I read a very heart warming article, awhile ago, by the incomparable Dr. Tess Lawrie. However, fairly recently, I received a reply to a note I left in the original article. I felt it was an important interaction, that was impactful to me, so, I thought I would share the whole thread here. The article just keeps on giving, at lest to me.
browntsunami: May 26
Your joy is infectious. The simple truth you speak of was inspiring and brought to mind my take in that vein. We had two girls from Germany staying with us for a little over a month. When we reached the farm house one girl asked, " Are there any rules you want us to follow?". I had thought about this in the past and had an answer for her. I said " This is a small house and there are limited but sufficient amenities, since we will be jointly sharing this experience and for that experience to be a positive one for all, there is only one rule, before you act, think if this action is positive for everyone.". The time passed quickly and the memories, in my opinion, were quite positive. I thought any more complicated set of rules will be devices for miss-interpretation and may rub very different individuals differently, so, this simple rule was my best compromise. Of course, I was lucky, both girls took to the experience with a positive attitude. I am sure, if they were there only to maximize their own benefits, this small house would not be sufficient and the overall experience would have been much less positive. To this day, I remember with fondness, that simple experience.
If we could consider the effect on others, with respect, in any community, before we act, so many of our current problems would be minimized. Of course, I understand, that is just a quaint idea nowadays, in light of the current greed driven paradigm. However, I am of the old school, and to me that paradigm will lead to no good. I still have hope that we simple folk can discover simple principles that may still grant us all more peace, meaning and satisfaction over all.
Beth: Sep 27
That's a really great principal for communal living. Sadly, it has been turned into a weapon by those wanting everyone to stop the spread of the virus - we were told not to think of ourselves, but to consider other people (and just get the jab). Get vaccinated to protect your elderly parents, your pregnant daughter, your patients.....even though they all took it anyway. Oh yes, and get it to avoid filling up the ICU beds with unvaccinated people. I have no more words.
browntsunami Sep 28:
I was surprised to find a reply so much later to my comment. Thanks for replying.
There is a part of your statement that I'm unsure about. How the idea of thinking before you act and acting to promote the best in your community was weaponized?
Perhaps you are suggesting that our desire to be a part of the community caused us to accept the mandates more readily. If that is not the case, ignore what follows.
I would agree that most of the mandates are couched in terms of what is best for the community, however, the first part of my suggestion is about thinking for yourself first. This first step is crucial and it is this step that was short circuited by the propaganda, I am not a heroic figure and I did not rub the noses of the followers of the mandates in it. I have written about this in the past but have forgotten where.
I definitely do not put myself above society, but, this does not mean I follow the dictates of the elitist blindly. Early on, almost at the beginning, I doubted the official narratives. I did not get vaccinated, because in my assessment, I would not do society any good by doing so. I tried to discuss the concepts I learned with those close to me, I stopped my discussions when those close to me reacted very negatively. I treasure their relationship and respect their right of independent assessment and their choices. I still lost the closeness of some dear to me, but, I am working to rebuild. I wore a mask when the majority wore a mask. I distanced when those around me were distancing. I did not imprison myself. So you see, I was not a beacon of defiance. I was never without doubt of my own limited analysis. In many instances, I choose to follow the new norms when I was embedded in those who differed from my analysis. In many ways, I am the grey person in the crowd. My battles were small in scale but I never suffered from cognitive dissonance as I stayed true to myself. I am a part of society and it is not always a good thing, in my estimation, to attempt all the time to bring about revolutionary change when the probability of a good outcome is minimal, and the result of the revolution totally uncertain.
There are heroic figures out there, I cheer for them and try to help, because they are beacons that agree with my internal compass. If they diverge, I will make my own way or find another source of leadership.
So, I really don't see how the elitists have turned my guiding principles against me. I do see the harm they have caused to so many of my brothers and sisters, so, I know who the destructive elements of society are and I will actively work against them. These liars will always couch their agenda driven demands in terms of societal good, but, if you think first, those words have less impact. The manipulators have dropped their masks, we should now see them to be the monsters that they are. I have faith society can and must not continue to listen to the words of the snakes.
