Frustration

When I look at the ongoing debate around the Corona measures, I am deeply frustrated. The social discourse is deadlocked. The opinion fronts are set and  move no longer. The „mask“ has become an established symbol of social attitudes, while the discussion around „Corona“ has long since ceased to revolve around the dangerousness of the virus and is almost exclusively about the socio-political effects – at least that is my impression. It is no longer about overloading the health sector. Deaths are no longer an issue either. Only positive test results and the moral evaluations of the „Corona demonstrations“ are whipped through the headlines.

In public behavior, in dealing with the mask and in statements on the subject of „Corona pandemic“, certain etiquette must be observed in order not to be considered a „covidiot“, „corona denier“ or „right-wing esoteric conspiracy theorist“. When I am in company, I avoid the topic or do not comment on it anymore. The danger of an unpleasant discussion is high, because emotions take over very fast, while in principle always the same arguments are used against each other.

When the relevant facts have finally been exchanged, what usually remains at the end is the statement of the „measure advocates“: „I cannot imagine that so many governments deliberately deceive their own people in this way. And the „measure critics“ usually answer the popular „why? question“ quite honestly: „I do not know. But I do not suspect anything good.“ Whereupon the discussion that has gone on until then is actually invalid.

I am reluctant to recall the fact that almost all major Nato wars of recent years, which claimed several million lives, were started with proven lies or unproven assertions:

• 1964 Vietnam War – The lie of the Tonkin Incident. This led to 1.7 to 2.1 million deaths.
• Secret attacks on Laos and Cambodia: It was claimed that the Vietcong were moving over Laos and Cambodia (Ho Chi Min Path). More than 150,000 civilians died in the attack.
• 1992: Second Gulf War – The so-called „incubator lie“. Estimates of the death toll go up to over 75,000.
• 1998 : Kosovo War – The lie with the concentration camps and the horseshoe plan. More than 10,000 dead.
• Since 2001 : Afghanistan war – The controversial accusations regarding the September 11th attacks. A few hours after the attacks, it was clear to Bush Jr. that Bin Laden was behind them.
• Since 2003: Second Iraq War – Indirectly, Saddam Hussein was accused of being connected to the September 11 attacks and Colin Powell claimed that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.

Interestingly, Brown University’s Watson Institute published a study on September 8 this year, in which an estimate of the number of refugees generated by U.S. wars of intervention was given: „Creating Refugees: Displacement Caused by the United States‘ Post-9/11 Wars‘

Klicke, um auf Displacement_Vine%20et%20al_Costs%20of%20War%202020%2009%2008.pdf zuzugreifen

On page 3 the central results are summarized:

• The U.S. post-9/11 wars have forcibly displaced at least 37million people in and from Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, the Philippines, Libya, and Syria. This exceeds those displaced by every war since 1900,except WorldWar II.

• 37million is a very conservative estimate. The totaldisplaced by the U.S.post-9/11 wars could be closer to 48–59million.

• 25.3million people have returned after being displaced, although return does not erase the trauma of displacementor mean that those displaced have returned to their original homes or to a secure life.

• Any number is limited in what it can convey about displacement’s damage. The people behind the numbers can be difficult to see, and numbers cannot communicate how it might feel to lose one’s home, belongings, community, and much more. Displacement has caused incalculableharm to individuals, families,towns, cities, regions, and entire countriesphysically,socially, emotionally, and economically.
  (Source, p. 3)

These are just a few examples. Every war, no matter which country wages it against whomever, causes great suffering. One could mention more here, but I will leave it at that. And yet many people cannot believe that individual or several governments would knowingly lie to their own people, or even to the whole world community. In my opinion, this is partly the result of the „good work“ of the 27 000 PR consultants of the Pentagon and the manipulated representations of Wikipedia.

Those who have been dealing with these things for some time, including myself, are deeply frustrated to see how strong the trust in governments and politics still is. The frustration must be particularly strong among people whose existence is currently hanging by a thread because the measures endanger their ability to do business even though they question their necessity. In some cases, this frustration has probably already grown to desperation.

