MONOLOGUE WRITTEN BY CLYDE LEWIS
The Los Angeles Times reported today that Los Angeles County’s stay-at-home orders will “with all certainty” be extended for the next three months, This means that the idea of California dreaming has turned into a California nightmare.
Although Los Angeles County Health Officer, Dr. Muntu Davis has not issued an official extension, Public Health Director, Dr. Barbara Ferrer said that timeline would shorten only if there was a “dramatic change to the virus and tools at hand.”
The update to L.A.undefineds stay-at-home orders comes as officials try to meet two needs: restarting the economy while also ensuring that the resurgence in activity doesn’t upend progress in the fight against the coronavirus.
There has been a big push in recent weeks to reopen the state’s economy, which has been hurt by the stay-at-home orders.
This is sending a confusing message as beaches are slowly opening up – and the arbitrary rules do not make any sense.
Face coverings will be required when not in the water, and sunbathing won’t be allowed. Only active recreation surfing, running, walking and swimming will be permitted. Coolers, chairs, umbrellas and any of the other accessories that typically dot the shoreline should be left at home.
How does this make any sense and do government officials have any proof that what they are doing is helping the situation?
A Washington state police officer who posted a video of himself ranting about how cops in this country are not respecting the Constitutional rights of Americans is about to lose his job for refusing to delete the video.
Port of Seattle police officer Greg Anderson posted the video to his Instagram channel on Tuesday and said his commanding officer told him the following morning that he had agreed with everything he had said on the video.
But as the video began going viral, his commanding officer had a change of heart, ordering him to remove the video from Instagram or face disciplinary action. The commanding officer told him the orders were coming from above.
Anderson, who said he has been a cop for ten years, refused to remove the video and has been placed on administrative leave and said he will be terminated for insubordination. Not even the police union is backing him here.
However, Anderson has already racked up more than $215,000 in donations through a Go Fund Me drive that was launched just one day ago, which is more than twice the average annual salary for a Port of Seattle police officer.
Another cop who was fired for refusing to enforce stay-at-home orders was Jordan Duncan of the Lodi Police Department in California, who has raised just over $14,000 in less than 24 hours – without the help of a viral video.
In Andersonundefineds initial video, he stated the following:
undefinedIundefinedve seen officers nationwide enforcing tyrannical orders against the people. Iundefinedm hoping itundefineds a minority of officers but I’m not sure anymore because every time I turn on the television, every time i look to the internet, I’m seeing people arrested or cited for going to church, for traveling on the roadways, for going surfing, opening their businesses, going to the park with their family or doing nails out of their own house, using their own house as a place of business and having undercover agents go there and arrest them and charge them with what, a crime? I donundefinedt know what crime people are committing by doing nails in their own house but weundefinedre seeing this more and more and more and we need to look ourselves as officers and thinking, is what iundefinedm doing right?undefined
Then in his follow-up video, he stated the following:
undefinedI said no, I canundefinedt take the video down because if you listen to my first video, the whole message I was trying to share with people and impart of them, that if you believe in something in your heart, you have to stand by that conviction, even if it costs you everything.undefined
undefinedWe donundefinedt get to violate peopleundefineds Constitutional rights because somebody in our chain of command tells us otherwise, thatundefineds not how this country worksundefined
There is a fundamental trait that many people possess and that is a generic set of instructions which some refer to as the instinctive substratum that is encoded in most human beings on a level beneath their observable personality.
There are basic instincts that people have developed or should develop that include wisdom as well as emotional content that allows people to make social bonds and perceive the emotional needs of others.
It also has information that compels us to want to contribute to the human race, rather than simply our own personal interests.
At tunes we can be selfish, self-serving and so on but this eventually subsides as human beings we need to be part of a social structure – a need to bond and a need to belong. Much of this is encoded in our consciousness.
Throughout the centuries this basic set of instructions has allowed human beings to create social and moral concepts that are quite similar. This has been critical for the survival of the human species. It is taken for granted that everyone has this basic information.
