A Disease for All Seasons

 

It seems like only yesterday that... no, actually, it seems like it's been ten years since... I put out a blog post entitled “Conspiracies on Parade” (April 19, 2020 – still available!) inspired by the -- at that time – new and springtime-fresh plague that was well on its way to making a shambles of the economy and of society in general – not that plagues do this unaided, but that the “policies” imposed and enforced by totalitarian means to “manage” the plague had appeared almost overnight – which kind of makes you wonder, were they already set up in advance and only had to wait until the “balloon went up”, as the saying goes? (File this under the heading of “suspected, but unproven”. More to come.)

If you have the time and the inclination, I urge you to re-read (OK, read, whatever) the post in question in order to set the tone for the present discussion. In some ways, it's incredible that this problem is still with us – whatever happened to “15 days to slow the spread”? (That was the 2020 version of “duck and cover” – reassuring until people realized that it was totally absurd.)

So – using the 4/19/20 post as a baseline, I'm going to take advantage of the breather that has been bestowed upon us by Vladimir Putin, who, merely by invading Ukraine, has managed to drive all competing stories off the mainstream print and broadcast media and the Internet. We can argue all day as to what this means, as in – does it mean that Covid, nee Corona, was never real to begin with, and as such cannot hope to compete with events that are very real? Or does it mean that Covid entering Year 3 has become a bit shopworn, so even if it is genuine it's no match for newer and more exciting current events? Or is it just the MSM chasing the newest butterfly, and Covid will circle around eventually and become, once again, the Big Story?

I guess we have both Covid and Ukraine to thank for reminding us that “the news” is not necessarily what's actually most important at the time (or possibly at any other time as well), but is the result of a selection process by the collective organs of propaganda designed to maximize and accelerate the cycle of fear, and thus create, in the citizenry, despair of ever truly exercising their rights as free citizens, but to substitute an even more intense feeling of helplessness and willingness to submit to the government, AKA the ruling elite, for all their needs (including all the things they've been convinced, by the advertising industry, that they need). If fewer people than ever distrust “the news”, and government in general, that could be considered at least a thin silver living to the cloud that has been looming over us for two-plus years.

So – let's get started. The most obvious initial question is, is (was) Corona/Covid a hoax? Is it really a “novel” virus of murky origins that has attacked, without warning, the global population and necessitated a total reset of national economies and people's life styles? I admit that I haven't studied the matter in detail, but it appears that there actually is a virus out there, and that it is “novel”, in that it exhibits new qualities and new combinations of qualities (including symptoms and responses to medication and treatment), and that it's not “just the flu” as some have claimed (for one thing, it doesn't seem to exhibit the same seasonal cycles as the typical flu virus). And it appears that it does, indeed, mutate – thankfully from more dangerous to less harmful versions, but – this time more like the flu – it comes along in waves, and it will be a long time, if ever, before we will see the end of it. And the fact that it can attack people of all ages, all races/creeds/colors, in all climates, of all social and economic conditions, etc., indicates that it is robust and adaptable, even if the more serious cases seem to correlate with preexisting conditions like age, general health, obesity, life style, whether or not they watch TV (not a complete joke), and so on.

I present the foregoing as an unproven basis of reference for what follows. (For those who believe it truly is/was a complete hoax, don't touch that dial, because I'll be discussing ideas that you will find appealing aside from the hoax question.)

OK. The first theory I discussed in the previous post was:

Yes, it originated in China, but it was no accident. It was an intentional biological attack on the U.S. in retaliation for economic and trade sanctions, our position on Taiwan, our positions on currency manipulation, intellectual property, etc. As such, it was intended to be a “shot off our bow”, i.e. get out of our face or else (it could be worse).

Discussion: The China origin theory is still in question – by China. Again, choosing probability over proof (which is impossible at this point), I would say that China is the culprit. But then, was it intentional? And the first argument against this would be – if it was, why wasn't it aimed at the U.S. in a more precise, “surgical” manner? Why let it out of a lab in a city no one had ever heard of up to that point, and let it run amok in the local population, when it could have simply been shipped over here and added to the water supply in certain major cities? Answer: Can you say “plausible deniability”, class? If the first victims were Chinese citizens, that would tend to derail any notion that the virus was aimed at the U.S. – and as for any notion that normal human compassion would have prevented the Chinese government from doing such a thing, just take a weekend off some time and read up on Mao's Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution for a taste of how highly the Chinese government values human life.

Having said that, as retaliation for economic and trade sanctions, something that pretty much trashed the world's economy and brought world trade to a halt for a time would seem to be an odd way of going about this. (They would have been much better off demanding that we pay off their share of our national debt.) And as for Taiwan, the Chinese are playing the long game, and sure enough, it's already paying off with our response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Chinese are seeing what Russia can and can't get away with, and they may be perfectly willing to commit to the same outcome for the sake of reclaiming Taiwan. (But it wouldn't be as severe, because China has a much firmer foothold in the U.S. economy than Russia ever had.)

And as for currency manipulation, guess who just put the ruble on the gold standard. That's sending more shock waves through global monetary systems than anything China ever did.

Intellectual property? The Chinese are buying so much of it up on the global market that they scarcely have to steal it any longer.

