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Thursday, December 3, 2020

Briefly Noted: Masks, Great Reset, Digital 'Iron Curtain'

We begin with a thoughtful article on masking at The Federalist:


Masks Are Another Way To Control Society Through Isolation

Mask scolds have been monomaniacal about this virus as if there is no other way to die. What they don’t seem to understand is that this is no way to live.


Masks are a form of social isolation, and humans cannot survive emotionally or even physically when they are forcibly separated from one another. ...

A broader and deeper look at the corrosive effects of masking and isolation is found in “Till We Have Faces,” which is arguably the greatest novel from C.S. Lewis. While it is heavy on allegory and can be difficult to absorb, its lessons relate to mask mandates.

Without going into the storyline, a retelling of the Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche, one can still glean crucial principles. ...

The main character, Orual, covers her face for most of her life. She does so to gain a sense of power over others, ... In the end, however, Orual finds that her veil served only as a barrier to joy, love, and good relationships with others. It symbolizes self-absorption and represents grudges, anger, resentment, and especially a fear of the truth.

...

If we wish to remain free, however, we should reject mask-wearing as any kind of normal. ...

Acquiescence to politicized mask mandates also removes our sense of common humanity. We end up living in a faceless, dehumanized sea of anonymous people, and that is no way to live.


"Build back better" is the slogan of the Davos World Economic Forum (WEF). Not in the least coincidentally it was also the slogan of the Biden campaign--such as it was. Now ... again, not in the least bit coincidentally:


Pope Francis Shows His Hand, Adopts “Great Reset” Slogan




And, with a tip of the hat to commenter Dave, Alistair Crooke describes how:


The Digital 'Iron Curtain' Descends


It's all related--masks, resets, digital iron curtains. This is a longish article but it begins:


What is a ‘digital Iron Curtain’? It is when Big Digital, as Professor Michael Rectenwald terms these western Tech Goliaths, become ‘governmentalities’, using a word originally coined by Michel Foucault to refer to the means by which the ‘governed’ (i.e. ‘we the people’) assimilate, and reflect outwardly, a mental attitude desired by the élites: “One might point to masking and social distancing as instances of what Foucault meant by his notion of governmentality”, Rectenwald suggests.

And what is that desired ‘mentality’? It is to embrace the transfiguration of American and European identity and way-of-life. The presumptive U.S. President Elect, the European élites, and top ‘woke’ élites moreover, are publicly committed to such “transformation”: “Now we take Georgia, then we change the world,” (Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader, declared, celebrating Joe Biden’s ‘victory’); “Trump’s defeat can be the beginning of the end of the triumph of far-right populisms also in Europe”, claimed Donald Tusk, former president of the European Council.

In short, the ‘Iron Curtain’ descends when supposedly private enterprises (Big Digital) mutually inter-penetrate with – and then claim – the State: No longer the non-believer facing this coming metamorphosis is to be persuaded – he can be compelled. Regressive values held on identity, race and gender quickly slipped into a ‘heresy’ labelling. And as the BLM activists endlessly repeat: “Silence is no option: Silence is complicity”.

With the advent of Silicon Valley ideology’s ubiquitous ‘reach’, the diktat can be achieved through weaponising ‘Truth’ via AI, to achieve a ‘machine learning fairness’ that reflects only the values of the coming revolution – and through AI ‘learning’ mounting that version of binary ‘truth’, up and against an adversarial ‘non-truth’ (its polar opposite). How this inter-penetration came about is through a mix of early CIA start-up funding; connections and contracts with state agencies, particularly relating to defence; and in support for propaganda campaigns in service to ‘governmentalist’ narratives.


It all seems terribly relevant to where we are today.










7 comments:

  1. TILL WE HAVE FACES, CS Lewis’s retelling or actually reinterpreting the myth of Cupid and Psyche is a profound read, but make sure to start with his explanation of what he is doing at the end.
    In my work, I deal with people in person, with masks, and over zoom. I am continually surprised by how very different people I have only met with masks look when their masks are taken off. Some have great smiles, other weak chins, to name just a few features that are hidden. What a difference a whole face makes in terms of getting to know someone.

    Thanks so much for this post. I am going to start re-reading the novel this weekend.
    Aletheia

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    1. I know...I find myself smiling at someone and then realize they can't tell what I'm doing, might as well be sticking my tongue out, sigh
      What really worries me is the effect on the little ones...and the long term repercussions on our society and interpersonal relations - methinks I'd rather risk catching the covid, but hey, what do I know?

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  2. It's a small number, but if true, very significant:

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/12/breaking-huge-trump-team-dominion-machine-small-georgia-county-shows-votes-flipped-trump-biden/

    If the steal was truly coordinated nationwide and proven to be for real, we may find that the strategy was to do a little bit of every fraud effort so that no single fraudulent effort would be large enough to rise to the level of "affecting the outcome of the election" as Barr put it. It's not the single tactic that is important, it is the overall coordination of a widespread and multifaceted effort to steel the election. And perhaps Barr is not thinking about the possibility of an actual real conspiracy involving many moving parts. He should know better after seeing how the left went after Trump his first term.

    The problem for the Dems is, it was not calibrated to Trump's margins sufficiently so they had to scramble in key Dem controlled precincts.

    We are seeing little to no "mistakes" that were made in Trump's favor. All the corrections are giving margin back to Trump. When every little chip in Trump's vote tally is all in one direction, one has to wonder whether all the little small efforts were in actuality a well coordinated plan.

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    1. "one has to wonder whether all the little small efforts were in actuality a well coordinated plan."

      Scott Adams:

      "I would like to congratulate Democrats on what appears to be the Perfect Crime. The key to it was packetizing the large theft into smaller events so every identified instance would be "too small to change the outcome" and therefore would be ignored by courts. Bravo."

      Frank

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    2. "Packetize"...as a network guy, that strikes a note :)

      I agree with his thoughts. But then, it appears to be a death-by-thousand-cuts happening to Biden's "victory". Even if Biden manages to be sworn into office, by the time that happens he will be mincemeat.

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  3. I pick on the guy a lot but the iron curtain started with Alex Jones and Infowars.

    Many said this would grow legs and many said it didn't matter because of the individual. Them came the others like Laura Loomer.

    Mission creep and here we are 4 years later. It's just another page out of the big government big corporation playbook of chip away at the stone.

    The masks are kind of the same. It's a physical representative of compliance and flags the non compliant in society. It's a pretty sobering effect when you really get down to it. For the common good of course.

    Who knows where all of this goes but it's most certainly by design. People don't react nearly as much when they feel like it's "just them".

    Isolation is built into about every playbook out there for pulling evil crap on mass populations.

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  4. Scott Adams always has an interesting take.

    His opinion is that this election was actually a coup by force, because of the bullying of witnesses. Bullying is actually force. Forcing witnesses to leave is intimidation, in order to have a non-transparent election.

    He goes on to say that if Biden gets to take office, and the Dems try the bullying again next time, it won't be allowed a second time.

    This is real 3rd world stuff, where armed men watch voters to make sure they vote "correctly", except they managed to do it without overt physical weapons.

    Frank

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