Most people believe that, despite our flaws, all of us essentially want whatundefineds best for humanity. They think that although we have our differences and make mistakes, because we all look human, everyone is on the same side.
We now however are facing a major problem with this instinctive encoding. There is a concerted effort to reprogram human beings to be less human and there is a conspiracy to destroy simple moral principles and human dignity.
There are people in power today that wish to destroy the psychological foundation and wish to beat down society until they are deficient in emotional data. They wish to cause deficits in high level emotions and use fear as a tool to render people in a state of panic and confusion.
They are the psychopaths. Their characters develop upon this irregular substratum in conjunction with these moral defects.
Psychopathy is a character deficiency signified by a lack of conscience, an absence of high-level emotions, lack of remorse, incapacity for love and empathy, antisocial behavior, inflated ego, an ability to rationalize negative behavior, a frequent need for excitement, and a need to have power over others. Psychopaths can be found in about 4% of the population in every race, culture, profession, and class. That is, 1 in 25 people. Other terms that have been used to describe this character deficiency include antisocial personality disorder, conduct disorder, and sociopathy.
Psychopaths are likely to be attracted to and may be over-represented in certain occupations, such as politics, entertainment, and business. Traits that may be desirable in a corporate context, such as ruthlessness, lack of social conscience, and single-minded devotion to success, may be considered psychopathic outside of it
What is unfortunate is that there are people who fall victim to psychopaths as they use destructive dynamics to get what they want and they expect nothing less than devotion to their cause which is basically of benefit to them, their ego and their wealth.
They can get people to do things that they would not do otherwise because they use fear and threats to get the desired outcome. They can use emotional blackmail to get their way and they can recruit others to enforce their ideas and their will.
Among the serious problems we face, from world hunger to nuclear proliferation to the spread of COVID-19, one of our most serious may be that some leaders we depend on to address these problems are psychopaths that charm us to get power and then abuse it to hurt us and others.
Many of us stop and wonder why certain people have the charisma to continue to abuse their power while others see them as bellwethers or pipers that lead them to their demise.
Here in lies the problem, out of fear we listen to certain people that are forced upon us and since they are considered popular – we do not take the time to evaluate if the popular thing is dangerous to our morality and what we stand for.
Until we recognize this problem and take steps to address it, psychopaths will continue to charm us as they destroy countless lives and contribute to the destruction of civilization and the environment upon which our lives depend.
The goal of the psychopath is either to take away your dignity and morality or program you to be just like them. They will tell you are selfish if you decide to keep your dignity, your morality and even your patriotism.
Like most of you, when I flip on the mainstream news, I still get nonstop COVID-19 reports, even on the morning radio news – traffic reports have been replaced by death tolls and sick tallies.
I notice on CNN that the back drop behind the reporters are the representations of the Coronavirus floating behind them like balloons from the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade. There are reporters that bring in a mountain of faces that many people do not know or care about reinforcing the roaming while the main reporters nod with empty stares affirming the agenda that they wish to push.
Reporters tell us the numbers, they over project numbers – they infer that reopening an area of the country created more deaths on the same day which of course is disingenuous.
But it is effective for the result they are looking for.
They are hoping their audience will roll over and let them be the guide – the biggest threat to their programming is question and when that happens it is silenced, censored, and called conspiracy theory – a term that they have now made synonymous with lying.
Sadly, many people roll over and let them get away with it.
Even though we shouldn’t. For some reason the expensive Armani suit and the lab coat means you do not question or even think out loud, or express concern or talk about how frustrated you are.
Because now it is being met with derision from people who from the Left that were so quick to speak of the bullying of the Conservative Right. Now, the bullying seems to be ubiquitous.
Yet, the questions should be asked and not beaten down by weaponized faulty logic that is being called “science.”
In this time where we are struggling with the obstacles brought on by COVID-19 there have been some valid questions that have been asked that have been met with angry attacks.
Questions like isnundefinedt the virus not much worse than the flu? If so, why didnundefinedt we have a lockdown during the flu season? And even if COVID-19 is worse - arenundefinedt the lockdown measures actually killing more people than the virus itself?