To sum up, the predictable outcome of a global pandemic would have been seen as “overkill” when it comes to getting our attention – not that China is incapable of any sort of blackmail and extortion, nor do they have any qualms about doing so. It's more a proportionality question. But before we leave this idea totally, consider Variation 1:

Variation 1: It was a probe – a test case – to see how effective biological warfare would be, what our response would be, etc. Corona was never intended to be the ultimate weapon, in other words; that's still under development.

I'll use the “precision” argument again on this one. You can test biological warfare agents in a smaller area than the entire planet. However, having said that, even if the release was not intentional it did indeed serve as a test case, which could serve quite well if, in the future, China decides to resort to biological extortion. (This falls under the heading of “unintentional consequences which turn out to be beneficial” – at least in one respect.) And yes, anyone who doesn't see Covid as the beta version of something much worse is dreaming. But then how about:

Variation 2: The intention was not only near-term but long-term. By bringing the U.S. to its knees economically, China would be assuring its ascent to the position of leading economic power on the planet – and, soon to follow, leading military power.

This is actually a more likely motive. Any plague that impacts the entire globe will impact the U.S., and more severely in some respects, since we have the most complex, multi-layered, interdependent economy on earth – a benefit of our technological and logistical sophistication, but also an Achilles' Heel, as was brought out in sharp relief in the first few months of the pandemic. “The bigger they are, the harder they fall” could have been coined to describe what happened to the U.S. economy – true no matter what one thinks of the motives of the authorities. Could China have predicted a total lockdown of the U.S. economy? Seems unlikely, but who can say? They may have actually been pleasantly surprised at the readiness with which our officials committed economic suicide. In any case, it did serve to weaken us on both an absolute scale and also relative to other less complex, less “developed” economies around the globe.

I say this is more likely, but I would still not give it a very high grade, for the simple reason that China already has a virtual stranglehold on large sectors of the U.S. economy, and why “blow it” by causing unneeded distress, chaos, and destruction? Leave the heavy-handedness to others. Remember, when it comes to China, the long game and patience are the watchwords, as they have been throughout their history.

OK, then – but how about:

Variation 3: The focus was on causing major damage to our military, which has turned out (no surprise, if you know anything about history) to be particularly vulnerable to viral infections and epidemics. If you can sap the strength of the U.S. military, and get it to stand down, it's much easier for China to continue its high jinks in the South China Sea unimpeded. (If the military was the prime target, then the civilian population counts only as “collateral damage” – something that aggressors are always willing to accept.)

I think we can safely dispense with this one. Our military turned out to be quite robust in its response to the pandemic, and the fact that military personnel tend to be young and healthy, and in good physical condition, was probably the best preventive one could hope for. And yes, disease has ever been the enemy of armies – but they didn't have the resources we have, and Covid turns out to be much less deadly than most of the traditional, “old-fashioned” diseases that armies are prone to.

However, this does not mean that something much more lethal couldn't be unleashed, in a more precise fashion, on our military, either in garrison or in war zones – and this is the very reason that the military has long been heavily involved in research and prevention when it comes to biological warfare. So from that point of view, the “test case” theory – even if unintentional – gets high marks.

Then there's the footnote to the preceding scenarios:

China has decided that a direct military confrontation with the U.S. would be costly, and they might not even win. So they had to come up with something completely different (if not totally unexpected – after all, we've been studying the biological warfare issue since before World War II).

Again, Covid turned out to be a dud in this respect, but it may have paved the way for something worse – something that could turn the tide in a military confrontation. But this assumes (1) conventional forces rather than air power only (or nukes); and (2) solving the precision issue (recall how mustard gas attacks in World War I often backfired when the wind shifted). So this is certainly a reason for vigilance.

That was the first scenario with variations. Now we shift gears a bit:

It was a false flag operation on the part of the globalists and their collaborators in the U.S. (including no small portion of the Deep State). See that China gets the blame, while in fact they are creating a crisis in order to (1) cut the U.S. down to size, and (2) increase the power of central government exponentially, which will, in turn, (3) increase the power of the globalist elite once they consolidate their control over the U.S. government, which will, at that point, become a mere proxy or shadow government for the globalist empire, the way most Western European governments already are.

“False flag?” That's exactly what the Chinese are claiming, and they haven't given up on that story. My sense is that the preponderance of evidence indicates that the origin was in China and connected to a Chinese military research facility. But again – was it “an ill wind” that provided unexpected benefits to those with globalist tendencies? Certainly. When you see the ease with which the U.S. economy was, for all intents and purposes, nationalized (the government not taking over, but regulating, down to the most minute detail, businesses from the largest to the most minuscule) – and the ease with which virtually all other human activities were either locked down or closely monitored (schools, shopping, dining, live entertainment, etc.), the results could only have warmed the hearts of globalists and totalitarians everywhere. If America, the land of the free, can be turned into a land of helpless victims, paralyzed by fear, almost overnight, then there is no limit, is there? If it can happen here it can happen anywhere (and has, by and large – especially (ironically) in the other English-speaking countries).

