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.
Categories: COVID-19
Organ student? Do you still play? I am a sometimes organ tech at the Polk Theater.
Chilling! Where it says America just replace it with your own country and it is the same.
I have long mentioned The Stasi also The Terror of the French Revolution. The fine people of France are trying at this moment to stop some of these grotesque new laws by protesting and getting beaten and financially punished for it.I admire them. Just you wait for the Vaccine passport on the way soon folks you will be ostracised and jobless without it. The Pandemic is a nightmare but the way it has been handled is out of all proportion and a much worse nightmare.
Very well said, Charles. And extremely sad what has happen to our society.
Charles, you have written a warning that all must heed immediately. I felt uneasy from the start of this whole surrender of freedom for supposed safety back in March. I cannot believe how many Americans have simply listened to the decrees of mayors, governors and assorted bureaucrats…no questions asked!
I read a book a few years ago “Pursuing Liberty” by Cory Emberson and Rick Lindstrom. The book shared the stories of people who lived under oppressive governments. These people were able to immigrate to America and were thankful for the freedom they found here. The book was written 10 years ago…but these people who fled tyranny said at that time they were worried because they were seeing many of the signs they had seen in their own countries before authoritarianism took over. What must they be thinking today?
You are correct, Charles to sound the warning. I want to add my voice in joining you in that warning. Americans, especially the younger generations are not learning about the places on earth where freedom does not exist. They aren’t being taught that freedom must be protected each and every day, because since the beginning of time there have been forces wishing to take freedom from the individual. It is time for Americans to speak out and warn other Americans that their freedoms are in jeopardy. Once freedom is taken, it is difficult if not impossible to regain.
I’m going to share your essay at my social media platforms (they are small platforms, haha) But, the point we must all remember is that we as individuals do have power. We must not surrender our liberty.
Hope you don’t mind my sharing the link to my essay that was inspired by the book “Pursing Liberty”.
https://dianaerbio.wordpress.com/2019/02/20/time-to-protect-lady-liberty/
If we were to study history seriously, we would see that current events are no more than a continuum in the vast rise and fall of civilizations. Gibbon’s’ “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” is a good place to start reading about the turns and twists of history as despots and good men alike tried to steer their course. We are short sighted if we think that results of this or that election will make a big difference in the long run. Governments die from within, when comfortable living and endless games to entertain create a soft, uninformed and listless populace, swayed by whatever propaganda machine they happen to admire, and goaded to action by paid agitators. A licentious and disorganized military was the first stone to dislodge in the mighty Roman Empire. Read Gibbons and you will appreciate the lessons of history.
It is not only America . Here in the UK were are no longer able to smile at people passing by. Toddlers in pushchairs gaze at your eyes and you can no longer give them a smile. God knows what we are doing to the young . My grandson sounds like some mind controlling machine : wear your mask: follow the arrows: clean your hands: he is 8 with autism and this has become his mantra. We are shuffling away from freedom and heading into a land of self denial and control. In March I said it was like living in an episode of Logan’s run – I still believe that…. I don’t know what is real anymore.
Marilyn