While these are valid and important arguments, they still operate on a simplistic utilitarian understanding of ethics: itundefineds all about calculating the best outcome, counting the dead, maximizing humanityundefineds well-being by weighing one thing which is the virus against another which are the measures to contain it.
The dispute is just about the variables of whether or not the so called cure is worse than the disease itself.
What we are seeing in America today is a health overreach—it is like a mad doctor decides to give chemotherapy to stop the chicken pox.
I have to say that people who have common sense are becoming critical of the current madness because they feel in their bones that there is something deeply wrong here, and it has little to do with the numbers.
It has little to do with who lives and who dies. Many of us are beginning to see the psychopathy at play where psychopaths are being called heroes when they are asking people do things that go against that instinctive substratum that is encoded in most human beings that creates bonds and social cohesion.
I want you to think very deeply about what I am about to say because it is an epiphany an idea that will not be the topic of conversation on any other radio show and I have to say it now – before I say or do something that will take me off the air, I have already had my basic funding ripped out from underneath me and my staff and I are now struggling, even with a show that has a huge audience.
Nothing is free but thoughts are and they are bullet proof.
Suppose that this virus reallyundefinedwasundefinedas deadly of a killer as we are being programmed to believe and we could reasonably expect it to kill off, letundefineds say, 10% of the population in every country.undefined
Would you say that the draconian measures they have forced us into would be acceptable?
Would you find it okay that the state takes away your freedom and responsibility to come to the right decisions in your life? To visit your friend in trouble, to hug your father, to attend church, or to keep your businesses open?
More to the point, shouldnundefinedt you be able to decide whether you want to take the risk of visiting your elderly parents, if you donundefinedt have any symptoms, because deep care and love outweighs the risk of transmitting the virus?
Shouldnundefinedt the elderly decide for themselves whether they want to see their grandchildren? Or shouldnundefinedt you be the one who decides whether to meet some friends, or to go out into the woods to fish, or take in nature weighing between risk of death and the very thing that makes life worth living in the first place?
If your answer is no to any of those questions, then you are in trouble.undefinedYou are submitting to some very bad and dangerous cult dynamics.
Because in todayundefineds world, we seem to lack the knowledge to justify our gut feeling that some things just should never be prohibited, some freedoms never be curtailed, and some things never dictated by the state.undefined
I know I have a bad habit of telling you about the movies I see and how they can be applied to the conditions we are in now. I like books too –and I read a lot of things that would be considered modern parables.
Well I want to share with you some examples of what I mean through some movies and through an author to illustrate what I am feeling right now.
There are two movies that come to mind when I think of the situations we are in –one movie “The Elephant Man” and the other is “The Boy in the Plastic Bubble.”
In the “Elephant Man” John Merrick suffered from a disease that disfigured him.
Despite his disfigurement he fought against those who wanted to take away his humanity. He did not like getting special treatment and he developed enough confidence to move about in public. Every time he did this he risked his life. He wanted to just live a normal life – one night he decides he wants to sleep like everyone else – he knows the risk and when he does it he dies in his sleep. He died with dignity, he passed away knowing that he tried to live his life as close to human as possible. He did not want to live like an animal he wanted to live like a normal human being.
Then there was the 1976 John Travolta tear jerker film, The Boy in the Plastic Bubble. This was a film that starred John Travolta.
A young boy named Tod is born with a poorly functioning immune system. The young boy lives in a hospital until he is four years old and then they find a way to transport him in a bubble or incubator like conditions. They put him in a room with air filters and he is stuck there all his life where he eats, learns, reads, and exercises, while being protected from the outside world by various coverings.
As Tod grows, he wishes to see more of the outside world and meet regular people his age. He is enrolled at the local school after being equipped with suitable protective clothing, similar in style to a space suit.
He falls in love with his next door neighbor, Gina, and he must decide between following his heart and facing near-certain death, or remaining in his protective bubble forever. He speaks with his doctor about whether or not he has developed enough immunity to leave his room so that he can ride a horse with Gina.