Now... if you've noticed an apparent contradiction between the agenda of cutting the U.S. down to size and increasing the power of central government, allow me to clarify. We get cut down to size on the international/global/diplomatic level (well under way with Biden in charge), but on the domestic level become more totalitarian (ditto). The result is that the citizenry become acclimated to big government that meddles in every aspect of their lives, but at the same time the global elite are consolidating their reach and their power, with America as first prize. So the transition from what we have now to one-world government would be painless, if even noticeable. (This is assuming it hasn't already happened, which is a point worth debating.) I think this is the long-term plan with or without China, and with or without Covid – just that Covid has served to accelerate the process and provide a convenient rationale for measures which would otherwise have looked obviously tyrannical.

So really, the question of whether or not to “blame” China has faded into obscurity at this point. The test case was created, intentionally or not, and it had results... data were gathered... and the outlines of what global tyranny would look like became shockingly clear. Shockingly – because of how easy it was. We thought we valued freedom, but the next minute we were locking ourselves indoors for months at a time, then marching off, robot-like, to vaccination centers, with “smiley faces” everywhere you look. The wonderful world of George Orwell is here! It's no longer a threat, or a distant possibility.

I would say that of all the “benefits” of the plague – looked-for and otherwise – this has to stand as the one that will be seen to have made the most difference in the long run. The global elite has the citizenry by the – well, you know – and half the citizenry doesn't care, and the other half are reduced to bootless protests for which they are promptly punished.

And again, the U.S. was more severely impacted simply because of the titanic structure of our economy and the social mechanisms that go with it, and this did indeed cut us down, not quite to size, but enough to provide welcome data for the global elite's future planning. The U.S. will not be a pocket of resistance, in other words – we will not be the Ukraine to the global elite's Russia. There will be resistance, for sure; there already is. But the main elements have been shown up in all of their weakness and vulnerability – the ready demoralization of the populace is now a historical fact – and we have, when you run the numbers, many more who comply, and cooperate, and follow the crowd off the cliff than those troublemakers who believe in liberty and self-sufficiency. And don't think any of this has gone unnoticed. It will come back to haunt us, and sooner than we expect.

OK then... how about this:

It was cooked up by the vaccination industry and lobby in order to demonstrate, once and for all, that vaccination is the only way to survive, and that vaccinations for every conceivable ailment, up to and including toenail fungus, should be mandated by the government, and anyone who objects should be arrested and jailed because their reckless ideas threaten public health.

This is another case of a “discovered benefit”. I don't think the vax people started it, but the way they jumped on it indicates that it was, for them, a blessing in disguise – not only because it freed up unlimited funding, but it gave them time (nearly a year) to work up the narrative that vaccination was the only thing that was going to save the human race from this plague – and that any alternative treatments were unscientific, dangerous, and should be banned. And this is still the basic narrative, although things have loosened up a bit with regard to therapeutics, owing largely to the pressure of public (1) skepticism re vaccination and (2) demand for alternatives. And of course, the counter-narratives about the dangers of the vaccines, side effects, unexplained deaths, etc. added to the mix. As did, of course, the passage of time, which showed that refusing to be vaccinated was not a death sentence, and that the “unvaxed” were not an army of Typhoid Marys out to infect and kill everyone else.

Another contributing factor – and perhaps the most important one – has been the complete and utter politicization of the whole thing. First it was “Trump's vaccine”, which no self-respecting liberal would submit to. And then the instant Biden moved into the White House it became “Biden's vaccine”, which acquired sacramental status among liberals, but caused skepticism and downright paranoia among Trump supporters, conservatives in general, libertarians, and pretty much anyone else who could be described as anti-establishment.

So what are we to make of a medical treatment that is accepted or rejected based almost solely on one's political position? There are other things in medicine that show a similar phenomenon, and things in the food and beverage industries as well, but this seems like an extreme case, which is odd since we're supposedly talking about “science” here, right? Isn't that one of the few areas of life in which we can find general agreement? Well... no. The lesson is that when science is corrupted by politics it ceases to be science, for all intents and purposes. It becomes a battleground and a political cause instead – and given what has been going on for many years with “global warming”, AKA “climate change”, this should not have come as a complete surprise.

And this phenomenon is not limited to the “unwashed” by any means. Scientists themselves tend to become defensive at the drop of a hat, as witness the grandiose statements by Anthony Fauci. (Didn't he, at one point, say “I AM science”, or something to that effect? And here I thought Louis XIV had retired.) But this is because they have, at some point, left science behind and opted to become media stars (Fauci again) – and once this happens there is no turning back, because your credibility is in the dumpster.

(And don't get me wrong. I'm a trained scientist myself – but I think I know where science leaves off and politics (and personal agendas) begin. Science is supposed to be self-correcting; in fact, that's one of its essential qualities, without which it devolves into belief and opinion. When the self-correcting function is disabled (as it was with much of the media coverage of the pandemic and the treatments) then whatever remains is untrustworthy and deserves all the skepticism it attracts.)

Try a thought experiment here. What if the space program – not the funding priorities but the actual technology – had turned into a political battlefield? We'd never have even gotten into orbit, leave alone to the Moon (relax, Moon landing skeptics – I'm just trying to make a point here). It's interesting that when it comes to rocket science, which very people understand (hence the meme), politics tends to take a back seat – or no seat at all. But when it comes to medicine, which everybody thinks they understand to some extent (especially media talking heads and entertainment types), politics can take over with no trouble. Oh, but – you might say – medicine is an inexact science compared to the pure physics of rocketry; there is plenty of room for opinion and debate. Fair enough, but that opinion and debate should still be confined to the sphere of science rather than becoming raw meat for the media, Internet, and late-night talk shows. Covid seems to have turned the entire populace, from the lowest to the highest, into medical experts, whereas it more likely just accelerated and amplified the pre-existing level of ignorance.

