Covid-19 Journal #11 -- Age of the Lie
Title
Covid-19 Journal #11 -- Age of the Lie
Description
The 2020 Pandemic: What is the truth in a sea of lies?
Creator
Lfj Gill
Language
English
Text
Age of the Lie
**One-hundred-seventy-thousand American deaths in six months.**
August 16, 2020
Back when they told me we were entering “The Age of Information,” I wondered what, exactly, we would be eating. Apparently we were now going to live on information. This was not many years ago, from my latter-day perspective, and no time at all ago from the perspective of archeological time.
So, where we had been living in the Age of Meat and Vegetables—at least in my middle-class [remember them?] American home—I understood we would now be serving platefuls of information at the dinner table. This prospect made liver and onions sound like strawberry shortcake by comparison.
I found it all depressing. The doctor prescribed Elavil.
So I went along in the Age of Information. Perhaps I became more informed; it’s hard to tell, as I felt pretty informed before that.
No one, however, mentioned when we would be entering the Age of the Lie. That might be because lies are sneaky. Lies pose as truth—that’s their nature. They can be somewhat subtle—all those ads and movie scenes, for a minor example, where the female is asleep in bed, her face made up with eye shadow, mascara, lipstick and foundation—you know, how all us female humans go to bed at night with our faces caked with makeup. We never wash it off. Saves time in the morning.
So it slipped in stealthily while we were busy soaking up Information, being gradually lulled to sleep in the surfeit like a gourmand after gorging, as the Age of Information morphed into the Age of the Lie.
Of course, now everybody knows all about it, slinging around terms like “dis-information” and “fake news” (thanks to our articulate Dear Leader for the latter * 1.) Everybody is now well aware that the Other People are trafficking in lies. Not themselves, however. Such that we are now at a sort of Hegelian thesis-antithesis stage, in which the nation is at least as divided as north and south in the Civil War. (Odd name for a war.)
If you are a Republican, the Democrats are obviously lying through their liberal, left-wing, commie-pinko, socialist teeth. Whereas if you are a Democrat, the Republicans are obviously lying through their self-serving, money-driven, racist, fascist teeth. This sector of media serves up lies while that sector tells the truth, and vice versa, depending on which battle ground you occupy.
All Democrats are harebrained, reactionary, tree-hugging, unrealistic incompetents without a clear platform. They know what they are against, but not what they are for. Oh yes, add “baby-killing” to that list. Democrats are baby-killers.
All Republicans are selfish, war-mongering, rich White Supremacists who will say anything and do anything to promote their own wealth and power, preferably in the name of God and Country.
Thus we have the Age of the Lie, membership not yet claimed by most of its inhabitants, but rather riven down the middle with each side hurling accusations over the abyss at the other, naming the others liars and themselves truth-tellers. An unfinished dialectic, obviously, for those wishing to take a look.
Thus here in 2020, where we have not yet achieved the acuity of vision that term implies, but stand obliged to do so—we have uprisings, foment, destruction and disease coming up out of that chasm, infecting both sides of the divide without prejudice.
Email and headlines pummel me daily with an endless barrage of negative news—one destructive plan, action or consequence piled on the next. Examples from the first few days in August:
-- EPA rolls back vital clean air protections during a respiratory pandemic
Yes, that’s the Environmental *Protection* Agency (NRDC)
--The Corona-virus Infected Hundreds at a Georgia Summer Camp
“The camp took precautions but did not require campers to wear masks” (NYT)
--The latest ‘COVID party’ had 700 attendees and took New Jersey police 5 hours to
break up (Daily Kos)
--Trump has time to golf as states report more than 1,000 COVID-19 deaths for fifth day straight (Daily Kos 8/3/2020)
--Reckless ‘Gain-of-Function’ Experiments Lie at the Root of the Pandemic
“In these labs, scientists use genetic engineering … to give pathogens [e.g., viruses from animals] new functions, making them more lethal, contagious, infectious or resistant to treatment.” *2
Every day, without fail, for weeks now, in my email comes some variation of the headline: “300 new confirmed cases of corona virus, 20 new deaths” in Massachusetts. And this is in the “flattened” time of the virus in my neighbor state, while their economy is “opening up.”
The death toll there is over 8,600 people so far, with over 114,000 confirmed cases to date (as of 8/16, www.mass.gov). The numbers are so big, here and everywhere in these Dis-United States, and so relentless, they truly are numb-ers. They numb the senses. One sustains yet another wound to the heart on hearing the news, and moves on with the day.
________________
In six months of Covid-19 we have already lost nearly three times the number of Americans lost in the entire eight years’ involvement in Vietnam.
Covid-19 Pandemic 2020: In the country to date, after six months of the pandemic—to which the federal government STILL has not responded with effective leadership and help—there have been nearly 5.4 million known cases and just under 170,000 American deaths—and still climbing. The U.S. tops the list of Corona deaths by nation in the world. *3
One-hundred-seventy-thousand American deaths in six months.
