Who remembers this time last year? There were demonstrations going on in France, Hong Kong and other places. There was an international undercurrent of dissatisfaction with the extreme economic imbalance in the world. People, especially young people, were traveling internationally more than any time in history. Through the use of social media and face-to-face conversations (remember those?) people from around the world were exchanging ideas, sharing recipes, and generally getting to know one another more than ever before. Then, well, you know what then.
So much of what was going on contributed to a growing sense of commonality and unity among people around the world. It was a time to rejoice in new experiences, new friends, new awareness. But that was leading to a world population which was emboldened, more competent, less satisfied with being perpetually handed the “short end of the stick”. It’s easy to understand how those occupying the seats of economic and political power in the world might see such a thing as a thing to be feared, to be ended. And so it was.
There can be no question that many (all?) of the people who most likely saw their privileged positions as being threatened by an empowered, emboldened, world population have managed to increase their wealth dramatically as a result of the much touted, cleverly engineered, pandemic. You know the phrase: “we’re all in this together”? Beyond a shadow of a doubt it doesn’t apply to behavior between the economic elite and the rest of us since the advent of Covid-19. The meetings, the sharing, the elevation in consciousness of the common people of the world which was dynamic and ongoing pre-Covid, could not have been more effectively curtailed.
Now we’re entering 2021 with the same media propaganda inspiring fear of Covid-19, rumors and articles about a mandatory vaccinations, vaccines using DNA-altering CRISPR technology, vaccination certificates being proposed for many activities, social distancing, cell phone tracking, highly controlled visas for international travel, restricted or closed restaurants and bars, live music being forbidden. It reminds me a WWII movie in which the protagonist is on a train within Nazi Germany and is confronted by a uniformed, armed, soldier demanding “your papers”.
But it’s all for our own protection…isn’t it?
As we enter the new year, a time that often brings an assessment of one’s life and behavior, one important aspect we have to consider is our trajectory into the future. What is the organizing principle of our lives? Is it fear? Is it love? Is it money? Is it life itself? Are we an intelligent world community? Or are we a collection of livestock to be herded and managed? Why on Earth are common people being led to feel we are defying “authority” if we wish to simply conduct our lives in the most common of manners? Why are we accepting that our ability to carry on our businesses, our family relationships, our community activities, should be unilaterally dictated by a few in some “official” position or another? Especially since some, or all, of those few are materially profiting greatly from their mandates and proclamations.
It’s 2021. Best wishes to you and yours.
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