What could we count on after lockdowns descended? Mainstream churches shuttered doors while the local AA meeting near my house met at a park in the winter. Another 12-step meeting met under a tree in the yard of the church in warm months and under a porch awning when it rained. Church bureaucracies ordered doors closed. What had happened to us? Yet, Amazon never stopped.
Jesus or…Amazon…Loves You Read Journal Article
At every turn, the story of the world’s response to Covid is the story of power: The perception of it, the exercise of it, the fear of it, the abuse of it, and the pathological lengths to which some will go to obtain it.
Your Misery Is All About Their Power Read Journal Article
Despite sections with refreshing clarity and depth, the report is also often shallow and dismissive of fundamental issues. It fails to assess with evidence the overall effectiveness of the lockdown-mass vaccination paradigm, making sometimes contradictory claims.
Given the world in which we have been living for the past two years, despite the numerous flaws critics have found in both Zimbardo’s work, it would seem that both he and other members of social psychology’s golden age can still tell us a lot about how social roles, oppressive environments and powerful authorities can alter the psyches and actions of normal people in pathological ways.
What Can the Stanford Prison Experiment Tell Us about Life in the Pandemic Era? Read Journal Article
In agriculture, public health, and medicine, we should stop envisioning magic technological bullets that empower governments more than they benefit their purported target populations. We should consider not only the ostensible short-term benefits of interventions but also the broader costs.
Same Pig, Different Lipstick: Covid and the Green Revolution Read Journal Article
The struggle underneath many headlines and events in our times – and this is true of the reshuffled alliances with hot war in the Middle East – is the desperate clamor to avoid accountability for those who opened the Pandora’s box of hate, division, state power, propaganda, and violence. That appears to be evolving into a civilization-wrecking dynamic of all against all, even as the instigators cower in the shadows.
The Very Model of a Modern Covid Authoritarian Read Journal Article
Laura Delano’s book weaves together these pieces into an alarming tale of tragedy followed by final hope. From the first chapter in which the supposed problems begin, I could not wait to see how the author would handle the ending.
Psych Meds and Veblen Goods Read Journal Article
The Machiavellians who concocted the Covid response and the media who sold it don’t regret what they did. It served their political, social and economic purposes. Thus, the truth can now be publicly admitted, though not fully. Denying some aspects of reality allows the Coronamanic to deceive many and to think of themselves as good, smart people for having supported lockdowns, school closures, masks, tests and shots.
Will They Ever Come Clean About the Damage They Caused? Read Journal Article
Their singular obsession, emotional intensity, and size lead to crowds sometimes attaining great power and dictating directions that can change the course of history for a whole country, or even for the world. The inherent danger is that their obsession blinds them to everything else that matters in normal times.
Covid and the Madness of Crowds Read Journal Article
While wearing a mask, I feel anonymous and inhuman. Few people are willing to approach me for conversation, compounding the difficulties I already face due to my disabilities. My disabilities made people nervous about including me in activities because they were afraid to approach.
I’m Fighting for My Right to Learn Read Journal Article