“Spanish Flu” Pandemic 1918: By the end of 1919, after months of lies, secrecy, cover-ups and denials by both the Federal Government and the medical establishment, exacerbated by public noncompliance with health directives (as we are seeing in the present pandemic), America had lost upwards of 675,000 citizens in the “Spanish Flu” (H1N1 virus) pandemic. *4
Six-hundred-seventy-five-thousand American deaths in two years.
Vietnam War: By 1973, we’d lost 58,000 of our citizens in the entire 8-year U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War *5—the war which did nothing for anyone except bleed the country of young citizens and perhaps enrich those who profit from the war machine.
Fifty-eight-thousand American deaths in eight years.
World War II: While the world lost many millions of people in the carnage of World War II, the United States lost some 298,000 citizens during our 4-year involvement. *6
Two-hundred-ninety-eight-thousand American deaths in four years.
One-hundred-and-seventy-thousand Americans have died a horrible death, alone and suffocating, without so much as a national expression of concern, let alone grief, from those governing this land. And yet here is a horrible, but containable, disease agent, a virus whose lethality I strongly suspect was at least partially engineered by human beings *2—containable and stoppable. Witness the success of other countries whose citizens are complying with what the virus—not politicians—requires:
“If you want to defeat me, you MUST stop the inter-human spread. Here is how you do it: prevent your breath from reaching others, as they prevent theirs from reaching you. Very, very simple. If you do not, I will happily infect as many of you as I possibly can, destroy your inner organs, and kill you wherever possible. You have been warned.”
That is not a government talking; that is the disease agent itself talking. That is the corona-virus talking. Politics and human rights have nothing to do with it.
“But by the way, I would especially like to thank all of you kind folks who settle for someone’s else’s opinion or simply cop an attitude, without looking into what I am and how I behave. No need for all that tiresome research. You make my work so much easier, and I am truly grateful. And you should be proud—you’ve put your country right on top, where it belongs. --Yours, Covid"
________________
I’ve found it all depressing. The doctor prescribed Lexapro. I declined.
Yes, the state of affairs in this country at this time is depressing. You would have to be brain-dead for it not to be. How can deep division accompanied by hatred among brothers not be depressing? Is anyone elated by this state? The devil, maybe. Probably. (In case you’re not up on your demonology, try reading C.S. Lewis’ "The Screwtape Letters" for an update.)
I can feel the earth, the wildlife, the air our children breathe, the water they drink, the swelling ranks of the war-ravaged, displaced, starving, desperate, enslaved, persecuted, and murdered among us around the globe—feel the dishonoring of life seeming to grow exponentially, and see the earth bowing under the weight of oppression in an image that would disavow any shred of hope.
So yes, I find the state of the Dis-Union to be depressing, profoundly so. But that does not mean I am therefore depressed. The fact that depression is not the only option is clear in the many life-affirming, reasonable, compassionate voices rising up out of the dust clouds of foment; the many actions of self-sacrifice showing up all over the nation, and the world; and the many creative forces taking shape to address the disunity and inequities coming to light in the wake of a racially-motivated murder—witnessed by the whole world—in the midst of a deadly pandemic ravaging the entire human community.
Against all reason, out of the carnage I see heads rising up, hear voices speaking up, note the humble, the compassionate, the self-giving, the wardens of truth, the devotees of the sanctity of life standing forth—a rising tide of courage and integrity amidst the forces of destruction.
I see, amidst a sea of lies, the one power greater than the Lie, the power that does, and will, prevail. No, I am not blind to the carnage, the suffering, and the deaths consequent upon the actions of liars in power. I know my own life is at stake as much as anyone else’s. But I also know, and choose to pursue, the greater power behind those courageous human beings unafraid to speak, and live, the Truth.
—Lfj Gill August 16, 2020
________________
*1 Actually, come to find out, he got it from the Nazis: “…Hitler and the Nazis had found the simple slogan they repeated again and again to discredit reporters: ‘Lügenpresse.’ Today the extreme right in Germany has revived this term, which in English is “fake news.” — https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/16/opinion/hitler-speech-1919.html
*2 https://www.organicconsumers.org/blog/covid-19-reckless-gain-of-function-experiments-lie-at-the-root-of-the-pandemic?utm_medium=email&utm_source=engagingnetworks&utm_campaign=OB+668&utm_content=OB+668
*3 https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
*4 https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-pandemic-h1n1.html https://www.history.com/news/1918-pandemic-spanish-flu-censorship
*5 https://www.britannica.com/event/Vietnam-War
*6 https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-II/Costs-of-the-war#ref53608
File: Covid-19 Journal #11, RI Covid-19 Archives
**One-hundred-seventy-thousand American deaths in six months.**
August 16, 2020
Back when they told me we were entering “The Age of Information,” I wondered what, exactly, we would be eating. Apparently we were now going to live on information. This was not many years ago, from my latter-day perspective, and no time at all ago from the perspective of archeological time.
