"I’m going to take a surprising position on this one. Yes, I say, let us have a full Covid amnesty!
"Let me pause for a moment to allow my dear readers to recover from the shock. Then, let me lay out my conditions. Because of course there are conditions.
"Let there be a full amnesty for all the Covid totalitarians—all those leaders who through ignorance, spinelessness, greed, or malevolence created and maintained these policies—but only on this condition: that they willingly retire from their current positions of influence and power, from which they will thenceforth be barred for life. Those who refuse will be subject to a pandemic inquiry ..., with all the legal consequences that may follow.
"I think this is a fair compromise. Each side wants their cake and to eat it too. Oster and those like her want the record wiped clean. No real apology, no real repentance, but full amnesty for any moral lapses or crimes committed. 'I want amnesty for all the bad things I did, but I still want to keep all the social and professional perks I currently have.' That’s not going to work.
"On the other hand, those who have been proven right about all these things want some justice. '1) Put yourself on trial! 2) Find yourself guilty! 3) Punish yourself to the full extent of the law!' Good luck with that. The people responsible are the people in power, and they will not admit their errors, let alone step down from office and give up without a fight, so long as there is even the hint of possible retribution—aside from a few scapegoats, perhaps.
"This is essentially what Lobaczewski recommended in the 1980s just prior to the fall of communism, and more or less what happened when it did fall. There was very little if any retribution. Where that process went wrong was allowing too many of the previous leadership class simply to change their ideological allegiances and retain power. They should have been barred from power, but offered nice retirement packages as an incentive to go away peacefully. What’s better? Amnesty, on the condition that they’ll never be allowed to wreck things again? A steady stalemate of more of the same? Or civil war? "
Re: Eisenstein - The Mask of Derision
https://ponerology.substack.com/p/a-modest-proposal-for-covid-amnesty
"I’m going to take a surprising position on this one. Yes, I say, let us have a full Covid amnesty!
"Let me pause for a moment to allow my dear readers to recover from the shock. Then, let me lay out my conditions. Because of course there are conditions.
"Let there be a full amnesty for all the Covid totalitarians—all those leaders who through ignorance, spinelessness, greed, or malevolence created and maintained these policies—but only on this condition: that they willingly retire from their current positions of influence and power, from which they will thenceforth be barred for life. Those who refuse will be subject to a pandemic inquiry ..., with all the legal consequences that may follow.
"I think this is a fair compromise. Each side wants their cake and to eat it too. Oster and those like her want the record wiped clean. No real apology, no real repentance, but full amnesty for any moral lapses or crimes committed. 'I want amnesty for all the bad things I did, but I still want to keep all the social and professional perks I currently have.' That’s not going to work.
"On the other hand, those who have been proven right about all these things want some justice. '1) Put yourself on trial! 2) Find yourself guilty! 3) Punish yourself to the full extent of the law!' Good luck with that. The people responsible are the people in power, and they will not admit their errors, let alone step down from office and give up without a fight, so long as there is even the hint of possible retribution—aside from a few scapegoats, perhaps.
"This is essentially what Lobaczewski recommended in the 1980s just prior to the fall of communism, and more or less what happened when it did fall. There was very little if any retribution. Where that process went wrong was allowing too many of the previous leadership class simply to change their ideological allegiances and retain power. They should have been barred from power, but offered nice retirement packages as an incentive to go away peacefully. What’s better? Amnesty, on the condition that they’ll never be allowed to wreck things again? A steady stalemate of more of the same? Or civil war? "
Michael Martin