In our cultures for centuries we have accepted the need for social/governmental mandates regarding public safety. Traffic laws, and other laws which make it illegal and mandate consequences if people engage in behaviors which harm others exist in all countries. Sometimes, as we have seen especially in the southern U.S., laws may be interpreted and written primarily to benefit one group over another. No question about it, laws can be of use and laws can be misused. Yet we all know, or should know, there are some laws that are necessary to keep a civilization civilized.
Today we face a situation in which private, for-profit, prisons have become an industry. I read years ago that there is a Zen Buddhist saying that: “Where interest enters in the door, honor flies out the window.” This is undoubtedly happening with the for-profit prison system. With contracts that require a certain number of prisoners be provided, we can be sure we are seeing sentences being stretched out and incarceration being handed down as a sentence when it may not otherwise have been so (see article).
Now we are entering an age of manipulated, engineered viruses. Viruses designed to foil our natural immunities. I believe, in the long run (however long or short a period of time that is), nature and our immune systems will prevail. However, we are seeing governments stepping in to legislate, or using executive order, to compel populations to certain actions. The ultimate benefits, or curses, of the current covid mandates are yet to be known. Will the distress caused by the mandates weigh heavier, cause more suffering and death, than the consequences of the disease? That is a highly relevant and unanswered question at this time.
Which brings us to the question of whether or not an eventual vaccine will be offered…or mandated. If mandated what will the “levers” used to enforce the mandate be? Financial? Social and economic ostracization? What we do know is that some groups of people are looking to profit greatly from the sales of a vaccine. Whether it is from people paying themselves for the vaccine, insurance companies paying, or our tax dollars being used, we can be sure that if we ever see the word “free” associated with the vaccine it will be in a misleading manner. What other disreputable realities may or may not be associated with such an interest/profit driven scheme remain to be seen.
Our skin, our bodies, are our last boundary, our last physical line of retreat and/or defense from the ravages of the world at large. Is it ever wise for us to allow individuals or groups with ulterior motives to be able to demand, or surreptitiously gain entry beyond that boundary?
kendunning.net 