Prosperity TVThank you so much, Randy Gage, for being a true voice of reason in a world that needs more true voices of reason!
Note: This post is actually a follow up to my essay about Covid-19 and the way our governments and institutions like the press have failed us. Read it here if you haven’t already, then come back.
To paraphrase something I heard early on in the pandemic from an Israeli researcher, “Covid is going to do, what Covid is going to do.” He’s looking remarkably prescient, due to the state of affairs in Israel right now. Thanks to Omicron, they’re at all-times highs in case counts. Yet they sealed their borders, took extraordinary mitigation steps, and administered one of the most aggressive vaccine rollouts in human history. They vaccinated their most vulnerable citizens four times! Yet Covid is still doing what Covid does.
These results in Israel destroy any possible rationale for vaccine passports or mandates that can be mustered.
Vaccines have done a lot of good and personally I’m thankful for them. There is evidence showing vaccines reduce the severity of Covid, hospitalizations, and mortality. But the vaccines certainly don’t stop people from getting infected and they don’t stop infected people from infecting others – whether they are vaccinated or not. So how can any free society justify mandates for anyone? (Let alone for small children.) Can we please take a breath and process that?
And if that isn’t enough to convince you, take a peek at the situation in LA County, the ultimate bastion of wokeness. They’ve done mask mandates, vaccine mandates, strict vaccine passports, and boast that they have a more than 95 percent compliance rate with masking. What has all that accomplished for the good people in the City of Angels? They had more Covid cases reported in the past month than they did in all of 2020.
These makeshift masks of cloth, paper, scarves, and bandanas people are being forced to use are not preventing the spread of Covid-19. It’s a multi-billion-dollar goldmine for the mask providers that is essentially Kabuki Theater for virtue signalers and power-hungry politicians. The vaccine mandates have ripped apart society but done nothing to stop the spread of the virus. (On a positive note, they have changed many people’s idea of superheroes from the Avengers or Justice League, to Canadian truckers.)
If you thought the politicians in Israel and California weren’t woke enough, you’re going to love the Republic of Kiribati...
When the pandemic began, Kiribati closed their borders. Not the silly, make believe travel bans like Trump, Biden, and many other political leaders did, where people simply had to change planes and arrive from a different airport. Kiribati hermetically sealed their borders – no one in, no matter what. If you were a citizen who went on a vacation somewhere one day before the lockdown, you couldn’t get back in, period.
For. Almost. Two. Years.
Think about that. Suppose you worked at the bagel shop in downtown (using the term loosely) South Tarawa, your mother died in Australia and you flew over for her funeral and then the lockdown started. You were locked out of your home country. It didn’t matter that you couldn’t work, had an expired visa, no place to live, etc. – you couldn’t return to Kiribati. Imagine the severe emotional and economic hardships a policy like this creates. After almost two years of this crippling policy, just this month the country finally agreed to reentries. They allowed the Mormon church to charter a place and bring home 54 missionaries from abroad. Here’s what happened next…
The returning people were required to quarantine in nearby Fiji, test negative for three Covid tests while in the quarantine, had to be vaccinated, and then they were put in another quarantine when they got home. After all of that, 36 people on the flight tested positive at some point in the quarantine, and it spread to 181 cases in the community within a week.
So now after two years of trying to keep the entire island nation in a protective bubble, the president has created quarantine sites and put the entire country in a lockdown. People can only leave home for emergency or essential services. Those essential providers can only operate limited hours, public transportation is shut down, social gatherings are banned, and travel between islands is prohibited.
I have long maintained that governments can never create prosperity, they can only facilitate it at best. But much more often, they destroy it. And that’s what is currently happening with public policies on Covid-19. What we’re living through today has nothing to do with science. What began as “two weeks to flatten the curve” has morphed into two years to:
Our governments and institutions have failed us on a catastrophic level. If we want to live prosperous lives, we’re going to have to stop getting sucked into the fear clickbait, regain our ability for rational thinking, and start recalling all political leaders who are using the pandemic for power and control over their citizens. There was a time when these policies made sense, or circumstances led us to believe they might make sense. But as we come up on the two-year anniversary and objectively view the data and results – we have to recognize many of these Draconian policies are not just ignorant and harmful, but they are futile in stopping the virus. The cure has become more dangerous than the disease.