And then we have –

It was a false flag operation on the part of our own Deep State, which seeks (1) a death blow to the Trump administration, because all other efforts have failed; and (2) an exponential increase in the power and reach of the Deep State, with the ultimate goal of complete control of the citizenry, including monitoring all movements, transactions, and social contacts. (The totalitarian dream, in other words.)

This would make sense if one considers the Corona/Covid virus to be a complete hoax. I have allowed that there is “something” to it, just not as presented in the doomsday/end-of-the-world manner of the health establishment early on, and their facilitators in the media. But – never letting a crisis go to waste, the enemies of Donald Trump, which were (and continue to be) legion, jumped at the chance to accuse Trump & Co. of “not doing enough” – as if anyone knew, at the time, what should be done. The utter chaos that characterized (and continues to) things like masks, social distancing, isolation, etc. – recall that this was pre-vaccination – was happily used, by his enemies, as a mark against Trump. Another discovered benefit, in other words.

I think it can at least be postulated that, despite all of the efforts of the combined Deep State, the media, academia, the entertainment industry, Congress, the intelligence/law enforcement community, etc. to bring down Trump and his administration, it might have survived the election of 2020 if Covid hadn't been in the mix. But along with everything else, Covid became the poison pill that put Biden over the top. I can't prove this, of course, but I present it as a possibility.

As for the larger issue of increasing the power and reach of the Deep State, it certainly accomplished that to some degree, as any crisis will, which is why we now have, firmly established, government-by-crisis (being a perfect reflection of the media, for whom crises are their life's blood).

The biggest surprise, however, was the extent to which mayors and governors have absolute power – or, let's say, they can assume absolute power and no one can stop them. It turns out that mayors really do rule cities, and that governors really do rule states – to a much more thorough extent than anything the federal government is capable of at this point. In an ironic sort of way, this should have been good news to libertarians and fans of subsidiarity – but of course it depended on whether the officials in question had libertarian leanings, or whether they fancied themselves mini-Napoleons. Unfortunately, there were more of the latter type than of the former. But still, as a lesson learned, it was quite striking, and one should take it to heart whenever elections come around. Your vote might wind up electing the next tinhorn dictator – is that what you want?

Or –

It was a false flag operation on the part of our economic “planners”, political ideologues, “agents of change”, and the ruling elite. Getting rid of Trump is necessary, but it's only a first step. The main goal is to deliver the final death blow to the American middle class, and finally achieve what the elites have been dreaming of for generations – namely, a slave state made up of serfs and rulers, with the middle class eliminated as an economic and political factor. Note that:

• The titans of big business have no problem at all with the shutdown – in fact, they're urging Trump to keep it going indefinitely. That should be a clue right there. And with their cash reserves, they can weather just about anything while they wait for their “stimulus” check from the Treasury Department.

• The ruling elite and the working classes have recently discovered a common cause in demonizing the middle class and gradually eroding its resources and influence. This is exemplified in the makeup of the Democratic Party.

• The economic shutdown is having a much more severe effect on the middle class – in terms of employment, income, and small business – than on big business (an example being the DJIA, which took a major hit but is still alive and well, because it represents big business, which has sufficient reserves to ride this out, whereas small businesses are dropping like flies and unlikely to recover). (It's also possible that the scheme included letting the Dow take a hit as a cover – “See, we're suffering too”, etc. But see what recovers first when this is over with.)

Again, I don't trust the false-flag idea, but as a discovered benefit – sure. Who suffered the most from the lockdowns? Well, we know the answer – small business, i.e. an activity of the middle class. Small businesses of all sorts, with the possible exception of carry-outs, were indeed dropping like flies for many months – and Internet-based businesses (owned by oligarchs) prospered as never before. Which is to say that countless middle-class people took an economic hit and became no longer middle class, but members of the vast army of “service industry” wage earners.

So has this situation reversed itself to any significant degree? I don't have the numbers of this, but what I suspect is that people who became accustomed to buying via the Internet decided it wasn't a bad idea – kind of convenient, actually – a lot of choices, etc. Stuff gets delivered. And so on. So if there is a recovery, I suspect it's far from complete – and one could argue that there's nothing wrong with this, but that would be to say that small businesses ought to just go quietly away and leave it up to Amazon. Pardon me if I'm somewhat sentimental about “Main Street” and the people who work there (or used to).

I'm going to copy the footnotes to the above theory without further comment. I think they still have considerable general relevance independently of the Covid era.  (And please excuse the formatting issues -- they are beyond my total control.)

Footnote 1: Why is the middle class so despised and persecuted? (And why, for that matter, has this process been going on ever since the Progressive Era, although it has become much more blatant over the last 50 years?) For one thing, it tends to be, and vote, conservatively-- especially if you're talking about people in agriculture, small business, and the skilled trades. People who do meaningful work that has a well-defined product, and people with ties to the land, are naturally more conservative. It's the paper traders and parasites who tend toward the liberal side.