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Beth Oct 21·edited 10 hr ago:
Hi browntsunami. Thanks for taking the time to consider a response to me. I'm trying to recall the emotion that was behind my comment. That is not coming easily! But, what is best for society? That is the question, isn't it?
Thinking for one's self isn't necessarily weaponised. But surely you agree that being told that the putting of the good of society first by getting the jab has been the weapon that has harmed people in your circle? Those who did not think they had the right, or the knowledge, to withstand the pressure to conform. I was told that my not getting the 'jab' was selfish. Somehow it meant that I was causing other people harm by exposing them to the virus I clearly would succumb to because I was unprotected. I still think society would be better off by not having tried to vaccinate during a pandemic. By treating people who were sick, and allowing the virus to mutate and weaken, we still would have seen loss of life, but I'm sure it would be over by now, and we wouldn't be seeing the mental health problems, economic and social losses, and so on.
Slightly off topic - I think the main issue where I live is the mandating of a drug in order to participate in society. We had some of the tightest and long-lasting restrictions in the world. We were locked down and isolated from the rest of the world, and even our own country for months. The restaurants, theatres, cinemas, beaches, etc, I can live without. However, visiting aged parents in residential care or hospital, or other family members in hospital, I cannot. We are still required to be 'up to date' with both covid and flu vaccines to enter any healthcare facility. Like you, I accepted that some people felt the need to comply to all the directions to be safe. I didn't treat them with scorn either. I did all those external and temporary things (physical distancing, masks) when necessary too. But the strain on close relationships is clear, and will remain that way as long as I have the belief that the vaccine is ineffective and harmful.
I am a nurse, and lost my job at a time when nurses are in more demand than ever before, because I wouldn't participate in a drug trial. And if I continue to refuse and lose my family as well, what is the good of that? Here in Western Australia, we now have some very serious legislation giving our police power to act in whatever way they deem necessary to keep society safe from a virus. That includes breaking into homes of people they believe have been exposed, and forcefully vaccinating. That has been passed into law just this week. Isn't the rest of the world moving on?
I'm not sure I am making any sense, but thanks again for being kind, and cheering on the heroic figures. There are many of us cheering, and hoping that the light will break through, SOON.
browntsunami 9 min ago:
Hi Beth,
Thank you for a thoughtful note. I feel your internal struggle through your words and I witness your external struggle in a more and more tyrannical world. I wish I had more than words help with your losses and pain at this moment. I am in Canada, certainly not a country that I recognize anymore. The militarization of the police is open for all to see, and their brutish use on those that would disagree with the "current thing" of a WEF appointed tyrant and his WEF appointed supporters is a show of how (our version of) democracy and freedom dies. Many would even see the words "freedom and democracy" as just slogans used just before our current empire destroys another foreign country for having the temerity to not agree with the orders of the empire. So, as I see it, the tyranny we are facing in the west has its roots in the habits of empire from their foreign violent adventures. This is just coming home to roost.
Your very good point posing as a question, "But, what is best for society?", cannot have an answer. It has many (as you probably know). Since society is not a universal thing, in other words, we are not a global ant hill, there is not a simple single solution that does not have the potential to wipe out the majority of the planet. The one solution fits all concepts can only occur in the mind of the insanely narcissistic, or, the intellectually challenged. This, to my mind, is a function of how societies form. Of course, you can create a mockery of a society, by strong arming the many to your whims. This was, in recent history, a method used brutally and ultimately unsuccessfully by Mao in China. We see the same sort of social engineering with western flavour in the western world.