If we want to live prosperous lives in the reality of Covid-19, there are really only two choices.
Option one: Manufacture 7.9 billion hazmat suits, put one on every human on earth, and shut down everything for a month while the virus dies off. (Hopefully.) Nothing can be open. No hospitals, police departments, or grocery stores. The entire world population has to stay home in their hazmat suits for a month. Whoever dies, dies. But whoever is left, should come outside to the mythical Covid-free environment, that our political leaders believe is somehow possible.
Or option two: Recognize the Covid is going to do, what Covid is going to do. We must learn to live with it, just as we’ve learned to live with the common cold, the flu, spinal meningitis, measles, mumps, and Tiger King 2. Choose wisely.
Peace,
- RG
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Thank you so much, Randy Gage, for being a true voice of reason in a world that needs more true voices of reason!
Great Food for thought Randy Gage, and I totally agree with you on this. The only thing that worries me about these types of posts is that people from the opposite extreme, those who want to indoctrinate everyone about not getting vaccinated, use these types of posts to argue how nothing that has been done works, vaccines don't work, hygiene protocols don't work and nobody should do anything. It seems to me that this pole is as harmful as the one you criticize and I would love for you to also mention it in a post, since attacking only one extreme empowers those at the other.
In this post, the real theme is governments. And I don't see many of those on the opposite extreme, other than the crazy guy in Brazil. But your point is an important one. Many people have their built in confirmation bias and then use everything they read as justifications for their beliefs. That's another aspect of the issue I address in the first post: how may people have never developed, or given away their ability for critical thinking. Thanks for bringing this into the discussion.
Jaime, I’m one of those people on the other side, an “other”. I made the decision to avoid vaccination due to my own health concerns; along with a concern for future generations in case the jab didn’t work out. I was in a position to effectively isolate, and have pretty much done that for two years. I’m not trying to “indoctrinate” anyone; most people in my position that I know feel the same way; we just want to be left the fuck alone. You made your choice; you took a bigger risk than what was suggested at the time, and for the vast majority, that risk was warranted. But for many, many people, it didn’t work out, and people like you demanded they shut up and keep their injuries to themselves. By advocating censorship (which is what you express as a concern here to Randy) you’re suggesting we have less transparency, and that’s a huge part of what got us here. We need trust if we’re to get through this. You were asked to jump off a bridge, so you did. I didn’t. I hesitated because I had unanswered questions, and with each passing day I’m glad I made that choice. If we can’t come to a place of at least dialogue; we’re doomed, and that’s what I believe Randy in advocating by speaking openly about this. Censoring himself helps nobody; and that goes for all of us.
Thanks for this Warren. First of all I’m not censoring RANDY, Actually I agree with this post I’m just asking him to also tell the other side of the story.
Secondly, I deeply respect your opinion and your choice, I only wish you would respect mine and don’t speak about it as I’m a blind sheep. I don’t try to convince people to get vaccinated and I don’t like it when someone tries to convince me (or the world) of the opposite. I cheer for freedom, and I celebrate your freedom to stay away from vaccines, can you do the same for me? Can you respect my freedom without thinking that you are smarter or better just because I choose different?
Great insights Randy and also the conversation starting in the comments, I think the danger we face here is how personal all comments about vaccination have become on most forums. I have the same challenge in Sydney. Many friends vaccinated. Some not. And trying to hold a rational discussion is almost impossible. Evangelical might be a great verb for how people behave. What started as a virus has become something far more difficult to navigate - we are dealing with the human variant now, a variant that has so many mutations from our first experience, that we don't know how to handle it. I think this rolls into politicians as well. I don't necessarily believe that politicians in general have intentionally gone out of their way to take control. I'm sure some have. But we could also argue that they are just making very poor choices and unfortunately when people in power make poor choices, other people suffer. What can we do about it? I'm actually not sure. The marches / riots and youtube videos didn't stop mandates / mask wearing or people losing their jobs. Now, with 2 years under our belts, I think we need to start asking better questions.
How do we live with Covid in society?
What are the actual risk factors?
What are the real options for people?
What are we truly afraid of? - This might be the hardest one to get honest answers on.
Are we prepared to take ownership of our health and prosperity? - Again, a hard truth to answer.
My thoughts.