Footnote 2: What the people in charge of this project intend is for small business to vanish, and for all of those enterprises to be absorbed into vast industrial and commercial cartels which will eventually become synonymous with the State. Note that (1) this process is already underway, with predatory large businesses gobbling up small businesses at a rapid rate, and turning those business owners into franchisees at best, and wage slaves at worst; and (2) what we call “crony capitalism” will, in its ultimate state of evolution, become either business being a wholly-owned subsidiarity of the State, or vice versa. This will be a distinction without a difference. Whether those in charge are called CEOs or commissars will make no difference to the disenfranchised citizenry.




• Footnote 3: But how does a “modern, industrialized society” function without a middle class? We've had that discussion before. The answer is that it doesn't – not in the way we're used to. But the Soviet Union managed to pull it off for many decades. (China, on the other hand, was stuck in the stone age until they decided to try a bit of free enterprise and property rights. And apparently it worked.)

And finally...

It was a deal worked out between China – birth-control experts extraordinaire – and the ZPG cartel, to reduce populations worldwide because free and unrestricted abortion has failed to do the job (as has war).

It was an act of sabotage by the “greens” and eco-fanatics, who are already celebrating the improvement in air quality as the result of restrictions on commerce and travel.

As to the first, the birth-control movement always has a keen interest in anything that threatens to reduce global populations, whether by “natural causes” or otherwise. China has, of course, been on the side of radical birth control for decades; less so in the U.S., and here one notices that the campaign is typically aimed at certain selected minorities – the same ones that Margaret Sanger didn't think too much of. But as for a deal having been made, again I see what may have been an accident as a test case as well. I'm sure it got the attention, in particular, of not only birth-control advocates but ZPG types, and the even more radical element that wants to reduce global populations back to levels of a few decades ago. In the practical sense, using biological weapons as a shotgun approach to reducing populations would certainly raise containment issues. After all, we all breathe the same air (at least I assume the ruling elites do).

As for the “greens”, now that one of the benefits of working from home, or not working, has been brought out in sharp relief, you can expect them to continue to promote this as a good trend (and, having dealt with traffic on the D.C. Beltway for many years, I find it hard to disagree).

But speaking of biological weapons... the “elephant in the room” in all of this, and something that is completely suppressed by the mainstream media, is the question of what on earth we were doing not only working with the Chinese government on biological warfare research, but actually supporting it (Fauci again). I mean... OK, we've been experimenting with bio-warfare agents for decades, presumably in order to develop defenses in case the technology is aimed at us (either at our military or our population in general). And it wouldn't be all that scandalous if we were working with our allies on the same thing. But China? Our “enemy”, “rival”, “competitor for world dominance”? I mean, what's going on here? Maybe someone figured that the old saying “keep your friends close and your enemies closer” should apply to bio-warfare research. Or, maybe we were anticipating that someday we and China would be working together in order to... what? You can see why the MSM don't want to open this can of worms. And yet, I think it's the most important question that can be asked at this point. If we worked with China and funded this research and then something “escaped”, isn't that just as much our fault as theirs? In order to make any sense of this, you have to go way beyond the standard conspiracy model.

In a world of paradoxes, a few stand out when it comes to Covid. One is that there was a sudden and significant centralization of commerce (from “brick and mortar” to the Internet), but at the same time a decentralization of the workplace (office vs. home, school vs. home). Also, the pandemic was “managed” (so to speak) by the federal government in terms of distribution of healthcare resources and information (just kidding – it was the opinions of “experts” who changed their minds on a daily basis). But there was also considerable management – much of it way more effective than the federal variety – at the state and local level. Likewise, the more localized policy decisions tended to be more effective and less economically/socially disruptive than the diktats that came down from on high (Washington, D.C., that is). The “experts” on the federal payroll couldn't avoid contradicting each other (and themselves) on a regular basis, whereas there were some more level-headed types working things out at the state (some, not all) and local (ditto) level.

Another unanticipated consequence was the discovery – out of sheer necessity – of home schooling, by parents who had never considered it as a possibility up to then. In many cases they decided they liked it – and that it was, in some cases, worth giving up that second paycheck for – so they kept their kids home even after the schools opened up again – much to the dismay, I'm sure, of the teachers' unions and the boards of education. (And I'm sure the grass-roots movement against the teaching of CRT, and things like the transgender locker room issue, didn't hurt the cause either.)

And last but far from least, we have the most general phenomenon resulting from all of this, namely the ever-widening political and social gap in American society. It was there before, of course – it's been there pretty much since the Founding, but what was arguably a fault line in the 1960s has grown into a canyon, and you can credit Covid and the responses to it, along with the War on Trump, for the yawning abyss we see before us now. And yes, there was a lot more going on in 2020 than a new mystery disease, lest we forget; it was truly an annus horribilis. But some good has come from it as well, it seems to me. Another layer of our much-treasured American optimism and naivete has been chipped away – and I for one would rather see things more as they truly are than to cling to illusions. And anyone with a sense of history can at least appreciate the fact that so much has been brought out in sharp relief – mostly bad, but some good as well. As I've said before, no one wants to live in history – it's too messy, confusing, chaotic, and dangerous. Much better to sit back and view it from afar – in books, on Wikipedia, in movies, etc. But when you're in it, you're in it, and there's no sense in pretending things are any other way.