The doctor tells him that he may risk his own death if he leaved his room… but his love for Gina and the will to live a normal life he felt was worth the risk— he makes his decision and takes a giant step out of his room.
It was because he was human and in the end being human is what matters. Being able to love, and embrace someone meant more to him than dying.
If we say we want to attend church or hug our parents, or visit a friend who needs us, and somebody replies that this might kill people and surely, avoiding death is more important than hugging your dad, what are we supposed to say?
I frankly don’t know what to say to these people.
It leaves us speechless. We kind of see their point, but then again, we don’t understand why people have lost their humanity and bully people who wish to love their lives without fear.
That should be enough and it is just not about the Constitution either but it is certainly another arrow in your quiver – in all seriousness, many people use the Constitution as a crutch and only know two of their rights. The First and Second Amendment is probably the most misquoted and abused parts of the Constitution today.
I blame it on MTV and the NRA for this and maybe the ACLU – and how civics are not even taught in the public schools anymore.
If we donundefinedt understand why something is in the constitution in the first place and canundefinedt defend it, if even just to ourselves, then why should anybody bother?undefined
The comeback of course is that saving lives is more important than some petty legal argument.
This leads to deep rooted resentments that eventually end up with someone pulling the Hitler card or ending with a snide growl of Trump 2020.
This also tags you politically because now people call you a Nazi if you don’t wear a mask – and they are acting like the Stasi for wanting to track you down and rat on you like you live in the communist bloc.
Then we have the economics of it allundefined and believe me if you are not feeling the pinch now, the bigger pain comes soon as businesses fail, people lose their jobs and in their despair either die or kill themselves.
But those deaths don’t natter unless the toe tag says COVID-19. This is how ugly it is getting and we are allowing it to get ugly because people are saying that “Every Life Counts.”
Any statistician can count the dead, measure economic consequences and so on. But this whole idea collapses into all the familiar ethical and metaphysical problems once you ask about the definition of undefinedhappinessundefined or undefinedwell-being.undefined
I while ago I addressed the Harm Principle by John Stuart Mill – I used his views to write for the Idaho Observer to talk about the right to anything unless it harms others. But he also spoke about the pleasures of being human said:
undefinedIf I am asked what I mean by difference of quality in pleasures, or what makes one pleasure more valuable than another, merely as a pleasure, except its being greater in amount, there is but one possible answer. If one of the two is, by those who are competently acquainted with both, placed so far above the other that they prefer it, even though knowing it to be attended with a greater amount of discontent, and would not resign it for any quantity of the other pleasure which their nature is capable of, we are justified in ascribing to the preferred enjoyment a superiority in quality so far outweighing quantity as to render it, in comparison, of small account.undefined
So what he is saying is that there are higher and lower pleasures, and the higher pleasures are preferable even if they may lead to discomfort. This implies that higher forms of pleasure can and often do involve risks.
One of the most dangerous things we do as babies is getting up on our feet and taking that first step. Many people do not know that walking is simply controlled falling –because if we stumble and fall we run the risk of injury and even death.
Those who take chances and succeed against the odds are considered heroes—that is the true definition.
Heroism is an extreme example where you might die from an activity that gives you the highest form of pleasure—or doing some selfless act that might put your life on the line.
But we all know from our daily lives how pleasures of a higher nature are risky and yet worth pursuing - from challenging yourself on your mountain bike to taking risks for others.
We are always admonished by the militant virus police to wear your masks for the elderly or for the children.
Well let’s think about grandma for the moment or even grandpa. Now have been told that the elderly are at risk – we know that the death rate for the young is a lot less than the elderly and so we are told to be considerate of others.
Grandma has arthritis, Grandpa has a bad knee, Grandma complains that she is in pain a lot of the time. Grandpa takes a long time to walk to the mailbox to get his mail because he uses a walker.
So then why don’t we just strap them both a bed and give them a morphine drip for the rest of the time they are alive.
