Author: Brand Smit

Even the cruellest behaviour and the most senseless policies can be justified

TUESDAY 21 SEPTEMBER 2021

15:00

Someone puts a plate with something that’s supposed to be edible in front of you.

You look at the plate and try to work out what it is.

“This is not a banana,” you then declare. “It’s not a piece of meat. And it’s definitely not a potato. I don’t know what it is, but if people claim it’s a banana, a piece of meat, or a potato, they are definitely trying to deceive you.”

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Are all these mandates and regulations part of an evil conspiracy to regulate ordinary people with an ever heavier-pressing iron thumb? I don’t know. But it’s becoming increasingly clear that this is not about Covid-19, or people’s health.

15:12

The Nazis justified it in academic works at university, sermons in the church, lessons at school and in public speeches, and clearly explained why Jews should be deprived of their German citizenship, and why the government should come up with … a final solution.

For decades, the Soviet government justified why dissenters should be thrown into prison, deported, or executed as enemies of the state.

In South Africa, white governments for decades convinced the public that Apartheid is the only solution for South Africa’s racial relations. Pastors justified it to congregations from the Bible, and teachers explained it to pupils.

In Mao Zedong’s China in the 1960s and early 1970s, teenagers with red booklets in their hands could justify why teachers should be humiliated, and why it was absolutely necessary to kick people’s doors off their hinges in the middle of the night to search for Western musical instruments and books which could undermine the revolution.

Fact is, anything can be justified. Words are extremely useful means of spinning just about anything to make wrong look right, and right wrong.

Be aware of what you are saying. Express, as a matter of principle, the other side’s argument in such a way that that person must admit that you understand it correctly.

Can’t do it, or don’t do it because some crisis currently doesn’t allow the luxury? Then I have bad news for you: Your opponent is also inventing excuses as to why your argument is not worthy of proper consideration.

Do you furthermore find that you increasingly think of your ideological opponent as a caricature, not someone with a complex personality and dreams and fears just like you? Guess what? On the other side of the dividing line are people who make a similar caricature of you.

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My life on the train

THURSDAY, 1 JULY 2021

I made a deal with myself years ago. Like a being from outer space left here by his spaceship, or like a person stranded on a deserted island, I will make the best of my time: I will write about my experience.

FRIDAY, 16 JULY 2021

Fact is, in the end, everything returns to dust. Most works of art, most masterpieces of literature, sculpture, architecture, music, beauty, and wisdom. And people, and animals.

And I say this as someone who believes it makes more sense to be optimistic, to believe your life has value and meaning.

[15/06/22: Dust, in the digital age where everything is remembered and stored forever? Physically people and animals, and printed material and buildings and paintings can disintegrate, but audio and video recordings and digital copies and blueprints will remain. Even so, you are more than a collection of photos or video clips or sound recordings. And once a building has been demolished, the blueprint won’t be a place to reside in, or to provide a warm or cool and pleasant space to rest or work in.]

TUESDAY, 7 SEPTEMBER 2021

The human condition is like a runaway train unstoppably on its way to a cliff overlooking a stormy sea [perhaps there used to be a bridge that’s been washed away].

Your life is being a passenger on this train.

The train will reach the cliff. It cannot be stopped. The end cannot be avoided.

But – it may take years.

In the meantime, life goes on aboard the train. People mingle, make new friends, and meet life partners. They procreate and raise children. They are sometimes sad, and sometimes happy. Most find some kind of purpose and meaning to their lives.

But still the train continues to its inevitable end.

How you respond to this reality has a profound impact on your quality of life, and on the impact you have on the lives of other passengers on this train.

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(For years I’ve thought of the 1985 film, Runaway Train, with Jon Voight and Eric Roberts, as a metaphor for life. The image of the Voight-character standing on top of the train towards the end of the film, knowing that it was heading off to a rocky dead end, made a big impression.)

Runaway Train

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In short, the Individual, the Community, and the State

MONDAY, 30 AUGUST 2021

A personal manifesto on political beliefs should begin with your view on three concepts:

1. The Individual

2. The Community

3. The State

Without consulting a search engine or a dictionary, I’d say the State is an organised effort by adults within a geographic area with historical and other ties to manage common interests. These interests include infrastructure, education, international relations, military defence, and the drafting and enforcing of laws that represent the values of the community.

Community can be your neighbourhood, but also people who share a particular language, ethnicity, or religious belief.

And the Individual is a single child or adult.

Your personal political manifesto will need to pay attention to the relationships between Individuals, between the Individual and the Community, and the relationship between the Individual and the State, and relations between respective Communities and the State. It will also set out the rights of the Individual and duties of the Individual (if any) towards both the Community and the State, and the duties of the State towards Individuals and Communities.

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A reasonable opinion on Covid-19 vaccinations

TUESDAY, 27 JULY 2021

Everyone these days has an opinion on the Covid-19 vaccination. I’m not convinced it’s safe. Experts differ about safety and efficacy. And there is the common-sense position that any reasonable person should take about things that are injected into your veins that have not yet been properly tested, or that have not gone through the process that vaccinations usually go through. Sceptics also point to numerous examples from J&J, Pfizer, and other pharmaceutical companies that, years after launching products, removed the products from pharmacy shelves due to side effects that did not show up initially. It is also now clear that you can still get Covid-19 even if the vaccine is flowing through your veins.

That said, people who have made a name for themselves as independent thinkers who don’t care much about popular opinion – people like cartoonist and author Scott Adams and journalist Peter Hitchens – have been vaccinated. Adams also makes the point that anyone who is 100% sure about anything regarding the pandemic are not thinking things through properly. Probability is the only reasonable position to take.

