Communism, while the black flag generally symbolizes Anarchy. The Anarchists symbol, generally an elongated capital “A” which extends beyond the boundaries of a circle (symbolizes the refusal to be contained by government) is also seen frequently at Antifa protests. These people have been on the fringes of many protests for years, but now with the more popular, and so called “anti-racist” movement, they have gained prominence among the ranks of Antifa.
A third, and relatively unrecognized symbol showing up at these protests is the circle containing 3 arrows pointing southwest. There is not a lot of consensus on what the origin of it is, but it has been used in revolutionary actions since at least the French Revolution to demonstrate “Liberty, Equality, and Solidarity”, and by the Socialist Party USA to symbolize the 3 methods of societal change through direct action (sometimes violent), education, and elections. This essentially falls in line with Saul Alinsky’s organizational methods. It almost always finds relativity to Democratic Socialist Societies (DS), which even found their place in early American political and militant upheaval during George Washington’s administration. Washington despised the DS and attributed the bulk of the cause of the “Shay Rebellion” to them.
Antifa is currently a magnet for Socialist/Marxist activist groups around the country such as the Democratic Socialists, Communist Party USA, and the Marxist founded group BLM.
The modern political field is littered with distractions, obstructions, and divisions. This is not a “Trump” thing; it has been going on for many years now. It was simply not expedient for the media to focus on it, and even now, they are very selective about giving details on certain groups which more closely align with their own ideology. Therein lies the greatest danger!
Let us not be led astray by those who appeal to our baser nature.
No. Let us be wise as serpents, yet harmless as doves. And let us not grow weary in well doing…for in due time we shall reap.