Stand Or Fall
Sometimes I don't understand. For over a year, I've watched people abdicate personal responsibility, hand it over to scientists and politicians (who foment the mob mentality because it suits their purpose), and casually wave goodbye to the autonomy they once had. Some toed the hard line and found their way back to it after seeing what was being served by the people seeking to control. Many, however, folded their spines completely, accepting — out of fear — guidance given by people who have proved themselves incompetent and self-serving in the past. Perhaps I am wrong, but it sure seems like they have put their own interests ahead of ours, all the while declaring, "It's best for society, for the public, that you obey, that you do not think for yourself."
When you hear the contradictions often enough, you begin to doubt yourself and what you believe. When media, social and otherwise, parade the same images, shout the same fear-inducing messages of variants and double or triple masks, of the need for protection, and isolation, when there is no alternative source of information, all of the rats begin to follow the Piper. And all of the obedient children behave the same, blindly careening towards a servile outcome they refuse to acknowledge, having been convinced it is for the best.
I wish I could march to that tune and wrap myself in the comforting certainty of my convictions ... well, mine now, learned from the all-knowing, all-mighty leaders and mob. But I can't. And sometimes resistance appears futile, or, to be effective, final, and I'm not able to play that tune either, so instead, I evade, avoid, ignore. Until the fight comes to my doorstep, I will look the other way, prepare, and try to keep from being infected by the mob's momentum. I prefer to think for myself rather than hoping some (accidental) leaders get it right.
You can too — live in hope, buy someone else's bullshit, or, maybe, believe in yourself, in your own bullshit, and use that as motivation, as guidance. It might not turn out great, you might fail completely, but at least that will be your fault, and you can change you but not them.
When you split from the herd, they will come for you, first to tempt and then to dissuade, and finally, after you insist upon your autonomy, they will confront you. They will be loud, and at first, unable to stand up to a little spine. So show yours. Straighten it. Because when you stand up to the pressure of the mob — and survive — you give permission to do the same to anyone who can hear it. Thinking for oneself is how movements begin.
If you stand up long enough, if you stand for something, your independent thought will be seen as a threat, which is when they become violent. The thugs will use fists, and the "leaders" will try political pressure; they will write so many rules and regulations and laws that you can't help but be a criminal. They will catch you with a mandated mask hanging from the mirror, maybe blocking the windshield but not functionally so, and that will lead to questions. They will unearth other infractions and stack the minor charges deep enough to be a major incident and silence you, they will.
Resistance has value, however you express it. Take control of your health, don't cede it. If that means changing your diet and your physical behavior, if it means shrinking your bubble to reduce your exposure — to the virus, of course, but also to feeble minds and obedience — then so be it. Independent individuals, building enclaves of independent thought, is the only way ahead that I can imagine. Because lockstep in lockdown, both physical and intellectual, has never produced an outcome wherein free ideas and free people may survive.
Photo by Blair Speed 2021
