#39 Can It Hurt Me? Can It Kill Me?

Liberation by M.C. Escher.

You are constantly scanning your surroundings for danger. It’s automatic. All humans do it. All animals do it. Plants do it. It’s not anxiety. It’s not paranoia, It’s not cowardice. It’s survival.

You react even before you are consciously aware of the danger. A foreign organism somehow gets inside of you? Specialized cells kill it and dispose of the corpse. A tiny object comes too close to your eyes? You blink before you even know it’s there.

Now let’s turn from automatic responses that you cannot control, to those you can. As you move through the world, your eyes are constantly scanning for danger. You don’t think so? Put on a blind fold and move around your home. Do you slow down, stretch out your arms, feel your way with your feet? You are trying to scan. Visual scanning has become so automatic that you don’t even realize that you are doing it—but it’s still behavior that you can control.

What about the world beyond your field of vision? When our ancestors lived in caves, the best they could do was go to a very high place to increase the length and breadth of their scan. Today, we have computers that allow us to scan the whole wide world. Talk about Control with a capital “C”!

For example, I can lift my eyes to the sky and scan the clouds directly above New York City; but with my cell phone’s computer I can go to the website of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Weather Service, type in my city and state, and suddenly I am far above those same clouds watching as they move across a vast area encompassing not just my City, but the entire State.

Am I scanning for danger? No need! Expert meteorologists are doing that for me. They conveniently list any and all dangers that might be approaching: Rain, high wind, flooding, the occasional power outage. They also helpfully issue “Advisories” when needed: Stay inside, avoid downed power lines, etc.

Today we use our eyes to do much more than scan our immediate environment for threats. The World Wide Web enables us to access the expertise of thousands of individuals who know more than we do about everything from baking an apple pie to designing drones. This gives us such a wonderful feeling of power and control that we can be forgiven for not asking:

Can my computer hurt me? Can it kill me?
Can my cell phone hurt me? Can it kill me?
Can satellites hurt me? Can they kill me?
Can the World Wide Web hurt me? Can it kill me?
Can the experts hurt me? Can they kill me?

Computers, cell phones, satellites and the World Wide Web are tools. Bad people can use practically any tool to hurt other people. This is true for knives, guns, and many other objects both natural and man-made.

What about experts? Can they become lethal weapons if they fall under the control of the wrong people? Of course they can. Any human can become someone else’s puppet under the right conditions. Slaves and prisoners are obvious examples. Their bodies are controlled by chains and cages, so their choices are limited. Mind control is less obvious, but much more common. Everyone has been manipulated against their best interests at some point in their lives.

What did you say? You have never been a tool, a fool, somebody else’s little puppet? Are you sure? How do you know?

You have never bought something you didn’t really need based on a slick sales pitch? You have never trusted someone who then betrayed you? You have never believed a story that turned out to be full of lies? We have all been victimized one way or another, but those unpleasant experiences can teach us some very valuable lessons…that is, if we survive them. Mind/behavior control is dangerous. It can hurt you or even kill you.

The Virus vs The Authority:

Since January of 2020 billions of human beings have been hurt and/or killed by two entities: The Virus and The Authority. As I mentioned in the opening paragraphs, we have excellent defenses against viruses. However, the last three years have made it very clear that our brains are not very good at scanning for lies and propaganda. I am convinced that The Authority has hurt and killed many, many more people than the virus ever did. Can I prove it? Not beyond a reasonable doubt. The evidence is based on statistics published by The Authority. Those numbers are being analyzed by independent scientists, statisticians, journalists and historians but it will take years to make sense of it all.

However, I do have overwhelming evidence that the so-called “Western Democracies”: The United States of America, The United Kingdom, and the European Union have come under the influence of a tyrannical entity which I will refer to as “The Authority”. The Authority is not just one person, or group of people. It isn’t just one country or ideology. Its tentacles reach into every social system: government, education, health, entertainment, police, military, communications, finance…

In the spring of 2020 millions of people not only went into lockdown, we went into lockstep. Our thoughts, words and deeds were orchestrated and synchronized. Unfortunately, lockstep is still with us because The Authority has not relinquished control.

Prolonged lockstep is unhealthy for individuals and for societies. It can hurt and kill.
How can we break out of the mental and physical patterns that are being imposed on us? Here are my suggestions. Feel free to add your own.

  1. Analyze the pattern of repetition within the lockstep.
  2. Disrupt the pattern any way you can.
  3. Share your ideas with others.

And always, always ask questions and demand evidence.

Note: “Liberation” and other works by M.C. Escher can be scanned at mcescher.com

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