Worries

If one reads the headlines of the last few days again, then in my view they are aimed solely at triggering concerns among the population. Even if it should not be their declared goal, worries inevitably arise nevertheless with the people who consume these media unreflectedly.

Personally, I am also concerned about worries. But these are of a different nature. I see a worrying parallel in the bondage of the majority to times when people wore the bandage on their arm rather than on their face. Anyone who thinks this comparison is exaggerated or inappropriate is, from my perspective, lacking a certain clear view of what is happening.

When I wear a mask, I feel really miserable and degraded. Friends then told me that I exaggerate and that this is not so bad after all. They deny me the right to my own feelings. I also find this worrying. Just because they may not have a problem with it, it does not automatically mean that it is also so „unproblematic“ for every other person.

When I look into the hooded faces of other people, I often see this undefined glassy emptiness in their eyes. The eyes are rigid and filled with a latent fear. If our eyes then meet for a brief moment, I see how some try to cover up the absurdity of the current situation with a stoic paralysis attitude.

To my horror, many people wear these disposable masks, which you can see lying all over the floor. With these masks they all look uniform. A uniform, impersonal mass whose facial features disappear behind a protective wall. No smile, no grin and even less communication are the consequences. Stores, trains and trains have never been a place of exuberant cheerfulness. But under the mask, even the last person’s smile freezes. As soon as the mask is put on, we lose the most important of all emotions: The joy.

I am especially shocked every day by the sight of small children or very old people wearing masks. If I don’t even meet them in a crowded store, but alone on a bicycle or on the street, I am stunned every time. I fight every day to ensure that this „New Absurdity“ does not become the propagated „New Normality“ for me. I do not want to and will not get used to it. This is not a state I want to live with in the long run.

However, when I speak to certain people, they seem to be plagued by one concern above all: that the evil right-wing conspiracy mystics who question the measures are happy to decide voluntarily whether to get vaccinated and demonstrate for the full restoration of fundamental rights, take over the country. The interlocking of „right-wing“, „anti-vaccination“, „conspiracy theory“ and „corona“ has been so firmly anchored in the minds of the consumers of the leading media that even left-wing liberal spirits defend one of the greatest capitalists of our time with the utmost conviction, – of course we are talking about Bill Gates – pay homage to a CDU chancellor and adopt the wording of SPD Federal President Steinmeier one to one.

Thus, out of my limited perception, it is precisely the supposedly left-wing „educational youth“ who can be made the guardians of a highly corrupt and ultra-capitalist system that has brought us to the brink of climate catastrophe, repeatedly in wars, into pension poverty and the deep division of an entire country. For me, this is the visible result of how our modern „education“ is not aimed at educating us to become self-thinking and decisive democrats, but to become a servile mass that votes voluntarily every few years.

In his work „Unterm Rad“ (1906), Hermann Hesse once again formulated it very aptly in all its ruthlessness:

„[The teacher’s] duty and his profession, entrusted to him by the state, is to tame and exterminate in the young boy the raw forces and desires of nature and to plant in their place quiet, moderate and state-recognized ideals. How many a man who is now a satisfied citizen and an ambitious civil servant would have become a storming innovator or a fruitless dreamer without these efforts of the school!
(Hesse: Unterm Rad. 1906, p. 47.)

The passage continues a few more lines like this and becomes more and more drastic in its clarity, but I leave it at that. This criticism, which one of my intellectual role models Hesse is formulating here, still applies, in my view, to our educational institutions of today, from elementary school to university. Of course, there are always exceptions, individual teachers, lecturers and Prof. Drs. who provide real education, but I still see the criticism just formulated as a general tendency.

Fear

A friend of mine, whom I hold in high esteem, actually used the word „fear“ in one of our last discussions when we talked about the influence of the „Reich Citizens‘ Movement“ and individual, obviously right-wing-minded people on the big „Corona Measures Demonstration“ in Berlin.

