Have you ever reflected on the loss to humanity of an isolated society? In today’s COVID restrictions which include lockdowns, social distancing and the wearing of masks in public spaces, times are hard. It is also hard not to look around once in awhile and wonder if this is all by design.
Review the experiences and actions of 2020 and the beginnings of 2021. Lockdowns decimated social gatherings, which prior to that were a fundamental mainstay on how people came together. Sometimes these meetings brought people together for the first time. Be it an introduction, connecting at an event with another that you share a common interest, or a chance encounter. Also gone is the fortunate stroke of serendipity.
How many possible new connections were ripped from the basic fabric of living in the last year?. Rules restricting gathering in public spaces inhibiting those inevitable encounters. The many ultimate changes to the ebb and tide of human history that were never allowed to happen.
How many people did you not get to meet?
Have you ever stopped to consider how many people you did not get to meet in 2020? How many experiences did you miss out on? How many people did you not meet that could have changed your life for the better? Of course, one can argue the opposite it also true. We could have been saved from all the bad encounters as well. True. However, in normal times, more good tends to happen than bad. So therefore the loss would seem to be skewed to the side of the former, rather than the latter.
In speaking with a some high school seniors just a few days ago, they volunteered their frustrations to me. Their loss was not being able to go to school and engage with their friends. They lamented the inability to play sports, interact and all of the other engagements that are common to those years. No prom, no homecoming celebration, no school plays, no dances, no one on one tutoring, etc. Their whole life became confined to a computer screen.
Consider also all of the those connections with people that are so integral to the heartbeat of a nation. How many positive changes to the course of society simply did not happen? Those stories of people of common minds meeting and collaborating on some new invention, or research, etc. That soulmate that some lost soul never was able to find. One can only wonder how many future great scientific or technological breakthroughs were missed. How many new relationships never blossomed?
History is repeating itself
When one major shift comes into play to change cultural human interaction, the loss is more than the impact of the event itself. It is a loss that will ripple through the civilization for decades that follow.
If you reflect for a moment on all the people killed in World War II in Europe and Asia. Think of all that society lost as a result of that event that we will never know.
How many future geniuses were killed in this great event that changed the globe? What would those sparks of creativity, craftsmanship or brilliance have contributed to the world of today? How many Thomas Edisons, Henry Fords or Steve Jobs never survived that event? How many were never born because their parents were never able to survive long enough to have them?
This time of COVID is more than a fear of catching this dreadful strain of the flu. It seems officials in power entrusted to guide us through these times have lost sight of the big picture. Instead they are moving the civilization to isolation from each other. Under the guise of ‘saving lives’ they are imposing mandates that result in cultural isolation, instead of growth and development.
It began with 9/11
Do you remember the days that followed the 9/11 incident? There were ever increasing restrictions on air travel and some other forms of transport. I stood back at that time and observed that it all seemed to be heading towards a restriction of movement. An overall loss of freedom that we had never experienced before then in my lifetime. With the emergence of this ‘pandemic’ it seems we move more and more towards a state of being separated.
Stay away from each other is the underlying message. Do not gather in groups. Don’t get close to each other! Certainly do not share a smile, because if you do so, you must not be wearing a mask! Therefore you are putting other people at risk! Be afraid to touch others. Be afraid to meet new people. Don’t go out. Stay home, stay safe. Stay isolated.
The messages are accompanied with taglines stating the opposite: ‘we are in this together‘, ‘together we will flatten the curve’ and ‘together we will get through this‘. In reality the rules they are imposing do quite the opposite.
There is an old saying that in order to conquer a people, one must first divide them. Are people in America so distracted by social media and their smartphones that they have failed to really look around to see what is happening? Facts point to a society decending further into isolation.
Each day passes that requires separation from each other and designs to prevent social gathering in friendship. The loss on the surface is the absence of shared smiles with strangers and basic human interaction. Underneath it is an expanding conditioning of fear to touch or be near each other.
Less Freedom. More Restrictions. More Isolation.
Are we indeed being moved away from freedom in the opposite direction?Where will this take us? What is the extreme opposite of freedom? That is were the road leads.
In my early 20’s I had the opportunity to visit former East Germany one year after the Berlin wall came down. I spoke with the people at length in local pubs and in their homes. I was establishing business connections with my boss for our company. The stories they told me about the gradual erosion of their civil liberties since the end of WWII mirror in many ways what we are seeing today. Oppressive regimes concentrate on keeping people isolated, restricting movement and enforce barriers to public assembly.
East Germany was a state of imprisonment for almost 40 years. There were several shells of churches that had been stripped to bare walls. Also many stories told of others closed or demolished. Schools became completely government controlled. Food and resources were rationed. Locals who remember that time can tell stories of their freedom of movement being restricted within their community. The restrictions grew to all levels of society. They relayed stories of a culture fostered to ‘report thy neighbor’ that had emerged. An insideous hold-over from pre-war Germany. Free speech was a crime, and punishments were heavy and severe.
The road leads to a very dark place. It is a slow downhill path so subtle that it is hardly noticable. Eventually it leads to a total collapse of a culture. It all starts with burdonsome regulations, restrictions of movement and division through isolation.