So, where we had been living in the Age of Meat and Vegetables—at least in my middle-class [remember them?] American home—I understood we would now be serving platefuls of information at the dinner table. This prospect made liver and onions sound like strawberry shortcake by comparison.
I found it all depressing. The doctor prescribed Elavil.
So I went along in the Age of Information. Perhaps I became more informed; it’s hard to tell, as I felt pretty informed before that.
No one, however, mentioned when we would be entering the Age of the Lie. That might be because lies are sneaky. Lies pose as truth—that’s their nature. They can be somewhat subtle—all those ads and movie scenes, for a minor example, where the female is asleep in bed, her face made up with eye shadow, mascara, lipstick and foundation—you know, how all us female humans go to bed at night with our faces caked with makeup. We never wash it off. Saves time in the morning.
So it slipped in stealthily while we were busy soaking up Information, being gradually lulled to sleep in the surfeit like a gourmand after gorging, as the Age of Information morphed into the Age of the Lie.
Of course, now everybody knows all about it, slinging around terms like “dis-information” and “fake news” (thanks to our articulate Dear Leader for the latter * 1.) Everybody is now well aware that the Other People are trafficking in lies. Not themselves, however. Such that we are now at a sort of Hegelian thesis-antithesis stage, in which the nation is at least as divided as north and south in the Civil War. (Odd name for a war.)
If you are a Republican, the Democrats are obviously lying through their liberal, left-wing, commie-pinko, socialist teeth. Whereas if you are a Democrat, the Republicans are obviously lying through their self-serving, money-driven, racist, fascist teeth. This sector of media serves up lies while that sector tells the truth, and vice versa, depending on which battle ground you occupy.
All Democrats are harebrained, reactionary, tree-hugging, unrealistic incompetents without a clear platform. They know what they are against, but not what they are for. Oh yes, add “baby-killing” to that list. Democrats are baby-killers.
All Republicans are selfish, war-mongering, rich White Supremacists who will say anything and do anything to promote their own wealth and power, preferably in the name of God and Country.
Thus we have the Age of the Lie, membership not yet claimed by most of its inhabitants, but rather riven down the middle with each side hurling accusations over the abyss at the other, naming the others liars and themselves truth-tellers. An unfinished dialectic, obviously, for those wishing to take a look.
Thus here in 2020, where we have not yet achieved the acuity of vision that term implies, but stand obliged to do so—we have uprisings, foment, destruction and disease coming up out of that chasm, infecting both sides of the divide without prejudice.
Email and headlines pummel me daily with an endless barrage of negative news—one destructive plan, action or consequence piled on the next. Examples from the first few days in August:
-- EPA rolls back vital clean air protections during a respiratory pandemic
Yes, that’s the Environmental *Protection* Agency (NRDC)
--The Corona-virus Infected Hundreds at a Georgia Summer Camp
“The camp took precautions but did not require campers to wear masks” (NYT)
--The latest ‘COVID party’ had 700 attendees and took New Jersey police 5 hours to
break up (Daily Kos)
--Trump has time to golf as states report more than 1,000 COVID-19 deaths for fifth day straight (Daily Kos 8/3/2020)
--Reckless ‘Gain-of-Function’ Experiments Lie at the Root of the Pandemic
“In these labs, scientists use genetic engineering … to give pathogens [e.g., viruses from animals] new functions, making them more lethal, contagious, infectious or resistant to treatment.” *2
Every day, without fail, for weeks now, in my email comes some variation of the headline: “300 new confirmed cases of corona virus, 20 new deaths” in Massachusetts. And this is in the “flattened” time of the virus in my neighbor state, while their economy is “opening up.”
The death toll there is over 8,600 people so far, with over 114,000 confirmed cases to date (as of 8/16, www.mass.gov). The numbers are so big, here and everywhere in these Dis-United States, and so relentless, they truly are numb-ers. They numb the senses. One sustains yet another wound to the heart on hearing the news, and moves on with the day.
________________
In six months of Covid-19 we have already lost nearly three times the number of Americans lost in the entire eight years’ involvement in Vietnam.
Covid-19 Pandemic 2020: In the country to date, after six months of the pandemic—to which the federal government STILL has not responded with effective leadership and help—there have been nearly 5.4 million known cases and just under 170,000 American deaths—and still climbing. The U.S. tops the list of Corona deaths by nation in the world. *3
One-hundred-seventy-thousand American deaths in six months.