Personally, I am also critical of this group, which is called „Reichsbürger“, but I consider its social influence to be very small. In my view, the focus control of some media gives the impression that this group is in some way representative of the many people who criticize the Corona Measures.

The so-called „Storming the Reichstag“ was in my view a deliberately staged action, which is now being extremely exploited politically and medially and only served to overshadow the actual event at the Siegessäule and the illegal actions of the Berlin police towards the disbanded demonstration.

In addition to the fear that arises in every left-wing politicized mind when he or she sees these images, coupled with the statement that these are all right-wing radicals, the fear spiral continues to be driven by the media with absolute corona infection figures. In my opinion, the strategy is obvious: we are approaching winter and thus the cold season. In order to cover up the so-called „summer slump“ in the death statistics, positive test results will simply continue to be reported until – as macabre and sadistic as it may sound – winter mortality finally sets in again and the corona statistics get their dead back.

Gustav Le Bon provides a historical example of this approach in his work „Psychology of the Masses“ (1895), which I have already mentioned several times:

„The influenza pandemic, as a result of which five thousand people died within a few weeks in Paris a few years ago, made little impression on popular imagination. Admittedly, this hecatombe was not recognizable by a visible image, but only by the daily statistical reports.

[…] It is not the facts as such that excite the popular imagination, but the way in which they are distributed and represented. They must, so to speak, by their condensation, bring about a gripping image which fills and seizes the soul. He who knows the art of arousing the imagination of the masses knows the art of governing them.
(Le Bon, Psychology of the Masses, 2016, pp. 67-68)

If one then adds the following passage, one realizes that prayer mill-like reporting was a popular means of spreading any number of convictions even before German National Socialism:

„One can well understand the influence of repetition on masses when one sees the power it has over the enlightened minds. This power comes from the fact that what is repeated is ultimately stored in the deepest regions of the unconscious, where the motives of our actions play out. After some time, we no longer know who the originator of the repeated assertion is, and finally we believe in it.
(Le Bon, Psychology of the Masses, 2016, p. 117)

Whoever really wants to understand the developments of these days should, in my opinion, take a look at this work.

If the leading media, which in my opinion report very uniformly, now emphasize the danger of the „Corona Pandemic“ every day and at the same time the success of the German government’s course of action, then consumers believe in it. And the greater the influence of the „free media“ becomes, the more vehemently and intensively the „leading media“ defame, denigrate, devalue and drum up fear.

„Fear“ is a form of stress. From a certain intensity on, „stress“ paralyzes our ability to think and act. It also has a very negative influence on our immune system. If the „leading media“ and the federal government were really concerned with „public health“, then instead of feeding fears they would publicly call for more sports, going out into the fresh air, healthy eating and abstaining from alcohol and tobacco, and would not limit themselves to wearing a mask, an all-encompassing disinfection and „social distancing“ („AHA rules“).

Wouldn’t it be more sustainable and effective if instead of a „virus-slinging„, a mobile mushroom cultivation station in the face, sport was made compulsory? But no, that would be a very deep intervention in personal rights – unthinkable! Such a mask duty is there naturally the smaller evil.

Also a propagated nourishing recommendation would be too much of the paternalism, there is a destruction of the national economy by hygiene editions, a surface covering movement monitoring by different Apps and data acquisition in restaurants and bars still absolutely justifiable. The right to demonstrate can also be successively curtailed, after all, such a demonstration is exhausting. Almost as strenuous as sufficient sport and a sensible diet.

Then we would rather pollute our environment with disposable masks, breed the next generation of immunocompromised children by disinfecting everything and not allowing any more germ exchange, have ourselves temporarily and permanently monitored and languish in hopeful expectation of a salutary preparation.

That is healthy. That is good.

And it scares me.

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by Marco Lo Voi

This the english translation of the article:

Gedanken zu: Frust, Sorgen und Angst

Translated with:
www.deepl.com/translator