In your recent Friday Philosophy post, was wondering if you ever tried a meditation practice?? Cause that's what it seemed to me.. catch yourself thinking a thought, step outside of it and say, is this serving me, or should I stop it and think something else?? Not easy, but boy, if you can train your brain or mind or whatever to do that, the benefits are huge.. cheers David
Yes I do practice meditation and need to do it more often. -RG
Thank you so much, Randy Gage, for being a true voice of reason in a world that needs more true voices of reason!
Great Food for thought Randy Gage, and I totally agree with you on this. The only thing that worries me about these types of posts is that people from the opposite extreme, those who want to indoctrinate everyone about not getting vaccinated, use these types of posts to argue how nothing that has been done works, vaccines don't work, hygiene protocols don't work and nobody should do anything. It seems to me that this pole is as harmful as the one you criticize and I would love for you to also mention it in a post, since attacking only one extreme empowers those at the other.
In this post, the real theme is governments. And I don't see many of those on the opposite extreme, other than the crazy guy in Brazil. But your point is an important one. Many people have their built in confirmation bias and then use everything they read as justifications for their beliefs. That's another aspect of the issue I address in the first post: how may people have never developed, or given away their ability for critical thinking. Thanks for bringing this into the discussion.
Jaime, I’m one of those people on the other side, an “other”. I made the decision to avoid vaccination due to my own health concerns; along with a concern for future generations in case the jab didn’t work out. I was in a position to effectively isolate, and have pretty much done that for two years. I’m not trying to “indoctrinate” anyone; most people in my position that I know feel the same way; we just want to be left the fuck alone. You made your choice; you took a bigger risk than what was suggested at the time, and for the vast majority, that risk was warranted. But for many, many people, it didn’t work out, and people like you demanded they shut up and keep their injuries to themselves. By advocating censorship (which is what you express as a concern here to Randy) you’re suggesting we have less transparency, and that’s a huge part of what got us here. We need trust if we’re to get through this. You were asked to jump off a bridge, so you did. I didn’t. I hesitated because I had unanswered questions, and with each passing day I’m glad I made that choice. If we can’t come to a place of at least dialogue; we’re doomed, and that’s what I believe Randy in advocating by speaking openly about this. Censoring himself helps nobody; and that goes for all of us.
Thanks for this Warren. First of all I’m not censoring RANDY, Actually I agree with this post I’m just asking him to also tell the other side of the story.
Secondly, I deeply respect your opinion and your choice, I only wish you would respect mine and don’t speak about it as I’m a blind sheep. I don’t try to convince people to get vaccinated and I don’t like it when someone tries to convince me (or the world) of the opposite. I cheer for freedom, and I celebrate your freedom to stay away from vaccines, can you do the same for me? Can you respect my freedom without thinking that you are smarter or better just because I choose different?
Great insights Randy and also the conversation starting in the comments, I think the danger we face here is how personal all comments about vaccination have become on most forums. I have the same challenge in Sydney. Many friends vaccinated. Some not. And trying to hold a rational discussion is almost impossible. Evangelical might be a great verb for how people behave. What started as a virus has become something far more difficult to navigate - we are dealing with the human variant now, a variant that has so many mutations from our first experience, that we don't know how to handle it. I think this rolls into politicians as well. I don't necessarily believe that politicians in general have intentionally gone out of their way to take control. I'm sure some have. But we could also argue that they are just making very poor choices and unfortunately when people in power make poor choices, other people suffer. What can we do about it? I'm actually not sure. The marches / riots and youtube videos didn't stop mandates / mask wearing or people losing their jobs. Now, with 2 years under our belts, I think we need to start asking better questions.
How do we live with Covid in society?
What are the actual risk factors?
What are the real options for people?
What are we truly afraid of? - This might be the hardest one to get honest answers on.
Are we prepared to take ownership of our health and prosperity? - Again, a hard truth to answer.
My thoughts.
In your recent Friday Philosophy post, was wondering if you ever tried a meditation practice?? Cause that's what it seemed to me.. catch yourself thinking a thought, step outside of it and say, is this serving me, or should I stop it and think something else?? Not easy, but boy, if you can train your brain or mind or whatever to do that, the benefits are huge.. cheers David
Yes I do practice meditation and need to do it more often. -RG