We don’t do this because Grandpa with the walker and bad knee likes to go to the coffee shop to hook up with his old friends, Grandma as fragile she likes playing bingo with the neighbors up the block.
Grandpa knows and of course you know that he could fall at any time, he could have a stroke or a heart attack- Grandma can get the flu and die. She could be spreading the flu and eventually making her friends sick.
But we don’t stop grandma or grandpa because they both want to be autonomous –because it gives them a higher form of pleasure than being a vegetable on morphine.
We encourage they get out and do things because Grandma and Grandpa’s dignity is valued more so than the dangers they both face from dying.
Their lives matter – but so does their dignity.
I always hear the statement “Every Life Counts” and I think that yes this is true but we are not giving anyone a life of dignity with these draconian measures that are being proposed to somehow combat COVID-19.
This is not about politics, or the economy – it is about human dignity.
Do you actually a believe that a person who is dying of COVID-19 has enough rancor to blame someone for giving them the virus? No – but there are plenty of virtue signalers that suggest that if you don’t wear a mask you are killing people. They will tell you that “All lives Matter” which they once said was a racist statement within the retort to “Black Lives Matter.”
Sure all of a sudden “all lives matter” but do they really mean what they say?
Of course they don’t—people just don’t become altruistic because of mandate.
Because if they truly believed this they would also believe that each life has intrinsic value based on moral agency.
If “Every Life Counts” then why is it that people who feel they are in danger or pretend to care about others, wish to destroy other people’s spirit and freedom of mind when all they want to do is to utilize their free moral agency to be optimistic and live a life knowing the risks involved?
As you can tell all of the Orwellian statements of “the new normal” or “we are in this together” and “every life counts” are hollow and mean nothing.
It is like we are supposed to agree that we are all supposed to physically distance ourselves and that we are all going to go together into whatever horrible things the people we elected have planned for us.
They have no reason to treat us this way but of course, they say it is because “every life counts.”
Shouldn’t we say that undefinedevery humanundefineds dignity countsundefined, or undefinedevery life counts for the reason that it is sovereign sand not to a mere object of some agenda?
George Orwell once said circus dogs jump when the trainer cracks his whip, but the really well-trained dog is the one that turns his somersault when there is no whip.
The whips were cracked and now they don’t need to crack them anymore because there are many dogs that have been programmed and they are using peer pressure to police and bully people into compliance.
The State should not be treating anyone this way - virus or not.
In their fear of a monster, our elected leaders have been listening to those psychopaths who hate humanity. They are not only thinking they are wiping out a virus – they are treating people like they are the virus.
So they are now taking away our dignity as responsible moral agents, and depriving us of some of the most fundamental ways to express our autonomy, indeed to express our understanding of the moral world, by showing affection to loved ones and friends even though there is small amount of danger.
The State is supposed to act in the name of good – they are to act in the public interest as a public trustee to make decisions that do not put our mental health and dignity at risk.
But they are doing it, they are creating a snitch society, they are weaponizing logic, and gas lighting everyone in the name of science.
I am sick and tired of watching people in my country beingundefined treated like remote-controlled idiots, reduced to worthless meat sacks and being told that they have no moral agency.
It is as if we are being treated like convicted killers and even they get more dignity and moral agency than what we are being given now.
How does it feel to be treated like a virus spewing meat sack who needs to be told what to do and is requires to give up the core of things that make your existence worth experiencing?
Think of all the taxes you pay to be treated like an animal, to be robbed of your dignity, to be told that you can’t have the things that make life worthwhile.
The sad part is that a virus can’t stand trial for crimes against humanity but there are those that should certainly be punished for robbing us of our human dignity.
The time to rationalize that it is all getting better is over – the people should decide if their pleasure of life, dignity and moral agency should now be considered.
Sure we are all living now “in this together” “the new normal” but do you call this living?
The New Normal is a lie. The New Normal is without dignity and moral agency.
The New Normal is inhumane – the New Normal should never become normal it all.
The New Normal is slavery.