As you can tell I am not terribly enamoured of individuals, no matter how good their hair-do looks, implementing their grossly inadequate agendas on the rest of humanity. I see them all as limited beings, with little to no superiority. You can see this, if you remove their one and only crutch, money. In my current view, more stable societies are products of slow and evolving processes, that, brings groups of people together due (partially) to defined genetic, philosophical and external environmental pressures. The group has a life of its own and is adaptable to change. Societies that survive provides for its members. There are distinct social groupings, which when a part is removed from its original setting and transplanted, will begin to build the old structures that they perceive as nurturing to them. Of course, I am not saying that the new entity is a wholesale clone of the original, it is the members who are tossed into a new and at many times foreign society adapts to the situation and tries to accrete parts of the old that has been nurturing to them that they see is missing. This in turn evolves the new society the individual finds themselves in. This evolutionary process is a trial and error one, not one of fully formed ideas in a persons limited mind, or even in the minds of bought and payed for handful of individuals.
So, I will arrive at my point, in a grouping of people who have been systemically divided in terms of: ideas that does not serve the group, who have been told repeatedly the dominate members are intrinsically evil, who is made to view the atrocities of a few (who are also responsible fro much of the previous point) as defining aspects of the grouping as a whole and the propaganda is 24/7. In that situation, I must ask, what society does one want to benefit? So, as you say, my quaint idea is appropriate for a subset of the whole, and it is simple, the rest is the slow evolution of an established society. The individuals need not be geniuses, they just need to be immersed in a social structure that makes sense to them and apply the now definable rule of what is best for the group and in turn themselves.
One problem with the fracturing of society by edict is the people no longer have a strong sense of their internal compass that aligns with the social norms. They become confused and are more willing to do what they are told by what they are told are their betters. This is not the end of the time tested societies, there are many of us who are fighting back against the few who have no sensitivity to the society that they are blindly destroying. These are a part of the external forces that societies has had to endure since time immemorable. This infection will cause a strong reaction, there are countless riots around the world, the societies knows its under attack. The control of propaganda through news makes the response seem local but it will come out. With the knowledge that we are not alone or powerless, the grey members of the different societies will take on the colour of warriors and combat the current crop of tyrants.
The vaxx, is just another Trojan horse to firstly instill compliance to the new tyranny, and secondly, to weaken and harm us internally (I am fairly sure this was deliberate, but certainty eludes me, at this time). I have faith in the wonderful societies that Australia has developed and I look forward to seeing its members recognize the importance of what it means to be Australian as we must do in Canada and in most parts of the world and start the process to rid our societies of this infection of fear and division sourced from the sick minds of the elitists.
I must be doubly hard for you, being a nurse, the calling to help others must be seriously challenged. I am seeing the cognitive dissonance in members of my own family who are in the medical profession. The situation will not evolve as planned by the elitists as they are not a part of the society and in the end numbers matter and they and their ideas will be cast aside.
Without an evolutionary view of how societies are formed, through trial and error over millenia. The elitist will not see the resistance coming and the harder they push, the more society will envelope the infection and eliminate it.
As I said in the beginning, these are just words, I am no seer, the time scale is not known to me. The inability of the narcissistic elitists to see their shortcomings will make their actions ever more virulent and our response more urgent. You have shown your heroic nature. I hope when the opportunity arises, I will remember your sacrifice for an embattled society.
I know that it is hackneyed to say, but, it helps me to hear “Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”.
I like Tess's stuff as well although I have not read the Halloween one she came out with recently - I'm not sure I will because sometimes the British get a tad preachy. Halloween for me is mainly an opportunity to recognize spirits afloat and I for one enjoy good candy.
So, now that I'm on topic, I thought you might enjoy some rabbit hole time on this article and if not no skin off my back, but I'll let you know, some of what you have shared informed my sentiment when I posted there on the article linked below.
https://www.sott.net/article/473612-Germany-is-dismantling-wind-farm-to-expand-coal-mine
It is good to have discourse and of course we won't always agree, but with me, that is supposed from the get-go because how else does one learn if it is not a two-way conversation?
The next few weeks are gonna be topsy turvy is what I think, but I have high hopes for the future and I appreciate your efforts in good discourse.
Sincerely,
Ken