The present generation always assumes that it would never commit the evils done by their forebears in the past.
Well, every generation has its share of foolishness and its share of human wisdom; the present is no different from the past. And it is no different because human nature doesn’t change – we remain creatures made in the Image of God, but stained by sin. We are all capable of doing good; we are all capable of doing evil. No human being has a monopoly of either ‘commodity’, while a few people are very, very good and others intolerably evil.
Before I come to today’s horrendous stupidity, let me just reference a couple of examples from the last century – a century of unprecedented technological and material development.
The First World war. The corpses piled up, as did the debilitating national debts. For example, Britain collapsed from being the world’s leading creditor into the debtor it remains to this day.
The idea behind all this ? National honour could not conceive of defeat as a viable option.
The same applied to the United States in Vietnam. The single stupid idea motivating that war was the Domino Theory – if Vietnam fell to Communism, then the whole of Asia would follow suit. And if Asia went, then the whole world would be over-run by the Communists.
50,000 American lives were thrown away in Vietnam and thousands more maimed for life. Countless innocent Vietnamese were sacrificed to justify the delusion which had gripped the American Establishment.
A single stupid and demonstrably false idea takes hold of governments and politicians. They treat it as TRUTH by which all other evidence is to be reinterpreted and assessed. Contrary evidence is simply ignored, even censored – because contrary evidence highlights the fact that they have got it so wrong. Reality imposes in the end, but the cost paid by innocent human beings in pursuit of an official Myth is unpardonable. Future generations always look back in disbelief at the stupidity of otherwise highly intelligent men.
Today’s delusion works just like the historical precedents mentioned. It has some basis in actual fact. There was indeed a militaristic mindset in Germany. In Vietnam there was indeed a Communist threat. But in both these instances, the threat was not the whole truth, nor indeed the actual, comprehensive truth when all was eventually said and done. Yet in both instances the terrible menace was exaggerated out of all proportion. The exaggerated version of reality was treated as the reality to which all decision must make reference. Everything else was made to surrender to the superior claim of the exaggerated truth.
Turning now to today’s delusion, one expert has recently described his profession as being in a “trance”. Consequence ? He and others are treated as pariahs because they dare to challenge the great Error of their day. They dare to say that the Truth is more than the simplicity being pursued by governments and professional bodies.
The word “trance” in the OED also has an interesting reference to “trance music” defined by the 2011 Concise Oxford dictionary as
“a type of electronic dance music characterized by hypnotic rhythms“
What an apt description of so much in today’s western main stream media ! They too have bought into the great Error of our day.
Once an idea becomes Orthodox, it becomes a very convenient reference point. In the world of the media and politics today, it is just too convenient to have such a ready reference point for the truth by which to explain an otherwise complex world. Indeed, it lends itself to the hype which the media today assumes to be essential to attract an audience.
But having bought into the Error as Truth, it then becomes impossible for the deluded to admit they could be wrong. So the problem continues and people suffer, until reality finally crashes in.
So, this week, the British House of Commons extended the draconian measures related to Covid 19 control for another 6 months without even voting. The equivalent French Assembly also extended their government powers to July 2022 – powers which were due to expire on November 15th this year.
In response to this official over-reaction and error, this week also saw demonstrations in countries like Greece and Italy. In Italy, failure to possess a valid Covid health pass will now result in a serious fine, and losing your job. Government has been pushing this same line of oppression in Australia, too.
In Britain and in France, children are now being pressured into Covid jabs – a vaccine which is nowhere near 100% and now needs a booster every 6 months.
Such stupid ideas are grounded in fear – and fear makes people irrational, especially elected politicians preoccupied with their reputation.
The evidence, however, mounts inexorably the longer this Covid Scare goes on. The more politicians persist with this grossly exaggerated reaction to a bad flu epidemic, the more they will feed the wilder conspiracy theories. Everything will become un-necessarily polarised.
Governments now stand indicted by the evidence from scientific experts such as these:
Tess Lawrie explains why the vaccine rollout must be halted – The Conservative Woman
Democratic governments will be tried in the Court of History. They need to wake up before people decide to pass sentence in advance of that Verdict.
‘Ray’ Catlin
Conservatism Institute 