My mother passed away in April 2020 of dementia, almost 3 years to the day after my dad passed away. In California, so no funeral. I live in Utah and she was to be buried here so I lead a graveside service we streamed to the rest of the family, who couldn’t/wouldn’t/were afraid to attend in person. We have pictures of everyone standing 6-10 feet from each other. Such rubbish.
The last surviving member of my mother’s family, her brother, wanted to be sure everyone would be following safety protocols before the service. Then at the service he gives me a big hug.
My dad passed away in March this year, in a nursing home - the dear, dear lovely old sod was away with the fairies, but in a nice way, thankfully. He stayed quite happy and singing and being daft almost to the end. I got to see him the day before he died - had to wear all the pantomime gear. I was holding his hand and he was getting agitated - he was trying to remove the gloves. So I did. He held onto my hand tightly after that and relaxed.
Saw him on the day he died too - but he was in a much worse state then and was in bed.
I feel sorry for mum who cared for him until it became too difficult - and then visited every single day without fail - until the beneficence of covid meant she could only see him once a week, by appointment.
>> I’m advocating for this at all, but why haven’t governments been as aggressive and totalitarian in promoting personal health if they’re really interested in saving lives?
Wait, I know this one, sir! Please call on me!
It's because they're not interested in saving lives at all, they're interested in consolidating power and getting re-elected until they don't have to worry about elections any more, and being able to eliminate anyone who stands against them even slightly!
Thanks (I think) for that revisit to the Hall of Covid Funhouse Mirrors, reminding us of how the manic obsession with all things Covid compeletly distorts the image of what it means to be human. Sure, the Covid funhouse image sort of resembles normal human society but it is so distorted by loss of perspective (the apocalyptic virulence of the virus, the ‘need’ for a dramatic response, the continual ratcheting up of hygiene theatre, etc.) that any resemblance to the original article is now purely coincidental.
Sadly, too much of humanity has taken up residence in the Funhouse hall and mistakes the absurd, ludicrous reflections as the New Normal reality rather than a cause for good old horse laugh.
Good piece, suitably irreverent. On changes: the imposition of lockdowns as a public health measure has of course been the biggest and most corrosive change. More than that, it was the mind bending logic around the first lockdown in March 20 which first made me prick up my ears. I think it was Vallance or Whitty who argued they hadn't moved too early on lockdown because they were worried the public wouldn't have the patience for a long haul! Either it's a virus deadly enough to take notice of, or it isn't, enough of the mind games! Here we are 21 months later, poor impatient souls, still facing restrictions, bombarded every day with nothing but covid...and they expect us to believe they have considered our mental health in all of this? What I mean to say is the other change noticeable to me (and many others) has been the overt (and covert) use of psychological conditioning as a response to a public health "crisis". Never before has this happened to such an extent.
It is all very, very weird. Perhaps the response has been most bizarre and brazen in societies where people have been able to, for the most part, live in daily denial that sickness and death are part of the human condition? Nobody's selling us those things, and now, suddenly, they are, only it's all flipped around. It's like a totally bastardized, misunderstood version of the Buddhist concept of marasanati (awareness that we and everyone we know is a future corpse). Instead of being liberated into blissful presence, we have all been scared into life-avoidant sterility.
1) We used to say all men are created equal. Now we're developing social classes. The upper class doesn't need to obey the covid restrictions. You know who I'm talking about. Rich businessmen don't quarantine when they fly on business, politicians don't wear masks. But you have to. We're also developing an underclass. They're the ones who get fired each time there's a new lockdown, because they don't work for the government, or can't work from home. The middle class sits in their living room, gets paid, and tweets #staysafe.
2) We used to have a free market, with competition. Now all the small stores are going out of business or being bought up by huge corporations. Prices will go up, quality will go down, but we don't care about that any more. The large corporations also tweet #staysafe, because they care so much about grandma.
3) Getting sick used to be bad luck. Now it's proof of a moral failure. Maybe it's my own fault, because I had my mask under my chin for a few minutes while buying groceries. Or maybe it's that Alicia's fault, she's always complaining about covid, I'll bet she's not vaccinated. She got my promotion last year, but that's got nothing to do with it. Today, we always know who got us sick, even though two years ago you'd feel guilty even speculating about it. And now, it's morally virtuous to get angry at the person who got you sick.