“Spanish Flu” Pandemic 1918: By the end of 1919, after months of lies, secrecy, cover-ups and denials by both the Federal Government and the medical establishment, exacerbated by public noncompliance with health directives (as we are seeing in the present pandemic), America had lost upwards of 675,000 citizens in the “Spanish Flu” (H1N1 virus) pandemic. *4
Six-hundred-seventy-five-thousand American deaths in two years.
Vietnam War: By 1973, we’d lost 58,000 of our citizens in the entire 8-year U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War *5—the war which did nothing for anyone except bleed the country of young citizens and perhaps enrich those who profit from the war machine.
Fifty-eight-thousand American deaths in eight years.
World War II: While the world lost many millions of people in the carnage of World War II, the United States lost some 298,000 citizens during our 4-year involvement. *6
Two-hundred-ninety-eight-thousand American deaths in four years.
One-hundred-and-seventy-thousand Americans have died a horrible death, alone and suffocating, without so much as a national expression of concern, let alone grief, from those governing this land. And yet here is a horrible, but containable, disease agent, a virus whose lethality I strongly suspect was at least partially engineered by human beings *2—containable and stoppable. Witness the success of other countries whose citizens are complying with what the virus—not politicians—requires:
“If you want to defeat me, you MUST stop the inter-human spread. Here is how you do it: prevent your breath from reaching others, as they prevent theirs from reaching you. Very, very simple. If you do not, I will happily infect as many of you as I possibly can, destroy your inner organs, and kill you wherever possible. You have been warned.”
That is not a government talking; that is the disease agent itself talking. That is the corona-virus talking. Politics and human rights have nothing to do with it.
“But by the way, I would especially like to thank all of you kind folks who settle for someone’s else’s opinion or simply cop an attitude, without looking into what I am and how I behave. No need for all that tiresome research. You make my work so much easier, and I am truly grateful. And you should be proud—you’ve put your country right on top, where it belongs. --Yours, Covid"
________________
I’ve found it all depressing. The doctor prescribed Lexapro. I declined.
Yes, the state of affairs in this country at this time is depressing. You would have to be brain-dead for it not to be. How can deep division accompanied by hatred among brothers not be depressing? Is anyone elated by this state? The devil, maybe. Probably. (In case you’re not up on your demonology, try reading C.S. Lewis’ "The Screwtape Letters" for an update.)
I can feel the earth, the wildlife, the air our children breathe, the water they drink, the swelling ranks of the war-ravaged, displaced, starving, desperate, enslaved, persecuted, and murdered among us around the globe—feel the dishonoring of life seeming to grow exponentially, and see the earth bowing under the weight of oppression in an image that would disavow any shred of hope.
So yes, I find the state of the Dis-Union to be depressing, profoundly so. But that does not mean I am therefore depressed. The fact that depression is not the only option is clear in the many life-affirming, reasonable, compassionate voices rising up out of the dust clouds of foment; the many actions of self-sacrifice showing up all over the nation, and the world; and the many creative forces taking shape to address the disunity and inequities coming to light in the wake of a racially-motivated murder—witnessed by the whole world—in the midst of a deadly pandemic ravaging the entire human community.
Against all reason, out of the carnage I see heads rising up, hear voices speaking up, note the humble, the compassionate, the self-giving, the wardens of truth, the devotees of the sanctity of life standing forth—a rising tide of courage and integrity amidst the forces of destruction.
I see, amidst a sea of lies, the one power greater than the Lie, the power that does, and will, prevail. No, I am not blind to the carnage, the suffering, and the deaths consequent upon the actions of liars in power. I know my own life is at stake as much as anyone else’s. But I also know, and choose to pursue, the greater power behind those courageous human beings unafraid to speak, and live, the Truth.
—Lfj Gill August 16, 2020
________________
*1 Actually, come to find out, he got it from the Nazis: “…Hitler and the Nazis had found the simple slogan they repeated again and again to discredit reporters: ‘Lügenpresse.’ Today the extreme right in Germany has revived this term, which in English is “fake news.” — https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/16/opinion/hitler-speech-1919.html
*2 https://www.organicconsumers.org/blog/covid-19-reckless-gain-of-function-experiments-lie-at-the-root-of-the-pandemic?utm_medium=email&utm_source=engagingnetworks&utm_campaign=OB+668&utm_content=OB+668
*3 https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
*4 https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-pandemic-h1n1.html https://www.history.com/news/1918-pandemic-spanish-flu-censorship
*5 https://www.britannica.com/event/Vietnam-War
*6 https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-II/Costs-of-the-war#ref53608
File: Covid-19 Journal #11, RI Covid-19 Archives
Date
August 16, 2020
Location
Hopkinton, RI
Collection
Citation
Lfj Gill, “Covid-19 Journal #11 -- Age of the Lie ,” Rhode Island COVID-19 Archive, accessed November 15, 2024, https://ricovidarchive.org/items/show/1419.
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