Joakim Book, Author at Brownstone Institute

The West Must Never Again Go Totalitarian

Joakim Book January 26, 2023 Economics, Policy 7 minute read

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We might still have food on the shelves — though of worse quality and at much higher prices. We might still have the ability to move and work and travel, but heavily circumscribed, always at risk of canceling and always with papers showing the number of needles in your arm, or your scarred heart tissue. Nobody is torturing us (yet anyway) and for the most part we have some semblance of rights and freedoms remaining. ut we’re closer to that horrific totalitarian world today than we were, say five years ago.

Mattias Desmet on the Totalitarianism of Mass Panic

Joakim Book June 12, 2022 Philosophy, Psychology, Society 9 minute read

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The covid pandemonium was a reminder that even rich, sensible, well-mannered, and well-educated societies can descend into the pits of hell faster than you can cry “emergency.” Society always balances on the edge of an unspeakably horrific abyss.

Skepticism as a New Way of Life

Joakim Book February 22, 2022 Law, Policy, Society, Vaccines 8 minute read

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This is the story of a tribe of navel-gazing authoritarians imposing rules on the rest of us, rules that don’t make sense, that are routinely flaunted by their proponents, and in aggregate don’t achieve the goals they’re said to achieve. There is no reason to puzzle about the lost of trust and the rise of grave skepticism about elite plans for our lives.

Lockdowns Did Not Save Lives, Concludes Meta-analysis

Joakim Book January 28, 2022 History, Policy 6 minute read

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The authors are pretty severe in their final conclusions. Lockdowns didn’t meaningfully reduce Covid-19 mortalities: “the effect is little to none.”

Is Anyone Going to Accept Responsibility for This?

Joakim Book January 12, 2022 Economics, History, Policy 6 minute read

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This is the model that will consume all public discussion of the pandemic response in the future: seeking but never finding anyone to bear responsibility. This is typical for episodes in history that are characterized by mass frenzy and distorted fanaticism. Once the mania is gone, it is hard to find anyone who is willing to accept responsibility for feeding it and acting upon it.

Blinded by a Blizzard of Numbers: A Review of Spiegelhalter and Masters

Joakim Book December 9, 2021 Economics, Policy 7 minute read

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There is much to dislike in Spiegelhalter and Masters’ book on the plague year, but considering the partisan and authoritarian nonsense, garbage advice, and terrible statistical blunders we’ve grown used to, the book comes across as fairly balanced. They have some clear blind spots (vaccines, effectiveness of lockdowns, Vitamin D) but there are much worse things to read than Covid by Numbers.

The Corruptions of Pharma as a Service

Joakim Book December 7, 2021 Economics, Pharma, Public Health, Vaccines 6 minute read

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But given the corruption in American politics, in its bureaucracy, and most importantly in its media and academic establishments, is it inconceivable to suggest that maybe Big Pharma wanted its share of the as-a-Service-revolution?