4) We used to have freedom of assembly. Now, any politician who doesn't like being called nasty names at a demonstration, well, all he has to do is find one person without a mask, or two people within 6 feet of each other, and he can send in the cops to break it up. No, he's no being an erratic and frivolous tyrant, he's saving grandma. We haven't seen much of this yet, because demonstrations are still too small to threaten the stability of any government, but wait until they get large enough, and watch the politicians throw away free speech to save their seats. The police will comply, all the ones who don't like where things are going are either quitting or being forced out, and they're being replaced with eager and sincere covid fanatics. They'll spray you with pepper spray and beat you over the head with a baton to protect your health, because they care so much.
5) We used to have freedom of speech. Now we have to be very careful, because letting people say what they think is very dangerous, because they might say the wrong thing, and other people will believe them. It's very difficult to know what you can say. Soon we'll have a ministry to tell us what we can say, and punish the recalcitrant who insist on saying other things.
6) We used to have journalism, but now we have propaganda. Actually, this isn't true. We haven't had real journalism for some thirty years, if not more.
The medical dance troupe phenomenon was one of the most bizarre things I've ever witnessed. What the HELL was going on. Can someone who has personal experience in the medical field from that period please report? Was it just that hospitals were overstaffed and underutilized (because the expected wave of patients never arrived)?
We used to share posts (such as this one) to encourage discussion, to see things from another’s point of view. Now we daren’t for fear of being ostracised, labelled, lambasted and bullied by others for having the ‘wrong’ opinion or thoughts.
My mother passed away in April 2020 of dementia, almost 3 years to the day after my dad passed away. In California, so no funeral. I live in Utah and she was to be buried here so I lead a graveside service we streamed to the rest of the family, who couldn’t/wouldn’t/were afraid to attend in person. We have pictures of everyone standing 6-10 feet from each other. Such rubbish.
The last surviving member of my mother’s family, her brother, wanted to be sure everyone would be following safety protocols before the service. Then at the service he gives me a big hug.
Sorry to hear that BigT
My dad passed away in March this year, in a nursing home - the dear, dear lovely old sod was away with the fairies, but in a nice way, thankfully. He stayed quite happy and singing and being daft almost to the end. I got to see him the day before he died - had to wear all the pantomime gear. I was holding his hand and he was getting agitated - he was trying to remove the gloves. So I did. He held onto my hand tightly after that and relaxed.
Saw him on the day he died too - but he was in a much worse state then and was in bed.
I feel sorry for mum who cared for him until it became too difficult - and then visited every single day without fail - until the beneficence of covid meant she could only see him once a week, by appointment.
Hard on her - they were married for over 67 years
I'm sorry for your and your Mother's loss. I can't imagine how hard it was to lose your spouse of 67 years.
Sometimes feelings take over, don't they?
I'm sorry for your loss. Losing your mother is difficult enough without all the rest of the mess.
>> I’m advocating for this at all, but why haven’t governments been as aggressive and totalitarian in promoting personal health if they’re really interested in saving lives?
Wait, I know this one, sir! Please call on me!
It's because they're not interested in saving lives at all, they're interested in consolidating power and getting re-elected until they don't have to worry about elections any more, and being able to eliminate anyone who stands against them even slightly!
Thanks (I think) for that revisit to the Hall of Covid Funhouse Mirrors, reminding us of how the manic obsession with all things Covid compeletly distorts the image of what it means to be human. Sure, the Covid funhouse image sort of resembles normal human society but it is so distorted by loss of perspective (the apocalyptic virulence of the virus, the ‘need’ for a dramatic response, the continual ratcheting up of hygiene theatre, etc.) that any resemblance to the original article is now purely coincidental.
Sadly, too much of humanity has taken up residence in the Funhouse hall and mistakes the absurd, ludicrous reflections as the New Normal reality rather than a cause for good old horse laugh.
Excellent!
We changed the definition of an anti-vaxxer, from someone who is against vaccination to someone who is against vaccination mandates.
great cm - forgot that one!