Thus, my take on Covid and some of the theories that were floating around early on – and continue to do so in many cases. I have chosen to argue against one major class of theories having to do with intentional release of the virus; the probability is still not zero, and never will be, but it just doesn't seem to fit into the big picture. However, the overall theme of “discovered benefits” – mostly negative in their impact on the plain citizen – can be found at every turn. “Cui bono?” And I would say, basically, the usual suspects – globalists, totalitarians, would-be dictators, population control advocates, the ruling elite, multinational corporations, anti-Americans everywhere (including here in America), Big Medicine, Big Pharma, the utterly shameless mainstream media, the Deep State, dictator wannabe's everywhere, population and environmental activists... but also China itself, and biological warfare specialists, all benefiting from the rich data base created by the pandemic.

Who, on the other hand, has suffered the most? Again, the usual victims – the beleaguered middle class, freedom and liberty in general, patriots, and those with a residual and naive trust in government. The good news is that many of these have put up a fight. They protested... they engaged in civil disobedience... the asserted themselves as citizens of a free (even if no longer free) country. The human spirit is not to be conquered by mere diktats or the pronouncements of tyrants – or of the increasingly transparent propaganda apparatus.

And of course there is always that first casualty of war (or any major crisis), namely the truth. We look in vain to find it in the “news”, the media, political speeches, and pronouncements of the current administration and many governors' and mayors' offices. It's truly a taste of what many people around the world had to put up for generations, and continue to do so in many cases – Soviet Russia and its clones come first to mind, but there are other guilty parties as well.

And dare we point out the serious damage this episode did to families, local organizations, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, freedom of speech, freedom of medical choice, neighborhoods, and friendships? There are people to this day peering out from behind masks... at other people peering out from behind masks. (A better stage set for a dystopian drama, where individuality and personhood have been abolished, can hardly be imagined.) There are countless places one is not allowed to enter without a “vax card” (“Your papers, please” – says the guy in the trench coat with the Luger in his pocket). Paranoia has a new face, except that it's just half a face. The “unvaxed” have been made second-class citizens... no, worse – lepers! Unclean! Truly, the pod people have taken over in many parts of the country. And yes, the madness seems to be abating a bit, but there has been permanent damage, and the scars will remain – for a lifetime I imagine.

But to end on a more positive note – the eternal verities are still with us because they are indeed eternal. They may be attacked and persecuted by malevolent rulers, but they will not die because they are an essential component of human nature – and in this, at least, we may have hope.

What's Wrong with Loudoun County?

 

Loudoun County, Virginia has become the epicenter of the “cold civil war” between the woke/progressive movement – the latest incarnation of the revolution -- and people who are – or who at least consider themselves to be -- “normal”, i.e. ordinary American citizens who ask nothing more than to be left alone. But the question arises, why there, and why now? I believe I can shed some light on the subject, since I lived there for all of 24 years.

First, a bit of geography. Look at a map of Virginia which highlights counties. Working out from D.C., you first come to Arlington County, which was, long ago and far away, part of D.C. (which explains why it's the other part of the 10x10 mile diamond). Arlington, which up until World War II was a scattering of small settlements, got a shot in the arm with the war and the building of the Pentagon and became what is known as a “bedroom suburb”. Over time, Arlington got filled up, so the cancer which actually began with the New Deal spread to Fairfax County, which over time became an even larger and more sprawling bedroom suburb. But like any malignant growth, the government blob needed ever more space, so by 1981 the cancer had spread across the county line into Loudoun – not far, mind you, but enough to constitute a significant “fringe”, beyond which all was still bucolic and green (in the traditional sense). (I used to joke that the suburbs on the eastern edge of Loudoun County were the servants' quarters for Fairfax County. True up to a point, except a lot of the hapless Loudoun residents had to commute all the way into D.C. on a daily basis, a process so brutal that it could be compared to the Trail of Tears. And even so, we spent a lot of time “pitying the fools” who commuted from places even farther away, like Harper's Ferry, Gettysburg, and the Eastern Shore of Maryland. You look hard enough and you can always find someone more miserable than you are.)

So, taking a snapshot circa 1981, Loudoun County was still, by and large, rural. We settled in one of the “borderline” developments, and right across the main road there were horses grazing. And from where we lived to Leesburg (the county seat) it was all horses. Now it's all developments. In fact, the developments have oozed around Leesburg, which is protected by ironclad ordinances, not to mention political pull – in order to preserve its colonial-era, quaint, and picturesque features. (You can't move a brick or prune a tree in “old” Leesburg without getting a permit from the authorities. Needless to say, real estate prices there are comparable to those on Martha's Vineyard. But who can argue with a place that has more boxwood hedges than anywhere else in the U.S.?)

The last time I checked, which was 15 years ago, the suburban sprawl had reached all the way to the first ridge west of Leesburg, and was quickly crawling up said ridge in search of new worlds to despoil. But that was not the only trend of note, by any means. The social history of Washington, D.C. and its suburbs has one overriding theme, which is that people come there in order to get good-paying jobs. And who wouldn't? Problem is, they bring their – in some cases “traditional” – points of view with them. Why, many of them have intact families! And they “cling” to guns and Bibles! And so on. This is because they generally come from farther west or farther south, which means from “the hills”, from “God's country”, and all of that feisty Scotch-Irish DNA doesn't always take kindly to the New Deal/enlightened/progressive/liberal/socialist/woke-ism that emanates out of D.C. like fallout from an atomic blast, except over a much longer time.

