So I caught covid 19.
I'm in Lima, Peru for an extended vacation. I was smart enough to get vaccinated and buy the appropriate insurance, so I am enjoying some luxury while being barred from returning home, a place I'm constantly reminded of because of trucker convoy protesters dominating the news. Yesterday I came across the instagram of my old friend Max Charland who I just learned RAN from Montreal to Ottawa to express his support of freedom. I'm not one to join a protest, I choose to express my support more creatively. honestly, I find most protests to be excuses for bored do-gooders to be seen on social media pretending to care about social justice, but this protest has struck me differently. Seeing my friend stand up and do something for the love of his countrymen and women made me proud to be his friend. Seeing all those good Canadians spreading love and asking to be heard by our federal government who continues to ignore and insult them makes me feel proud to be Canadian. Max told me how low he has been feeling lately and I was almost in tears because I feel the exact same way. I've lost my job, I haven't seen many of my friends in 2 years. People I know who aren't vaccinated are treated like lepers. The mainstream media is providing nothing but dismissive and insulting tools for the public to marginalize anyone against mandates. There's a battle going on and our prime minister is entrenched on the side of tyranny.
Being that my artwork under the name Earth Crusher is based heavily on the subject of greed and power, its not a big surprise that I read as much as I can on the subject. Books like Propaganda and Crystallizing Public Opinion by Edward L. Bernays, How Propaganda Works by Jason Stanley, The Art Of War by Sun Tzu, The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli, Inhuman Bondage by David Brion Davis, The Prize by Daniel Yergin, GULAG a history, by Anne Applebaum, and most recently The Coddling Of The American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt. The last book talks about the reasons why freedom of speech is being erroded in America today, which to me as an artist is a very distressing problem. The authors point to a rise in safetyism; the sheltering of children from anything deemed the least bit dangerous, and how this mentality has created a class of overly sensitive adult children who see certain words and beliefs as "violent" that need to be shouted down and protested out of existence lest they cause "trauma." Interestingly, the first book in my list, Propaganda, has an introduction written by Mark Crispin Miller, a tenured professor at NYU who teaches a media studies course. One of his students had a problem with his views on masks and a quick google of his name will show you the results of this sheltered PC baby's efforts.
This ultra sensitive mentality that seens so heavily focused on expunging "microaggressions" from every facet of society is held mostly by the upper middle classes, those most likely to take on administrative positions and their effects are already being seen outside of universities. For example, this morning I read an article saying the African Diasporic Association of Canada is demanding McGill metro station change its name because it causes "trauma." Here's a fantastic quote from one of its members: "When we hear the name McGill is traumatic to us, right? It’s like you telling Jewish people to take a metro called Hitler." Really? Global News heard that car crash of ignorance and thought it was a legitimate statement worthy of print? They're equating a man who had 5 slaves during a time when slavery was legal (which doesn't make it right) to a man who went about deliberately exterminating a race of people at an industrial scale during the 20th century. I have to laugh to keep from crying when I see this kind of thing because it's completely asinine. I would argue that the infantilizing of anyone who is anything other than a straight white man does a lot more to strengthen racism and prejudice through identity politics than the opposite. I think deep down you have to hold the view that whites really are the "master race" if the importance of people's views should be based solely on where their identity lands on the victimhood scale.
So what about mandates? Why do we need to force people to get vaccinated? For our safety? No, for their safety, whether they like it or not. Because if they're not going to make the correct choices or hold the accepted views for themselves, someone has to do it for them, and as long as they don't obey, all of us are in danger until they do. Concerns of health risks from the virus have evaporated leaving behind a bedrock of social control. Our pretty boy "leader" has shown he/his true colours and unfortunately no amount of public and official opposition pressure will change his proud mind. For as long as there is a growing base of coddled, traumatized children graduating from our once finest institutions of learning, he will always have a strong, dedicated support for his tyranny. Attempts to end mandates in parliament have been shot down and instead the Emergencies Act has been implemented to enact force against those who disagree with the federal government. I've been reading the text books on totalitarianism and what's happening now is disturbingly similar. Want to know how Hitler and Stalin turned their citizens against eachother? Turn on the CBC and read between the lines.
If you call the convoy a "white nationalist" brigade from your high horse of diversity, inclusion and equity, then I encourage you to listen to the words of Daryl Davis who I heard recently on the Theory of Enchantment podcast by Chloe Valdary: "Ignorance breeds fear, fear breeds hate, and hatred breeds destruction." Do you fear the protesters? Do you hate the unvaccinated? Then I suggest you destroy your ignorance, not the professors, doctors, podcast hosts and concerned citizens who want to keep their, and our, freedom of speech and choice from being mandated out of existence.