I appreciate you writing this out. As an American, I've heard some about the vaccine-enforcement protocols which are being rolled out in Europe, but mostly in the abstract, and although I find these concepts intellectually troubling, that abstraction has kept me mostly emotionally disengaged from what feels like a problem for Other People--for Europeans, for the vaccine-critical. For whatever reason, your personal account of government-enforced proscription on the right to enter private businesses (seemingly manifested overnight!) has finally pierced the apathy and left me feeling rattled.
Now that they've arrived, these measures are really never going away, are they?
It's particularly resonant to hear this story from the perspective of someone who did choose to vaccinate. I've followed Paul Kingsnorth's "Vaccine Moment" series with interest. He's a great writer, but the milquetoast, trust-the-system-styled atheist who lives at the back of my skull balks at some sense that the very valid criticisms he lays out could all just be beautiful, empty rationalization for a vaccine-reactionary. For whatever reason, hearing the same concerns and basic arguments expressed by someone who has decided that the vaccine is a greater net help than harm is very soothing to my animal brain. It shouldn't make any difference, since the both of you equally validate the right of individuals not to vaccinate without social, civil, or criminal repurcussion, but until I've trained the knee-jerk neoliberal-party-line instinct out of myself, I'm very glad to have your voice weighing in on the matter.
A further question, then, which I hope doesn't come across as gauche: As a former anarchist, do you feel any... how do I say it. Anticipation?, about the social unrest that is fomenting over vaccine mandates in Europe? You have no love for the Machine in any of its dimensions, economic or political or ecological. The speed at which people are coming to a point of existential disillusionment has been accelerated rapidly over the last couple years. Do you see revolutionary potential in this distrust and discontent? Is revolution even something you believe in anymore?
I must say I'm no huge fan of Kingsnorth. To me he seems like old wine in new skins, trying to get us who went beyond (lol) the border of the civitas back to his somewhat earthier version of Christianity with him as the lecturer. Who needs that?
In my politics I don't mind Christians. I admire Chris Hedges. But when I read stuff with an anarchist or pagan bend, why do I need Christians.
And frankly and being politically non correct. As a German, this opener was insufferable:
Ha ha ha, I think. Germany. Fences. Internment. Forced injections. Armed police. Scan your code. Kill the unvaxxed.
I really enjoyed this read and always appreciate your thoughtfulness and sensitivity.
I was, however, saddened at the end when I read that you would be returning to the gym and continuing to consent to this system and helping to ensure it is successful.
I hope you'll take some time to consider that not once in these last two years has any person in power or influence, anywhere in the world, ever said that this digital surveillance and control system would be temporary.
Rather, we have been told from the very beginning that we must now accept a New Normal.
This was inevitable advent of technology like smart phones, pandemic or not. It follows along in the same vein that James Scott wrote about in Seeing Like a State; the surveillance that personal electronic devices that everyone carries all of the time is the dream for government control. It enables a level of surveillance & control at a level of granularity that previous states could only dream about. China may be a bit ahead of the game with its social credit system implementation, but plenty more governments are headed on the similar trajectories.
The pandemic in this regard is a great opportunity for expansion of surveillance under an emergency and public health guise. Everyone's guard is down a lot more: people are afraid of the disease. And for all of the talk about believing in science, there's certainly very little actual reading of science.
I personally don't have a problem with restrictions at a local level; my martial arts studio requires proof of vaccination on file to train without a mask, for instance. I just don't want to cede that power to the government (or an entity in one of your other comments like Google or Facebook).
Well said. I am going to share this with my children (all past 20) as well as my 3 sisters.
I also follow Paul Kingsnorth and have read his entire machine series so far.
I appreciate you writing this out. As an American, I've heard some about the vaccine-enforcement protocols which are being rolled out in Europe, but mostly in the abstract, and although I find these concepts intellectually troubling, that abstraction has kept me mostly emotionally disengaged from what feels like a problem for Other People--for Europeans, for the vaccine-critical. For whatever reason, your personal account of government-enforced proscription on the right to enter private businesses (seemingly manifested overnight!) has finally pierced the apathy and left me feeling rattled.
Now that they've arrived, these measures are really never going away, are they?
It's particularly resonant to hear this story from the perspective of someone who did choose to vaccinate. I've followed Paul Kingsnorth's "Vaccine Moment" series with interest. He's a great writer, but the milquetoast, trust-the-system-styled atheist who lives at the back of my skull balks at some sense that the very valid criticisms he lays out could all just be beautiful, empty rationalization for a vaccine-reactionary. For whatever reason, hearing the same concerns and basic arguments expressed by someone who has decided that the vaccine is a greater net help than harm is very soothing to my animal brain. It shouldn't make any difference, since the both of you equally validate the right of individuals not to vaccinate without social, civil, or criminal repurcussion, but until I've trained the knee-jerk neoliberal-party-line instinct out of myself, I'm very glad to have your voice weighing in on the matter.
A further question, then, which I hope doesn't come across as gauche: As a former anarchist, do you feel any... how do I say it. Anticipation?, about the social unrest that is fomenting over vaccine mandates in Europe? You have no love for the Machine in any of its dimensions, economic or political or ecological. The speed at which people are coming to a point of existential disillusionment has been accelerated rapidly over the last couple years. Do you see revolutionary potential in this distrust and discontent? Is revolution even something you believe in anymore?
Thank you <3
I must say I'm no huge fan of Kingsnorth. To me he seems like old wine in new skins, trying to get us who went beyond (lol) the border of the civitas back to his somewhat earthier version of Christianity with him as the lecturer. Who needs that?
In my politics I don't mind Christians. I admire Chris Hedges. But when I read stuff with an anarchist or pagan bend, why do I need Christians.
And frankly and being politically non correct. As a German, this opener was insufferable:
Ha ha ha, I think. Germany. Fences. Internment. Forced injections. Armed police. Scan your code. Kill the unvaxxed.
Ha ha ha.
Damn rich for an admitted Englishman to say.
I really enjoyed this read and always appreciate your thoughtfulness and sensitivity.
I was, however, saddened at the end when I read that you would be returning to the gym and continuing to consent to this system and helping to ensure it is successful.
I hope you'll take some time to consider that not once in these last two years has any person in power or influence, anywhere in the world, ever said that this digital surveillance and control system would be temporary.
Rather, we have been told from the very beginning that we must now accept a New Normal.
This isn't ever going away if we consent to it.
Please reconsider your participation in it.
This was inevitable advent of technology like smart phones, pandemic or not. It follows along in the same vein that James Scott wrote about in Seeing Like a State; the surveillance that personal electronic devices that everyone carries all of the time is the dream for government control. It enables a level of surveillance & control at a level of granularity that previous states could only dream about. China may be a bit ahead of the game with its social credit system implementation, but plenty more governments are headed on the similar trajectories.
The pandemic in this regard is a great opportunity for expansion of surveillance under an emergency and public health guise. Everyone's guard is down a lot more: people are afraid of the disease. And for all of the talk about believing in science, there's certainly very little actual reading of science.
I personally don't have a problem with restrictions at a local level; my martial arts studio requires proof of vaccination on file to train without a mask, for instance. I just don't want to cede that power to the government (or an entity in one of your other comments like Google or Facebook).