Good piece, suitably irreverent. On changes: the imposition of lockdowns as a public health measure has of course been the biggest and most corrosive change. More than that, it was the mind bending logic around the first lockdown in March 20 which first made me prick up my ears. I think it was Vallance or Whitty who argued they hadn't moved too early on lockdown because they were worried the public wouldn't have the patience for a long haul! Either it's a virus deadly enough to take notice of, or it isn't, enough of the mind games! Here we are 21 months later, poor impatient souls, still facing restrictions, bombarded every day with nothing but covid...and they expect us to believe they have considered our mental health in all of this? What I mean to say is the other change noticeable to me (and many others) has been the overt (and covert) use of psychological conditioning as a response to a public health "crisis". Never before has this happened to such an extent.
It is all very, very weird. Perhaps the response has been most bizarre and brazen in societies where people have been able to, for the most part, live in daily denial that sickness and death are part of the human condition? Nobody's selling us those things, and now, suddenly, they are, only it's all flipped around. It's like a totally bastardized, misunderstood version of the Buddhist concept of marasanati (awareness that we and everyone we know is a future corpse). Instead of being liberated into blissful presence, we have all been scared into life-avoidant sterility.
Well...not all of us!
For more lunacy find an android phone hold down the main speak button and ask "Sing me a song" and see if you get the creepy vaccine song.
Keep these digital things away from your children; we're at war with the machine.
https://twitter.com/biddle_leo/status/1469319006553194506?s=20
In regards to the last picture: Oh, but he will, he will. (God save us all!)
Here are a few more things which have changed:
1) We used to say all men are created equal. Now we're developing social classes. The upper class doesn't need to obey the covid restrictions. You know who I'm talking about. Rich businessmen don't quarantine when they fly on business, politicians don't wear masks. But you have to. We're also developing an underclass. They're the ones who get fired each time there's a new lockdown, because they don't work for the government, or can't work from home. The middle class sits in their living room, gets paid, and tweets #staysafe.
2) We used to have a free market, with competition. Now all the small stores are going out of business or being bought up by huge corporations. Prices will go up, quality will go down, but we don't care about that any more. The large corporations also tweet #staysafe, because they care so much about grandma.
3) Getting sick used to be bad luck. Now it's proof of a moral failure. Maybe it's my own fault, because I had my mask under my chin for a few minutes while buying groceries. Or maybe it's that Alicia's fault, she's always complaining about covid, I'll bet she's not vaccinated. She got my promotion last year, but that's got nothing to do with it. Today, we always know who got us sick, even though two years ago you'd feel guilty even speculating about it. And now, it's morally virtuous to get angry at the person who got you sick.
4) We used to have freedom of assembly. Now, any politician who doesn't like being called nasty names at a demonstration, well, all he has to do is find one person without a mask, or two people within 6 feet of each other, and he can send in the cops to break it up. No, he's no being an erratic and frivolous tyrant, he's saving grandma. We haven't seen much of this yet, because demonstrations are still too small to threaten the stability of any government, but wait until they get large enough, and watch the politicians throw away free speech to save their seats. The police will comply, all the ones who don't like where things are going are either quitting or being forced out, and they're being replaced with eager and sincere covid fanatics. They'll spray you with pepper spray and beat you over the head with a baton to protect your health, because they care so much.
5) We used to have freedom of speech. Now we have to be very careful, because letting people say what they think is very dangerous, because they might say the wrong thing, and other people will believe them. It's very difficult to know what you can say. Soon we'll have a ministry to tell us what we can say, and punish the recalcitrant who insist on saying other things.
6) We used to have journalism, but now we have propaganda. Actually, this isn't true. We haven't had real journalism for some thirty years, if not more.
The medical dance troupe phenomenon was one of the most bizarre things I've ever witnessed. What the HELL was going on. Can someone who has personal experience in the medical field from that period please report? Was it just that hospitals were overstaffed and underutilized (because the expected wave of patients never arrived)?
We used to share posts (such as this one) to encourage discussion, to see things from another’s point of view. Now we daren’t for fear of being ostracised, labelled, lambasted and bullied by others for having the ‘wrong’ opinion or thoughts.