“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

While the phrase used as the title to this piece is attributed to FDR, he was not the first to use it – or some variation of it.

Let’s agree on something. Fear is the ultimate weapon. Military strategists throughout history have used it whenever possible. In addition to being the objective of terrorists, it’s become the staple – the business model – of many of our political leaders and most of our national media. Urgency and apocalypse sell.

It’s also become the weapon of those who not only support the enhanced role of government, but they also want that role to be bigger.

We’ve entered an era where fear has become a big part of our daily lives – at least some leaders want us to feel it. We have politicos who want to pass certain legislation tell us people will die if what they want to do isn’t done. What most of us don’t think about when we hear that entreaty is how many people will die if what they want is done? It’s easy to get off on the wrong foot, the wrong train of thought.

What’s really wrong with where we find ourselves today is that many in the population, if not most, have a fear of their government – and what it can do to them. We believe the government has the power. There’s a separation between us and the government, and a belief that we, the people, have little power and must concede to its whims.

When the DOJ turns its investigative and law enforcement entities loose on concerned parents’ behavior at local school board meetings under the guise of arresting domestic terrorists, it’s meant to instill fear. It’s wrong.

When the bureaucracy is running the government and not our representatives, something is radically wrong. Bureaucracy stifles creativity, leaves no room for human satisfaction, values, emotions or needs, slows down decision-making, and limits the capacity of employees. However, bureaucrats make excellent fearmongers.

The most recent example of governments using fear to enhance power is the COVID epidemic. (Look at current Australia)

In our case bureaucrats at the CDC and NIH were put in charge. Shutdowns of businesses, quarantines, masks, separating friends and family from each other, shutting down the whole public education system, grounding air passenger service, etc. all done in the name of “science.” But that science depended on ‘who’s’ science. Epidemiologists, physicians and other health care professionals who were following science were initially ignored, then banned from communicating through the media – both news and social. Their scientific questions and inquiries weren’t appreciated by the in-charge politicos and bureaucrats. Skepticism and alternate theories didn’t fit the newly found power and control. We know they themselves were/are skeptical, proven by their private behaviors and activities.

Then comes the vaccines which were given emergency approval. Nearly everyone quickly knew who the most vulnerable people were – the 65+age group, those dealing with other serious, chronic conditions and the immunocompromised. No need to site any additional scientific data, the overwhelming majority of deaths occurred with the vulnerable. On the other side of the demographic spectrum, we knew the younger you were, the less likely to have serious complications with COVID. Youth under age 18 were non-sequitur – what applied to the older didn’t apply to them.

But let’s not forget the power of fear.

In this situation, if I’m an exploiter, the first thing I do is convince you that I have the science, the answers. Once I get you there, I can tell you to do just about anything – not because I’m saying it, I humbly admit, I just want you to follow the science as well – with me as interpreter.

Everyone must get vaccinated. It’s the only way to stop COVID! It’s so important to have 100% vaccinated that anyone who refuses – for any reason – is not only non-patriotic s/he doesn’t deserve to have a job and will be fired from any currently held. Yeh! says the fearful sheep herd to the now to be venerated shepherds. Meanwhile the national teachers’ unions are writing CDC guidelines, following the science, of course.

COVID is not gone, nor will it ever be.

Those using the “science” said it would be gone if we just complied. Oh!, so it’s not gone – after all my obedience?

The companies manufacturing the vaccines told everyone they were not 100% effective from the git go. We now know it’s less effective against the delta variant and ineffective against the omicron variant.

But let’s not forget the power of fear. Our President didn’t – and many governors and mayors didn’t. You can take the COVID example from there.

Fear is useful in tyrannical situations. Many people will give up their rights and privileges and pride in the face of it.

We can’t be free, we can’t have choices, we’re not supposed to think when our leaders and our bureaucracies exploit our fear. Throw in climate change.

That’s why we, the people, need to replace those who find fear as a useful tool when it enhances their power over us. They’re not us and they don’t represent us and deserve no power in the United States.

Let’s go with FDR on this one.

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

I close with excepts from a poem a neighbor recently shared with me by Chief Tecumseh, a Shawnee chief who organized a Native American confederacy to create a free Indian state and stop white settlement in the Northwest Territory:

“So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.” … “When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living.”

Let’s be smart and not afraid.

****************

Have a great and prosperous week.

Hug somebody.

References:

https://wallstreetwindow.com/five-problems-of-bureaucracy

SPIDER Bites

We heard the head of the forensics team at the Ocala Police Dept. at our Rotary meeting last week. In addition to explaining the state of the current art of forensics, he told us about the new 3D imaging technology of crime scenes which incorporates the actual measurements, and generates a full complete 3D image with depth, color, and detailing the spatial geometric relationships. Fascinating.

Here’s a real high note. In a first-of-its-kind surgery, a 57-year-old patient with terminal heart disease received a successful transplant of a genetically modified pig heart and is doing well. It was the only currently available option for the patient and the transplant surgery was conducted at the University of Maryland Medical Center.

You’ve seen me reference the word ‘stagflation’ recently. That word reflects high inflation at the same time an economy is slowing down. Traders in Treasury bills are way ahead of the Federal Reserve in raising rates as US Treasury Bonds lost 6.4% of their value in December, meaning buyers are less confident of the government’s ability (higher risk) to cover the rate on the bonds when issued and demand a higher return. If Congress and the administration keep spending more than they have (increasing the debt) the situation will get worse. There’s no wonder in this fact as our national debt now represents 122% of our annual GDP. Who’s going to pay that debt currently approaching $30T?

The stock market is trying to act like the economic glass is still half full but worried about how well the Federal Reserve will execute its pirouette from crisis-era policy to fighting inflation – and whether Congress is going to print more money.

On Wednesday, data showed that December’s headline consumer inflation checked in at a sizzling 7% pace year-over-year. Many items are up lots more than that.

This is pretty exciting – the competition that is. The U. of Penn transgender woman swimmer who has been setting records lost to Yale’s transgender woman swimmer last w/e. No exciting news about the also ran, cisgender (straight) women swimmers. But my vocabulary is unintentionally expanding.

No surprise last Thursday when by a 6-3 vote the Supreme Court blocked the administration’s vaccine mandate put on private employers to fire ‘unvaxxed’ employees. Justice Sotomayor, one of the 3, on Monday exaggerated the number of children hospitalized with COVID by tens of thousands. WaPo gave her 4 Pinocchio’s for magnifying the numbers by over 20 times. Don’t we expect learned comments/thinking – and rulings – from SCOTUS seats?

Not that anyone puts much credence in anything our “public health experts” say anymore, but CDC Director Walensky revealed last Monday on “Good Morning America” that over 75% of COVID deaths occurred in people “…who had at least four comorbidities. So really, these are people who are [were] unwell to begin with.” Now there’s an admitted difference between dying of COVID and dying with COVID. Many doctors have been saying the same thing for nearly two years and were banned from social media platforms for saying it. But if someone died ‘with’ COVID they were counted as ‘of’ COVID. Hospitals got/get paid more for COVID-19 related cases. A provision in the Coronavirus Relief Act pays/paid an additional 20% on top of traditional Medicare rates during the ‘public health emergency.’ So, there is and has been a financial incentive to report COVID deaths rather than attributing deaths to anything else.