So even way back in 1981, there were already signs of trouble. The “Billy Bobs” from up in them thar hills who attended the Evangelical and Fundamentalist churches had to confront, on the job and occasionally right next door, the opposing force – namely big-government socialism and all of its attendant annoyances and persecutions, not to mention its true believers, who considered the outer suburbs as a kind of mission field – the thinking being something along the lines of  “We will enlighten these knuckle-draggers and mouth-breathers, at the point of a gun if need be, and turn them into citizens of the New World Order whether they like it or not.”

Not only that, but the first notable entity in Loudoun County to succumb to the new New Deal mind set was the county government. So you had, basically, a county with a suburban fringe on one end, a “hunt country” elite on the other end (quickly moving on to greener pastures in order to escape suburban sprawl - after cashing out handsomely, needless to say), and in the middle a county government that was indistinguishable from what one might find in, let's say, Sweden, but with even more of an animus toward religion, “family values”, and conservatism of any kind.

“You say 'mayter', and I say to-mah-to”. The ruling class of Loudoun County were NPR listeners, everyone else was into country music. It was BMWs vs. pickup trucks with gun racks. It was polite Episcopalians vs. charismatic Fundamentalists who spoke in tongues. It was gourmet shops vs. BBQ joints. And so on. But, all in all, despite these canyon-like cultural differences there was a kind of peaceful coexistence – the two sides tended to stay out of each other's way most of the time (except when the “regular folks” wound up in court and were confronted by prosecutors straight out of Stalin's show trials).

And – bringing us up to the present day – all was, at first, more or less quiet on the public school front. The “agents of change” had yet to flex their muscles in that venue, and although the county education officials had definite totalitarian tendencies, this had not yet trickled down to the grass roots. Besides, many of the serious traditionalists already had their kids enrolled in church-based schools – all across the spectrum from Evangelical to Fundamentalist. So the public schools were an accident waiting to happen – and sure enough, it has now happened, much to the amazement and puzzlement of all. But if you understand the social history of the place, you understand exactly what's going on. The traditionally-minded, family-oriented people saw nothing terribly wrong with sending their kids off to the public schools, assuming that the “3 R's” were still being taught. Which they were, up to a point – and that was the point at which the agents of change... the vanguard of the revolution, of the culture war... decided to shift into high gear and start introducing... well, you know... all the garbage that is now – whether virtually or in-person, masked or unmasked -- being dumped on public school kids without the knowledge or consent of their parents. And ironically it's the very incidence of the pandemic that has helped bring things to a head. As has been pointed out any number of times, remote, at-home learning necessitated by the pandemic enabled parents to see, for the first time, what their kids were being taught in school, and the response was indignation, outrage, and an urge to not only speak truth to power but to topple that power from its throne. And this was at the same time CRT came along – along with transgender bathrooms and athletes – sex education at a fever pitch (“sex ed” has been with us for decades, but it has now reached escape velocity) – and any of the thousand varieties of race- and gender-shaming that are now everyday business in the public schools. Not to mention masks! Another way of putting it is that the pandemic was supposed to have served as a rationale and as a cover for an escalation of the culture war, in spite of any new level of awareness on the part of the parents. (Or – to put a finer point on it – no one expected the parents to notice that their kids were being brainwashed by Marxists, so when they did notice it caused great consternation and dismay. Busted! And now that sleeping giant known as “parents” is speaking up, and getting in the way, and disturbing the traditionally tranquil atmosphere of school board meetings.)

So imagine if you're a parent with kids in public school in Loudoun County. You moved there to get closer to the cornucopia of unlimited cash and jobs that is D.C. – who wouldn't? And you, innocently, expected the values and attitudes you grew up with in East Overshoe, West Virginia to be reinforced, or at least not actively opposed, by the schools you were sending your kids to. Then came the “reveal”, and now parents are standing up in school board meetings and demanding to know what in hell is going on – and the school board members just sit there stone-faced, like Soviet officials standing on Lenin's Tomb during the May Day parade on Red Square. Yes, they've been “outed”, they've been exposed, but hey – they have all the power, the law is on their side, they represent the dominant culture, and, basically, the parents can just stick it where the sun don't shine. This is their attitude. But I say that this attitude has been building up for nigh unto 40 years now; it's just recently that it has come out into the open through repeated confrontation. And, by the way, it's also a subset of the broader premise that the government owns your children, and all you are is a caretaker at best. And, that the real work – the work of creating a new type of citizen for the servile state – is done away from the atavistic and suffocating atmosphere of “the home”.

And if that weren't enough, now the school boards have called in the FBI to protect them from indignant parents. If you're looking for a Soviet Union starter kit, seek no further – this is not the first battle, nor is it the last, but it's the most consequential. The revolution has always known that the next generation is key – not the grandparents, not the parents (AKA “deplorables”), but the “young skulls full of mush” as Rush Limbaugh used to say. Win the hearts and minds of the next generation and you've won, and the old folks can go to hell; that's the attitude. And the thing is, this works! Or, it works if it is unopposed. Right now the revolution holds all the cards... it has all the political power... it has most (but not all) of the guns... so prospects are not good. But to not oppose would mean to capitulate, to be less then men, less than human... and is this the legacy we want to pass on to the next generation? I fervently hope not.

