As a young organ student in Europe I got to visit and play the organ at the famed Thomaskirche in Leipzig, Germany where Bach played and is buried. Traveling there I got to see East Germany at its worst with it being very grim and disconcerting. When I played I had an audience of unsmiling and joyless people.

Since last March, I feel like I am reliving that experience. We now have to report where we travel, forced to wear masks and, unless you are participating in a pro-Leftist protest, are forbidden from attending certain events. A person or business owner can be jailed for failing to submit to the government rules and we are even restricted as to how many people we can have in our own homes.

But what really is of concern is how so many of our population have willingly given up their freedoms and have enthusiastically accepted dictatorial decrees by state governments. Here in NJ you are not required to wear a mask while walking outside. But, if you do so, you are met with admonishing glares from zombie-like people who are uselessly wearing them while breathing in their own CO2.

We are bombarded with the message that this is the so-called “new normal.” But, what they are really saying is that we should happily accept what is really a “new totalitarianism” being run by the political and financial elite. Timorous and fearful people eagerly abrogate their Constitutional rights to a vindictive and self-righteous elite. And, if you dare to protest you are threatened with mob shaming, fury, and threats. Sadly, friends and relatives are showing what they are made of and it is not very good.

We see lockdowns destroying the economy and people’s lives and livelihoods. Many people are not getting medical treatment for other conditions which is going to lead to a large number of deaths over the next year.

The toxic effects of these lockdowns are no longer debatable. The sense of community is being taken away, including traditional religious worship. As a result, Americans are losing their sense of location and place. Frighteningly, years ago, Alexander Solzhenitsyn spoke about such tactics in his book “The Gulag Archipelago.”

Millions of Americans are now living in what is, essentially, solitary confinement that will continue indefinitely. We are now being told that the emerging vaccines won’t end this and this could continue through 2022.

It should now be clear that we are not practicing the euphemistically called “social distancing.” We are practicing very real physical distancing. Covering the human face is distorting relationships and making us all featureless. We have even heard the recommendation of wearing masks while making love.

And if all of this isn’t enough, we are now experiencing censored speech. Social media, which in this pandemic is one of the only forms of communication, is being actively censored. Even the President of the United States is being censored.

We are being dehumanized at an increasing rate. At present we are seeing the three ghosts of Charles Dicken’s “Christmas Carol:” The ghost of Christmas past is showing us the corpse of the USSR and its satellites. The ghost of Christmas present is showing us the People’s Republic of China. The ghost of Christmas future is an American totalitarianism run by the radical Left. As Solzhenitsyn warns: “the prisoner reboots and is reborn as an object belonging to the Gulag.”

Perhaps it is time we disregard the platitudes that are being used as rationalizations for destroying our businesses, schools, churches, communities, and our lives.