Life After Lockdown: Introduction

My last published book was Liberty or Lockdown, originally printed in September 2020. It was written in a mad fury over what happened to the world in March 2020 and delved deeply into the history of infectious disease and the lockdown idea. At this point in publishing, I still believed there was a real hope of a dramatic turnaround, that vast numbers of elites the world over would realize that they had embarked on a hopeless and deeply destructive crusade. At that point in my thinking, I believed that society and politics still more or less worked, that some mechanism would kick in and the ship of civilization would be righted. 

I was wrong, of course. There was never an exit strategy from lockdowns, closures, masks, and shot mandates, not even a benchmark for when it could end or a theory about what any of this would achieve, much less how to know whether and to what extent any of it worked. Lacking any of this, how did it end? It just gradually faded away due to waves of noncompliance and too many anomalies that made the whole project seem ridiculous and evil. 

The whole thing fell apart like a house of cards except in slow motion depending upon geographic political allegiances. Of course the virus is still here as all viruses are here. It was never going to end any other way than through the achievement of endemicity regardless of government actions and without the injection that most everyone now regrets getting. This was the biggest fiasco in public health history and maybe in the history of governance given the size, scale, and reach of the coercion. And now? We aren’t supposed to talk about it at all. It was merely the late unpleasantness.

This book, which is a collection of some articles I wrote for Brownstone Institute, is designed to change that. We must talk about this issue. Lockdowns were the turning point in our lives, our societies, our culture, and affected everything from academia to education, to science, to media, to tech, and all the way down to demographics and our relationship to our professional and personal lives. It touched everything, turning what worked into something fundamentally broken and dysfunctional. 

Substantial parts of this book are dedicated to asking the question: why? It was a mistake, yes, but there was much more going on, something terrible and nefarious. Some institutionalization of ancient vices included the will to rule, greed, malice, and much more. Precisely how it all unfolded is a fascinating issue. We are only a little bit of the way into understanding this. And this is despite having hundreds of people on the case. Much of the essential information we need to figure out the full scenario remains classified.

Maybe it will someday be revealed but, for now, we are left only to follow breadcrumbs and money trails. This book presents what we have but without the extensive apparatus one might need in a court case. I hope it is enough to get you interested, and perhaps you too will join the great effort. 

I apologize in advance for the dark tone of the book, but it is necessary. Everything we love is at stake. Sadly, the lockdown experience was the most successful mechanism of expanding state power that we’ve seen in our lifetimes, or ever. Nothing is the same. The Internet has never been more controlled and censored. Doctors are scared. Academia is transformed. Dissidents are in hiding. The purge has removed many of our best minds from positions of influence.

It’s wise to steel ourselves for more of this because they will try it all again. Even if the next round is not as extreme, bad actors are now in a position to build on what they have done already to continue the march toward dystopia. A people of dignity and rights cannot allow this to happen. 

Only the naive believe that a political solution alone is enough to reverse the course. What is needed and required is a fundamental cultural change, away from the nonchalant decadence and confidence that characterized the West before 2020 and toward a more ferocious culture that allows no trampling of human rights and is deeply suspicious of power and those connected with it. No longer can we take liberty for granted. It is something for which we must fight. 

I further apologize in advance for repetitions herein. In nearly every article I write, I find myself saying again and again just how appalling the whole episode was, and I do this repeatedly because so few other writers are willing to do so. It seems obvious to me that many players in public life want silence on this. We cannot allow that. We must know, discuss, learn, and share, with open minds and a willingness to go where the facts lead. 

Life after lockdowns is fundamentally different than it was before: more degraded, more brutal, more merciless, and more sadistic. We’ve seen what they are willing to do to us and are now more willing to do the same to each other. Freedom cannot thrive under such conditions. For this reason, change must begin with ourselves and our desire to resist. Similarly, the rebuilding begins from within too. We simply cannot allow this to fade from memory or acquiesce into the compliant and indifferent mass that is easily controlled. We must reimagine a brighter future before we can achieve it. 

I would like to offer my special thanks to all the writers, fellows, staff, and scholars of Brownstone Institute for the endless bounty of insight, criticism, and collegiality. It’s an amazing team of thinkers without which this book would not have been possible. The same gratitude goes out to loved ones in my life who have stood by me through extremely hard times. This book is further dedicated to all dissidents who refuse to give in and become part of the army of compliant victims. May this effort contribute to the rise of a truly rebellious generation.