To paraphrase an old political saying, as Loudoun County goes, so goes the nation – if people do not speak the whole truth to the real power. If they do and fail anyway, it will usher in a long night, and many of us may not live to see the dawn. The Soviet Union lasted 70-plus years before the Russians finally came to their senses and reasserted themselves as a culture – a very traditional and religious one at that. This will take patience, but it will take faith even more.

Things Are Going Swimmingly -- Some Pool Observations

Being an amateur anthropologist and a bit of a people watcher, I've turned my attention of late to our community pool, which is large enough to hold pretty much every species and sub-species of human being. I've come up with a typology – a work in progress, if you will – but wanted to share it now, in hopes people can make their own contributions. See if you recognize any of these types! (But first, get in the mood. Think sun. Think soothing breezes, and the cloying scent of chlorine... )

The Bobbers: They just stand there, bobbing up and down. Up and down. Up and down. Hour after hour. (singly or in groups of 2 or 3)

The Conversationalists: They also just stand there, but don't even bob. Instead they talk, in groups of 2 or more. Talk about pretty much anything. Hour after hour.

The Floaters: They lie on one of those inflatable mattresses and let themselves be carried along by the current. They usually appear to be sound asleep. (I never see any of them either getting into or out of the water. I assume they're there all day. Maybe they never leave.)

The Odd Couple: How on earth did they ever find each other?

The Serious Senior Citizen Lady who typically uses the lap lane, and who was probably a varsity swimmer in her college days. She typically wears a bathing cap, which is a rarity these days.

The Serious Senior Citizen Man: See above. (minus the bathing cap, and usually minus hair)

Les Amants: This would be a young (or not so young) couple that just stand there in an embrace, looking dreamily into each other's eyes and smiling. (I don't know what's going on under the surface. Maybe I don't want to know.)

The Olympians: They churn through the water doing the Australian crawl, and heaven help you if you get in their way.

The Lap Swimmers: They stay in their lane and focus on endurance. Hats off!

The Muscle Beach types: There's no one like that in Pittsburgh.

The Shouters: These are the people who spend five or ten minutes trying to get someone else's attention by screaming at the top of their lungs. Either they're in the water and the other person is on the side, or vice-versa. They operate on the assumption that sound carries better over water – problem is, they're competing against 50 kids all yelling at the same time, and against Bob FM coming out of the P.A. System at 100 decibels.

The Nerds: This is 2 or 3 skinny teenage boys who engage in half-hearted horseplay with no girls in sight.

The Biggies: These are the folks who go in the water to get the weight off their spines and legs. I don't mean just mildly overweight people; I mean Really Big People, like the large-helping-of-fries-at-every-meal kind of big.

The Cool Kids: They aren't in the water. They're hanging around the snack bar.

The Sunbathers: They're out there frying themselves to a toasty brown. I don't sense much sunscreen in use. Hope they have good health insurance.

The Mystery Colors: People who already have a deep tan on the first day of the season, and people who are still a pasty white on the last day.

The Intellectual Loners: They find the most secluded spot in the place (on land, I mean) and just settle in. They're often reading a book. A big book. With no pictures.

The Day Care Ladies who are shepherding a platoon of toddlers and pre-schoolers. (I don't know how they keep their sanity. Maybe they don't.)

The woman wheeling an industrial-size baby stroller which is brimming over with tote bags, towels, pool toys, and assorted bits of clothing. (I assume there's a baby in there somewhere, but lots of luck finding it.)

The Harried Lifeguards who blow their whistle for five minutes hoping to get the attention of someone who is breaking the rules. Problem is, no one thinks they're breaking the rules so no one thinks the whistle is for them.

The Lady at the Entrance who has to explain the Byzantine rate system (age, residency, single, family, daily, seasonal, etc. etc.) about 50 times a day.

The Great Migrators: The people (usually families) who walk out at 4:30 on the dot. This is a legacy of the old days when all the factories let out at the same time and the wife had to be home in time to prepare dinner so it would be ready when the husband got home from work. Heaven forbid dinner should start even a minute past 6 PM! Don't yinz know it's bowling night?

The Ice Cubes: These are the folks (typically pale, thin young women) who take forever to get in the water, and are shivering the whole time. (They're always accompanied by a husband or boyfriend who, with great patience, tries to encourage them.) (Needless to say, if they should dare to splash the woman, the engagement is off!!)

The Water Cannon Kids: Usually boys. OK – always boys, never girls. You do the math.

The Head Lifeguard, who marches up and down like a drill sergeant keeping the troops in line. (He'd love to have a riding crop, but it's not standard issue.)

The Water Hogs: These are the guys who play toss and catch (usually 2 to 4 players) and try to see how much of the pool they can monopolize with their game. Of course, you can try and swim across their playing field, but then you risk being whacked by a missed catch. (This is the only activity which I feel should be entirely banned. Some of the others are annoying, but unlikely to lead to serious injury.)

So... there you are, and I'm sure there are a few I've missed (or that are found in pools other than the one I frequent). Please feel free to add your own observations!