Ron Paul Institute<\/a><\/i>
\nApril 17, 2020<\/p>\nThe weeks\u2019 long coronavirus lockdown is being exposed as, at best, a wild over-reaction. Americans are starting to protest the destruction of their economy, the loss of their jobs, and the attacks on their basic Constitutional rights. The walls of oppression built by the petty tyrants throughout the country are beginning to crack. It reminds me of the feeling that was in the air in that memorable year 1989, when the world as we knew it was turned upside down.<\/p>\n
What was so significant about 1989 and why do I suddenly get that feeling in the air again? For me, it was two things: 1) The Tiananmen demonstrations – I was in Hong Kong during this period (I actually arrived I think a day before the death of Hu Yaobang, which is what started them), and 2) the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the events that led up to it.<\/p>\n
What it smelled like was this:<\/p>\n
All of a sudden, anything at all was possible. All of a sudden, people realized that the chains that bound them weren’t as real as they had always believed them to be. Of course, in China, as exhilarating as the demonstrations were, it did not end well. But for Eastern Europe, it was very different.<\/p>\n
I remember seeing the images of the picnickers (and others) from Hungary hopping the fences into Austria. Just hopping what looked like two-foot high little wire fences. Like that was the only thing that had ever been holding them in. To me, those were the most moving images of all: People realizing that they were free.<\/p>\n
By the time they started hammering away at the Berlin Wall, everything had already happened. It seemed like just the tearing down of a symbol at that point. I had visited Berlin, five years earlier, and I remember people telling me it would never come down. Everyone hated it, everyone wanted it down, but nobody knew how to do it, and there seemed to be a widespread acceptance that there was nothing they could do about it.<\/p>\n
Until there was.<\/p>\n
That’s what this feels like now. The governments’ over-the-top response has pushed people too far. Which I imagine they anticipated, but I also imagine that they believed that would result in riots and violent protest (which it will, once people can’t put food on their tables – but we’re not there yet.) But instead of rioting in the streets, people are engaged in peaceful protests, and more importantly, they are starting to simply defy the orders. Businesses, churches, and even some schools, are starting to open up again, in blatant disregard for the orders they have been given. They are ignoring the state.<\/p>\n
There is more of this coming. And the more people who do it, the more are emboldened to. I don’t know what goes on inside the minds of the people who want to rule the world, but I can only imagine that they believe that people will always be easily manipulated by fear. It’s true that people are far too easily manipulated by fear, but the capacity to do that is not infinite, and I think those who are using it have overplayed their hand this time.<\/p>\n
Because what I’m seeing now is not people driven by fear. There was a lot of fear when this first started – but I think a lot of people are coming out of that now. I think a great many are realizing that the costs of the shutdowns are going to be much, much worse than the impact of the virus, and I also see a lot of people recognizing that individuals should decide for themselves what risks they are comfortable with. I’m seeing a lot of pushback against authoritarianism, and it’s not coming from fear, but something else. I don’t think the people who engineered this anticipated that something else.<\/p>\n
Yes, there are still the people buying into the fear, ratting out their neighbors, etc. But I’m seeing a lot more of the opposite: People recognizing who the enemy is here, and that it is not their neighbors. I’m seeing small business owners having the courage to re-open their businesses against government orders, at the risk of losing their licenses and, here in LA, their power and water supply. And I see a huge number of people ready to support them. People are planning more peaceful protests, and more and more businesses are planning to open up. They’re saying (here in CA) “they can’t arrest all of us.” What I see is that people are starting to realize that their chains aren’t as real as they thought they were.<\/p>\n
That’s what 1989 smelled like.
\n[END]<\/p>\n
EXCERPTS from Rockefeller document, continued:<\/strong><\/p>\n[Cont. from p19]:<\/em>\u00a0“At first, the notion of a more controlled world gained wide acceptance and approval. Citizens willingly gave up some of their sovereignty \u2014 and their privacy \u2014 to more paternalistic states in exchange for greater safety and stability. Citizens were more tolerant, and even eager, for top-down direction and oversight, and national leaders had more latitude to impose order in the ways they saw fit. In developed countries, this heightened oversight took many forms: biometric IDs for all citizens, for example, and tighter regulation of key industries whose stability was deemed vital to national interests. In many developed countries, enforced cooperation with a suite of new regulations and agreements slowly but steadily restored both order and, importantly, economic growth. …”<\/p>\n“Across the developing world, however, thestory was different \u2014 and much more variable. Top-down authority took different forms in different countries, hinging largely on the capacity, caliber, and intentions of their leaders. In countries with strong and thoughtful leaders, citizens\u2019 overall economic status and quality of life increased. … But more authoritarian leadership worked less well \u2014 and in some cases tragically \u2014 in countries run by irresponsible elites who used their increased power to pursue their own interests at the expense of their citizens.<\/p>\n
“There were other downsides, as the rise of virulent nationalism created new hazards: spectators at the 2018 World Cup, for example, wore bulletproof vests that sported a patch of their national flag. …<\/p>\n
“Meanwhile, in the developed world, the presence of so many top-down rules and norms greatly inhibited entrepreneurial activity. Scientists and innovators were often told by governments what research lines to pursue and were guided mostly toward projects that would make money (e.g., market-driven product development) or were \u201csure bets\u201d (e.g., fundamental research), leaving more risky or innovative research areas largely untapped. Well-off countries and monopolistic companies with big research and development budgets still made significant advances, but the IP behind their breakthroughs remained locked behind strict national or corporate protection. …<\/p>\n
“By 2025, people seemed to be growing weary of so much top-down control and letting leaders and authorities make choices for them. Wherever national interests clashed with individual interests, there was conflict. Sporadic pushback became increasingly organized and coordinated, as disaffected youth and people who had seen their status and opportunities slip away \u2014 largely in developing countries \u2014 incited civil unrest. … Even those who liked the greater stability and predictability of this world began to grow uncomfortable and constrained by so many tight rules and by the strictness of national boundaries. The feeling lingered that sooner or later, something would inevitably upset the neat order that the world\u2019s governments had worked so hard to establish.”<\/p>\n
___
\nhttp:\/\/quemadoresearch.blogspot.com\/2020\/04\/covid-19-crackdown-crisis-of-human.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COVID-19 Crackdown: A Crisis of Human Freedom<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12503\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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