Hello Danbashaw, what a good question, and thank you for your thoughtful personal account. I am in Ontario, where we lagged behind BC and Quebec in the totalitarian drive, but not by much.
I remember a nighttime conversation in a deserted park with a dear friend whom I would describe as habitually nonconformist. We were both on the fence about the shot and trying to work through the implications together. There was a moment in that discussion when I felt a fierceness and a solidness rise up in me- that I could and would say NO to the pressures that I felt building all around me. My friend witnessed that moment and remarked on it. From there on it was just about finding the courage and the means to follow through with it.
Said friend later took the shot, mostly to stay in with her social group, which is adjacent but distinct from mine. I gave up the approval of almost all my friends and family, ditched the pushy roommates, found a new home and a whole new group of friends and through them underground employment- in short, I made a series of drastic life changes in quick succession, all for the better as it turned out. I am a different person now than I was pre-covid: more capable, self-reliant, emotionally balanced. I was forced to take life into my own hands to a degree I had never done before.
I am a person with strong spiritual convictions. However, it wasn't until the summer of '22, when the vax rollout was in full spate and the social pressure was getting crazy, that I got really serious about a daily spiritual practice. It was in fact a tip from someone in this very forum that got me off my butt about that. Since then I have not missed a single day, and I think my still-intact-sanity is to a large extent a result of this commitment to rely daily on the support of the unseen world.
Many people whose faith and intellect I admired took the shot. That was, and still is, disturbing for me to contemplate. I still haven't wrapped my head around it. I am rebuilding friendships with some of them, gradually, tentatively. I can forgive but I will not forget.
I now think that centralized state power requires, at least to some degree, the centralization of truth. I think it is useful to think of Science as the state religion of our nation and many others. Public Health is and has been for a long time the inquisitional arm of this expanding state church, though many of us have only recently become aware of its role in enforcing doctrinal compliance.
Ivan Illich predicted back in the '70's that growing institutional forces would crystallize around 'Health' and 'Life' as modern sacraments. He was a man of deep Christian faith who also knew quite well what the dark side of religion could look like. I'd love to see his books 'Medical Nemesis' and 'Tools for Conviviality' discussed more broadly in the present context.
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branchandroot
Re: The Epiphany (A reflection thread on pandemic choices)
Date: 2023-07-19 01:01 am (UTC)I remember a nighttime conversation in a deserted park with a dear friend whom I would describe as habitually nonconformist. We were both on the fence about the shot and trying to work through the implications together. There was a moment in that discussion when I felt a fierceness and a solidness rise up in me- that I could and would say NO to the pressures that I felt building all around me. My friend witnessed that moment and remarked on it. From there on it was just about finding the courage and the means to follow through with it.
Said friend later took the shot, mostly to stay in with her social group, which is adjacent but distinct from mine. I gave up the approval of almost all my friends and family, ditched the pushy roommates, found a new home and a whole new group of friends and through them underground employment- in short, I made a series of drastic life changes in quick succession, all for the better as it turned out. I am a different person now than I was pre-covid: more capable, self-reliant, emotionally balanced. I was forced to take life into my own hands to a degree I had never done before.
I am a person with strong spiritual convictions. However, it wasn't until the summer of '22, when the vax rollout was in full spate and the social pressure was getting crazy, that I got really serious about a daily spiritual practice. It was in fact a tip from someone in this very forum that got me off my butt about that. Since then I have not missed a single day, and I think my still-intact-sanity is to a large extent a result of this commitment to rely daily on the support of the unseen world.
Many people whose faith and intellect I admired took the shot. That was, and still is, disturbing for me to contemplate. I still haven't wrapped my head around it. I am rebuilding friendships with some of them, gradually, tentatively. I can forgive but I will not forget.
I now think that centralized state power requires, at least to some degree, the centralization of truth. I think it is useful to think of Science as the state religion of our nation and many others. Public Health is and has been for a long time the inquisitional arm of this expanding state church, though many of us have only recently become aware of its role in enforcing doctrinal compliance.
Ivan Illich predicted back in the '70's that growing institutional forces would crystallize around 'Health' and 'Life' as modern sacraments. He was a man of deep Christian faith who also knew quite well what the dark side of religion could look like. I'd love to see his books 'Medical Nemesis' and 'Tools for Conviviality' discussed more broadly in the present context.
Cheers,
Dylan