United By Skepticism

When the Covid panic-demic broke out and ruling elites seized the opportunity to achieve compliance through fear and propaganda, a significant number of skeptics smelled a rat. Something was amiss. The official narrative didn't fit. The numbers did not add up. They quickly discerned that there were three kinds of falsehoods. Lies, damned lies - and Covid statistics. Covid restrictions and precautions that were deemed necessary defied logic and common sense, and more crucially, scientific validity. Fauci's flip-flops and reversals only validated their suspicions.

Initially their reluctance to buy into the program was greeted with ridicule and scorn. But after the vaccines came on stream, and they were labeled "The Vaccine-Hesitant," ostracism became out-right persecution. The champions of "inclusion" became the masters of exclusion. Those who did not submit suffered summary job termination. Constitutional rights and the Nuremberg Code be damned. After all, this was an emergency, or so they said. Five million people have died, they told us. Out of a global population of 7.9 billion people. Hmm. Some pandemic that.

But many folks were not intimidated. They didn't budge. Pockets of resistance across nations and continents weathered a storm of orchestrated alarmism, Aside from the highly credentialed medical voices that managed to break through walls of censorship and get the word out, there was a vast subterranean subculture of people plugged into alternative media who established an online community. They traded information and insights and discovered shocking facts. They were introduced to truths that had been hiding in plain sight. They were "red-pilled."

They not only learned things about the world but things about themselves - and others whom they previously trusted and regarded as friends. They learned about "Mass Psychosis Formation." They learned a lot about the ugly side of human nature, about how humans can be easily manipulated and hypnotized and made to turn upon those whom the state and the lapdog media have scapegoated and demonized. They learned about what it is like to be "othered." To be painted as ignorant, inconsiderate, irresponsible and criminally negligent. They became moral lepers. Despicable outliers. They were "The Unvaccinated." Unworthy of sympathy. Undeserving of hospital treatment or needed surgery.

In retrospect, what was remarkable about "the Resistance" was its ideological heterogeneity. Former antagonists became newfound friends and allies. People who previously would not be seen together in the same room or building found themselves talking to former adversaries, discreetly and surreptitiously in some cases. My local coven of dissidents was a microcosm of this transnational coalition, which is emerging as a parallel society. Libertarians, Christians, secular humanists, rationalists, and mystics made common cause. What united them? A common thread of skepticism.

We don't possess the one trademark trait that most Canadians share: a naïve trust in authority, most especially government authority and government sanctioned expertise. As hard as it is to believe, there are millions who actually assume that the government and those who run it have our best interests at heart. Go figure.

Curiously, those of us who refer to biblical text for authoritative instruction and those of us who turn to science for empirical arbitration both conclude that the "priesthood" which claims to be the exclusive, authoritative voice of these separate domains is on the government take. Both are corrupted. Both have been "bought." The talking heads of the medical establishment do not speak for science but $cience. For Big Pharma. And the pious hypocrites who speak from the pulpits of mainstream "Christianity", the clerics who benefit from tax exemptions and pander to the dominant secular culture misrepresent scripture and betray their mandate. Their injunction to "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's" is a deliberate misinterpretation designed to justify their capitulation to the state and their mercenary desire to fill the pews by tickling the ears of liberal parishioners thirsty for government Kool-Aid.

True scientists do not customize their research to pass an ideological litmus test or cook the data to yield the results that their corporate funders desire. Medical doctors with integrity do not abandon the welfare of their patients to accede to the administration of vaccinations which have not been adequately tested or have been shown to be injurious. And authentic Christian pastors understand that their primary responsibility is to lead the flock by example and oppose the state when necessary. While they do not seek martyrdom they are prepared to forfeit comfort and status to defend the faith and the right to congregate, for that is what a church is. Not a building but an assembly.

Both ways of knowing

Presently I am neither a full-fledged Christian nor a blind devotee of scientism. I do not wholeheartedly worship God or Science with a dollar sign. But I do see that both "ways of knowing" perform vital roles. They both bring "something to the table." I once embraced a scientific world view, but in recent years, have come to believe that religion is fundamental to humans. It is a necessary coping mechanism. I was an atheist for most of my life, until I found myself in a fox hole. Then I reached out to something external to myself. A "higher power." And let me give you a hint, it was not the government.

What intrigues me most about the Covid episode is not what persuaded a good number of people to question the government line, but what provided a relatively small fraction of them with the strength and courage to resist coercion to the point that they would rather give up their careers or risk imprisonment than knuckle under. It is one thing to think independently, but another to act independently. It is one thing to see through the veil of lies and distortions, but another to overtly denounce and challenge it at the cost of one's livelihood or freedom.

It is my clear impression that people of faith, most especially committed Christians, have the ideological fortitude to resist persecution and suffer the consequences. Yes, Christianity has a proud history of martyrdom. But obviously, the relatively affluent Christians of the Anglosphere and Western Europe do not exhibit the courage that Christians in the Roman and Medieval era exhibited, and many persecuted Christians in Africa, China and the Middle East demonstrate today. The presumably non-Christian leaders of the Canadian Freedom Convoy paid and are still paying a very heavy price for their courage and heroism, but they were not torn apart by lions or burned at the stake (not yet). Yet when I behold the extreme deprivations and inhuman punishment that Canadian Pastor Artur Pawlowski endured, I wonder where his kind of strength comes from. The source, it seems, is Christianity, that is, real Christianity, The kind of Christianity that inspires believers to literally give up their material comforts , wealth and health - and the companionship of their loved ones. Their example inspires me.

Somehow I don't think Richard Dawkins could do that for me.

The rational mind is a magnificent tool. But the spiritual mind is what can give you the strength and determination to carry on. Trust me, there is nothing like a dose of false hope and unfounded optimism to get me through the night! Imagine what realistic hope could do for me. Believe me, I am searching for it. I suspect that if find it, I won't find it in a lab or a science textbook.

In the fight against totalitarianism, it is not the humanists that I will count upon, but the people of faith. People like Pastor Pawlowski. Darwin bless him.

Recommended reading: "Live not by Lies" by Ron Dreher.

Compelling Perspectives on Politicization of the China Virus

The Psychology of Totalitarianism

Mass Formation Psychosis - Crowd Psychosis

Book: The Bodies of Others, by Dr. Naomi Wolf