It is said that if you are vaccinated you would have milder symptoms after infection, and that you would therefore have a better chance of survival. Supposedly more so if you are over fifty. It is also reasonable to assume that most people will get infected at some point.

That means I will most likely also get Covid-19 at some point. Because I would prefer not to get deadly ill, and because millions of people have received the vaccine so far and have shown little or no side effects, I will get the vaccine as well. That’s the good reason. The bad reason why I would get it is because the government forces you with all sorts of regulations, from how you work to whether or not you can travel. I don’t agree with that at all. Persuade people with reasonable argument. Force them to get an injection, and alarm bells start going off.

WEDNESDAY, 28 JULY 2021

Last thing I want to do is write a long piece about vaccinations and Covid-19.

Some questions will suffice:

1. Can SARS CoV-2 still enter your body even if you’ve received two doses of the vaccine?

2. Can you still develop Covid-19 even if you are fully vaccinated?

3. Can you still transmit the virus to other people after you’ve been fully vaccinated?

If the answer is positive to all three of the above questions, then why get the vaccination? Because, say people who are supposed to know, if you are vaccinated and you get Covid-19, your symptoms will be less severe and you’ll have a better chance of making it – especially if you are older and suffering from other ailments.

Now, I accept this view of the vaccine, and since I’ve recently turned fifty, it might be a good idea to increase my chances against the virus (as I explained yesterday).

But what exactly is the argument put forward by governments and their supporters to force people to get vaccinated? Because they care about people and don’t want them to get seriously ill? Isn’t this something people can decide for themselves? Isn’t this why people are “allowed” to drink and smoke as much as they want? Everyone decides for themselves how much cake and coffee and sugar and salt they want to indulge in. And governments don’t force people to exercise at least thirty minutes a day, and to eat enough vegetables and to cut back on red meat.

As it seems to me, the only way that governments could justify forcing people to get vaccinated is if it reduced spread. If it could be proven that the vaccines were highly effective in doing so, you could perhaps understand why there is so much pressure on people.

The only other reason that could make sense is if governments argued that since vaccinated people would get less severe symptoms, they’d have less of an impact on the country’s health services.

Is that the argument? Then why not launch draconian measures to force fat people to lose weight, or to force people to drink less? Adults either decide for themselves about their own health and lifestyle, or the government decides about it. This thing that the government is forcing people to get injections so that they don’t get too sick with a flu-type virus but is otherwise okay with people systematically destroying their lives doesn’t make sense.

Another thing: If you intentionally damage or end someone else’s life, or it happens because of your negligence, you will be and ought to be punished. How do government measures on Covid-19 vaccines fit into this concept, seeing that doctors and nurses inject people with a substance that may cause more harm to that person than it will prevent?

* * *

Here are some links [see dates on the webpages to see when they were last updated]:

https://factcheck.thedispatch.com/p/do-the-covid-vaccines-offer-100-percent: “At a town hall on July 21, in Cincinnati, President Joe Biden, in stressing the importance of COVID-19 vaccines, made the following statement: ‘If you’re vaccinated, you’re not going to be hospitalized, you’re not going to be in an ICU unit, and you’re not going to die.’ The statement is false. Although the COVID-19 vaccines are effective, no single vaccine is 100% effective at preventing infection.”

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/health-departments/breakthrough-cases.html: “Some people who are vaccinated against COVID-19 will still get sick and have a vaccine breakthrough infection because no vaccine is 100% effective.”

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/can-vaccinated-people-transmit-covid-19-to-others/: “Can fully vaccinated people still transmit the virus to others, including other vaccinated people? While it is possible, Dr. Cardona says that the ability to transmit COVID-19 may occur at a lower rate. … ‘We are still collecting data and doing ongoing research about the vaccine responses in these vulnerable populations.’”

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Wake up early enough

FRIDAY, 2 JULY 2021

Sixteen is not too young to understand what you are doing with the whole school story. In fact, even if you are fourteen or fifteen, you can do yourself a favour to develop some understanding of it – or ask adults in your life to explain it to you.

So, what do you do between the ages of seven and, let’s say, sixteen? You learn to read and write. You learn to do math, and you read enough history and geography to be able to locate yourself in the world. You may learn one or two other languages; you learn about human and animal biology, and you learn a little science. If you’re in a technical school, you’ll learn more practical topics … but that’s my next point. After sixteen, up to and including your early twenties, you learn things that will enable you to earn an income, and to contribute to the society, or at least to the community, in which you live.

Does the sixteen-year-old understand this? Maybe; maybe not. But the child in grade ten (or nine, or eleven) who questions why they have to study Biology or Science or Mathematics if they are not going to pursue careers where this knowledge will be of value deserves a proper answer.

Here’s my advice. You need to be able to write properly. Maybe you learn it in English class. If not, take extra courses on Udemy, or on another platform. You need to know more about the world, and about history. YouTube is packed with short and long documentary videos that will teach you what you need to know. Also watch travel programs, or videos about different countries to learn more about the world. Science, and Biology? YouTube. And then, seeing that just about anything between 16 and 23 is about preparing to make money and contributing to society, watch lectures, interviews, and book summaries on how people make money, how they manage money, and how you can improve your relationship with money. Boring for your average sixteen-year-old, you may say? More boring than a Biology class, or even for some students, a History class?

Fact of the matter is, too many people wake up too late. Too many also take too long to empower themselves to construct a good life. A life where they have a good idea of what they are doing, for whom, and why.

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