We are victims of a new Stockholm syndrome. We find ourselves having to trust the very governments we have come to distrust more and more over the years. We are forced to turn to the same politicians and apparatchiks who have systematically stripped away our livelihoods, the value of our earnings and savings, our liberties, our rights and our self-esteem for years. We are made to take our eyes off the jackboot grinding down our necks by a poison-tipped dagger at our hearts.
Perhaps it is time to draw a deep breath and reflect on the extraordinary changes being thrust upon our lives by this virus crisis. The fear factor has been drummed up with methodical hysteria by Western mainstream media. And by extension, the media in the rest of the world which has little originality when it comes to reporting on global issues. This is not to ignore the lethality of the virus, nor the havoc it is wreaking around the world. But it must be asked, who is benefiting from it? What comes after?
It does not matter at this stage whether the virus was engineered or if it is a natural mutation. Conflicting views, even medical opinions, are flying fast and furious. We are not equipped to judge them. We lack the facts and knowledge. More to the point, we are too busy stocking up and locking down. Yet, not being able to understand the origins of the threat should not deter us from thinking about the consequences of the unprecedented measures to fight it. For ourselves, our communities, our nations, our world -- the only world that there is.
Since the 2008 financial crisis, major economies of the world have abandoned time-tested principles of economics, even common sense prudence. They have abused their political and economic power to ignite an explosive bottom up transfer of wealth which has given us in return increasingly top down leaders and authoritarian governments. Both are bought over and propped by a shrinking minority of super rich elite who number less than 0.1% of the world's population.
Ahead of the present crisis, their 12-year orgy of economic and political excess had stretched to a breaking point. Free markets for commodities to stocks to currencies to species existed only in name. Just as democracy was brought to many people who did not ask for it at the expense of their blood, command and control systems were brought to everyone at the expense of their livelihoods and economic security. The only difference was a swift end by a bullet in the head or death by a thousand cuts.
An out of control parasite ultimately self-destructs by draining the last drop of blood from its host. This was pretty much the situation at the beginning of this year. The latest Oxfam report 'Time to Care' (see box below) sets out how extreme economic and social injustice has become. So much so that there was little left for the parasite class to extract from the general citizenry without a violent reaction. What better way to get out of the 'life-threatening' situation than to create a real parasite or take advantage of one to tranquilize the masses with fear, put them in chains and enter a final feeding frenzy?
We are seeing a replay of 2008, with afterburners lit this time. An enormous new wave of printing money and slashing its price (interest rate) to zero has been unleashed around the world. It dwarfs the previous bailout of criminally reckless banks and big business by an order of magnitude. This time camouflaged by flinging a barrel of table scraps at the ordinary people. Already seething at the fallouts of the earlier round, people would not accept it had they not been frightened out of their wits by something worse.
Whoever did this to us did it deliberately. Whether they created the virus or pounced on it as a timely opportunity we may never know. It is safe to assume though the cabal of the unprincipled of the world will not flinch at the 'collateral damage' by way of a few hundred thousand, even a few million deaths. Populous countries will absorb it in their stride. The ones used to making other populations pay for their greed will make them absorb it. No government today has a claim on morality worth a dime. No matter what its political ideology. Scratch the surface with a fingernail, they are all beholden to their moneyed vampires.
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