When the corona madness started, I had a painful sense of déjà vu. It reminded me of the Yugoslav break-up, which I experienced as a child. The adults lost their minds, and life was never the same again. I don't think it'll ever be the same again after this, either, although the worst of it seems to be behind us (or at least one can hope).
My sister-in-law is originally from Bosnia and came to Austria as a child refugee in the early 1990s (after her father had been killed by their neighbours). Due to my own research (Renaissance Dalmatia), I have many friends from 'the Western Balkans': your brief comment--'The adults lost their minds, and life was never the same again.'--resonates profoundly.
Very poignant, Epimetheus. I have similar feelings. Post-2020 I can never regard some people and institutions the same way again. There has been a psychological 'Bruch' in my relationship to the state and society. The state and many of my peers simply don't understand this has happened, that there is no going back.
Btw my two kids were born 2014, 2017 - snap ;) [EDIT: stated wrong year in sleepy state -haha!] I am quite happy they have heard me speak so often in the kitchen with family/friends critically of the measures and that they came to some kid-friendly demonstrations. They understand it is not something to be blindly accepted and followed (I hope and pray).
We were also quite lucky with Montessori schooling/kindergarten staying open but I do still worry a little about the long-term effects on them.
I'm glad you have children: ours aren't spared reality, but, as my father once put it, one will find out if one's parenting was 'o.k.' by looking at one's grandchildren--it doesn't only take a village to raise a child, it also takes time--and it is inter-generational.
Curiously--what a coincidence--my wife's a Montessori kindergarten teacher and our children have been exposed to Montessori's ideas, too.
I'll throw 2008, 2009 and 2014 into the ring. And remark that we have been IKEA customers as well - we own the same green patining coat and the kitchen trolley, also repurposed for kids' stuff. :)
Making someone do or obey shameful acts is a way to make them complicit in their own subjugation - such as banning people from visiting their elders in nursing homes f.e.
I don't doubt that most of those who obeyed those rules - admins and staff and relatives all - did so with a deep feeling of unease and shame, a feeling they weren't very used to feeling.
After all, following orders and instructions from legally appointed authorities in a democracy is drilled into us as being an intrinsically Good Thing, isn't it?
Cults typically force members to make public confessions about imagined or real transgressions against the cult's rules. The soviets and the chinese and kambodjan Red Guards did the same: you were supposed to stand in the middle of a circle and confess your bourgeois thoughts. You were then harangued and hectored until you broke down crying, begging for help to be free of these unclean thoughts, help given by the same people who abused you. There's no dearth of christian, jewish, moslem or New Age-sects doing the same thing.
Feminists have done the same thing since the 1960s. So does eco-fascists. Only, today they do it via social media mostly. Not as in the 1970s or the 1990s when every woman attending could be ordered to take off her shirt to prove she didn't shave her armpits. Shaving meant she was a traitor, trying to entice and appease men and having a male perception of female-ness. Or even worse, every woman was ordered to strip from the waist down and squat over a mirror angled so everyone could see up each other's crotch. This supposedly built "natural feminine solidarity": needless to say, this was and is done in groups dominated by a cluster B type personality with several neurotic a/o traumatised subservient women.
As for pictures, having had it drilled into me at a young age to not waste film, I still behave as if I was using a Hasselblad with a flashbulb on top. At least it spares me from the fate a friend of ours suffered upon coming home from Lanzarote.
After a two-week stay, she had 3 000+ pictures to sort in her digital camera...
You're correct about these things, and I share these views to a large degree, hence I'll delimit myself to the 3,000+ pictures issue:
I've resolved, long ago, that the only pictures I'm keeping are those with friends and family members. Esp. in this day and (internet) age, there's no shortage of professional and/or much better pictures of this and that landmark or sight, but these, of course, don't feature, e.g., our children, which is the thing I'm interested in.
I've also noted that people these days are running around looking at things 'through' their phones (thereby proving Marshal McLuhan incorrect): it's not the medium that is the message, but 'the medium'--the phone--is akin to a layer through which people perceive 'objective reality' these days. