Phenomenal post, Bruce. A nudge is as good as a wink? Pithy to the core. You've got such a trove of layered meaning going I was smiling (to myself) at every turn. Although I was raised/indoctrinated in England, with all that entails, I emigrated to the US, or should I say California in the patchwork American quilt. I had the best/worst of both worlds. Now I find myself back in the UK/Europe since 2012. It was here, when in France about 3 hours from the Pyrenees in the Midi, old Occitanie, that I read a paperback of Irene Nemirovsky's Suite Française, written during the Occupation while she was hiding out in the French countryside, with a sense of 'urgent foreboding'. She was eventually captured and died in a concentration camp. While reading it, the parallels were too uncanny to miss - I was hiding out in the French countryside, there was a sense of urgent foreboding as the fascism of the pandemic swept across Europe, across the world, stories of concentration camps being set up. This was a turning point for me. While I saw fascism was appearing, it was only while reading this book that it hit home, that the Third Reich had become the Fourth Reich. I subsequently read many more books set during the Occupation, of the Resistance, the British SOE agents dropped into France, the entire milieu of that period, of the Vichy government, of what it meant to be a collaborator.
So yes, the parallels are unmistakable. And yes, A.I. is machine-learning everything about us in the approach to the Singularity. But we can't just give up in the face of its relentless inevitability. We have to keep speaking, shouting the truth in all its multifaceted forms, even if it means preaching to the choir, which only makes the choir sing louder. Remember the Estonian Singing Revolution?
As a student of States I think it is by degree. We are able to not consent, but at some cost. Each man chooses how much cost to absorb. The consequences of not working vary person to person. In my case reduced to penury as frequently as I work with the jobs lime mist vanishing with the sunlight I took early retirement and exist on $940 per month. If income was what once it was slightly North of $100,000K (16 months) I do not know but suspect I would walk away. I value my little life. As far as California dreaming Navyo the long dream has been South of France. My wife had an Uncle in a village called Nyon. Not a bad spot, not a good spot but in the South, with a Roman bridge. I had to bring him at 80 an old imac. My wife's bad idea. In any case despite wanting exile in France during the 2nd Gulf War never happened
Good question. I would say only if fully intentional aware of the ramifications of collaboration. But I would also say most injectees are unaware of that ramification. Their collaboration is by others' design. It's a moot point. Where does one draw the line? But yes, I would say they are most definitely welcome 'back into the fold' once they've read 'below the fold'.
I'm also reminded of women collaborators in Paris during the occupation who's only crime was to sell their bodies to German soldiers purely to survive. Once they were found out, their heads were shaved, foreheads daubed with a swastika and some stripped naked and hung for all to see.
Could we come to that again? I hope not, but the worst of human behaviour is being encouraged by the media in their own hate crimes they so fervently accuse us of.
Phenomenal post, Bruce. A nudge is as good as a wink? Pithy to the core. You've got such a trove of layered meaning going I was smiling (to myself) at every turn. Although I was raised/indoctrinated in England, with all that entails, I emigrated to the US, or should I say California in the patchwork American quilt. I had the best/worst of both worlds. Now I find myself back in the UK/Europe since 2012. It was here, when in France about 3 hours from the Pyrenees in the Midi, old Occitanie, that I read a paperback of Irene Nemirovsky's Suite Française, written during the Occupation while she was hiding out in the French countryside, with a sense of 'urgent foreboding'. She was eventually captured and died in a concentration camp. While reading it, the parallels were too uncanny to miss - I was hiding out in the French countryside, there was a sense of urgent foreboding as the fascism of the pandemic swept across Europe, across the world, stories of concentration camps being set up. This was a turning point for me. While I saw fascism was appearing, it was only while reading this book that it hit home, that the Third Reich had become the Fourth Reich. I subsequently read many more books set during the Occupation, of the Resistance, the British SOE agents dropped into France, the entire milieu of that period, of the Vichy government, of what it meant to be a collaborator.
So yes, the parallels are unmistakable. And yes, A.I. is machine-learning everything about us in the approach to the Singularity. But we can't just give up in the face of its relentless inevitability. We have to keep speaking, shouting the truth in all its multifaceted forms, even if it means preaching to the choir, which only makes the choir sing louder. Remember the Estonian Singing Revolution?
And yes, we have a fight on our hands. Saddle up.
As a student of States I think it is by degree. We are able to not consent, but at some cost. Each man chooses how much cost to absorb. The consequences of not working vary person to person. In my case reduced to penury as frequently as I work with the jobs lime mist vanishing with the sunlight I took early retirement and exist on $940 per month. If income was what once it was slightly North of $100,000K (16 months) I do not know but suspect I would walk away. I value my little life. As far as California dreaming Navyo the long dream has been South of France. My wife had an Uncle in a village called Nyon. Not a bad spot, not a good spot but in the South, with a Roman bridge. I had to bring him at 80 an old imac. My wife's bad idea. In any case despite wanting exile in France during the 2nd Gulf War never happened
Our little lives have more value than we give them, I feel. Being in Act III gives us so much more meaning... Like a good French wine.
At which point is someone a collaborator? Is having the clotshots? The propaganda would say that the injectees have joined the team.
Is it just a question of what the motivation was, the state of mind, or has the action itself been one of conspiring?
Are the injectees welcomed into the fold having passed the initiation rite?
Good question. I would say only if fully intentional aware of the ramifications of collaboration. But I would also say most injectees are unaware of that ramification. Their collaboration is by others' design. It's a moot point. Where does one draw the line? But yes, I would say they are most definitely welcome 'back into the fold' once they've read 'below the fold'.
I'm also reminded of women collaborators in Paris during the occupation who's only crime was to sell their bodies to German soldiers purely to survive. Once they were found out, their heads were shaved, foreheads daubed with a swastika and some stripped naked and hung for all to see.
Could we come to that again? I hope not, but the worst of human behaviour is being encouraged by the media in their own hate crimes they so fervently accuse us of.