By Michael Senger April 12, 2022
Through two years of COVID mania, a norm has been grafted onto western democracy that the fundamental rights to movement, work, association, bodily autonomy, and free expression can be suddenly and indefinitely suspended, without precedent, analysis, or logic, based on nothing but vague promises that doing so will “save lives.” Accountability is out of the question. No matter how destructive or even lethal the result, the intent was purely therapeutic. And, even if the intent was destructive, then it was therapeutic for the body politic as a whole, in a way that is beyond the ability of individual citizens to comprehend.
This is the new normal—a new normal enabled, and in some cases encouraged, by the elites who presently comprise our political, academic, and media power structures. Myriad financial and social forces keep each individual from vocalizing the reality of what’s transpired. For journalists and academics, the patrons of their newsrooms and universities strongly discourage the publication of anything too negative about China; this has meant burying the fact that China’s COVID data is fraudulent. Within political parties, individual politicians are pressured not to stray too far from the line that mandates were good and necessary. Scientists and professionals fear ostracism from their firms and professional organizations. And for all involved, there is the overarching fear of being wrong. These factors jointly contribute to a false reality in which the destruction that’s been wrought over the past two years is neither acknowledged or discussed—a feedback loop of self-censorship. Zersetzung at work.
Truth is the only standard by which power can be held to account; a common acceptance of reality is therefore fundamental to democratic governance. Conditioning any and all political, social, and financial support on acknowledgment of the crimes that have occurred in the name of COVID-19 is the only way by which the self-interest of the ruling class can be re-aligned with objective truth. This process will not be quick or easy. But it is not a mere academic matter.
Justice must be done for the response to COVID-19. We won’t have a democracy until it is.
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