Thread by @fitnessfeelingz

A thread exploring the myth of Covid

In this thread, I will again draw on Rene Girard to argue that the Covid 'Pandemic' is a modern myth.

This will reveal the strength of the decentralized conspiracy position, and IMO the only way out of this insane moment.

What caused the Covid crisis? At the center of the current debate is @eugyppius1, who has been getting push back b/c he argues for a (primarily) decentralized and ideological causality.

He is mostly correct, IMO, but I understand why some reject his argument. It does not seem believable that this entire affair could be about a virus. It is on this point that Girard is extremely helpful.

For Euyppius, the "corona containment" ideology has two parts. First, maximal containment of the disease. Second, the containment must occur via specific mechanisms blessed by the public health authorities.

The second point is problematic. It is in direct contradiction with the first. Euyppius has shown better than almost anyone how ineffective these measures are.

If the highest goal of the ideology is containment of the disease, why does it only approve of failed policies?

Those who argue for a centralized conspiracy answer easily, arguing that the true drivers of the crisis, a politically transcendent cabal, have their own goals.

While this may be true, Girard allows us to answer the question from the decentralized perspective.

Ideology, for Girard, is a modern form of myth. And myth is an unconscious, collective phenomena which emerges to conceal the persecution at the heart of all culture.

When the community's social order, its system of differences, ceases to function, the community enters into a "sacrificial crisis." Scandals and violent reciprocity abound, the culture is in chaos.

Togetherness can only be restored when the community scapegoats a single person or small group as responsible for the community's woes. This scapegoat is collectively murdered or sacrificially expelled from society, founding a new order.

"If you look at myth seriously, you will see stories about some kind of scoundrel who disrupts a community, who is punished by the entire community, and, after that, turns out to be a god. This is the misunderstanding..which creates the community."

Myth cannot function without the misunderstanding, i.e genuine belief that victim is guilty. The community must be convinced that the god "can and does disrupt the community in order to punish the community, and then save it through its own action."

Covid orthodoxy is a modern version of this story, with Covid playing the role of a mythic god.

It appears first to punish the community for various 'transgressions': Trump, environmental negligence, over-consumption, etc.

It is then punished by the community via lockdowns, masks, and vaccines.

Note here the similarity between sacrificial rituals, such as stoning, and Covid interventions. Both are believed to work only if there is unanimous participation by the community.

If the rituals fail, the fault always lies with the participants.

The final act of this story is that Covid saves us from the crisis, just as the mythic god would do in archaic societies.

The WEF's Great Reset is the clearest expression of this idea.

"Yes, the disease was bad, but we learned so much about public health. The togetherness Covid created launched needed environmental reforms, and sped the 4th Industrial Revolution along, saving us all."

One telltale sign of myth is what Girard's colleague, Jean-Pierre Dupuy refers to as a "paradoxical loop." A disaster is predicted, and then paradoxically actualized by the attempt to forestall it.

This circularity mean that mythic systems are infinitely self-justifying. When Covid interventions fail, the blame falls on anti-maskers or anti-vaxxers, and the cycle begins anew.

Because modernity is largely demystified, myths today do not function as well as in the past. Many people see through them. They lack the unanimity needed to found a new cultural order.

According to Girard, it is fundamental to mankind to try to avert real dangers with false beliefs. This is the function of myth.

Returning to the centralized vs. decentralized conspiracy debate, it's now much easier to understand the decentralized position.

The real danger the bureaucratic lynch mob is responding to is not a virus, but the disintegration of culture via digitalization & globalization.

The mob is, unconsciously, trying to establish a new global/digital cultural order via scapegoating. A classic example of solving a crisis through escalation.

But for this work, they must believe their hands are clean and everything they do is necessitated by the virus.

In other words, the explicit goal of "corona containment ideology" may be medical, the eradication of a virus, but its underlying purpose is social.

This is where it gets such energy, and why a minor threat feels so significant. The cultural threat it disguises is real.

With its emphasis on crowd dynamics, only the decentralized position explains why this global persecution narrative masquerading as science is occurring now, as opposed to say, 15 years ago.

I believe the mythic understanding is critical, because only this formulation shows the true problem: modernity is now failing to absorb the massive amounts of undifferentiation & homogenization it generates.

This is why Covid interventions involve not only scapegoating, but new distinctions. Masks are a boundary around the wearer's face, and create hierarchies at events.

Social distancing tells us where to stand, and how close we can be to other people. V*ccine passports create an ever-shifting caste system.

The people who accept these measures cannot be debated out of their position. The threat of Covid feels too real.

And it feels real because concealed behind it is an extremely dangerous moment of cultural crisis.

In order to escape the cycle of Covid, this is the threat we must face.

@parallaxoptics @Lady_Astor @russiancosmist @SandpiperFax @parallaxoptics @PresentWitness_ @LatinxPutler @The_WGD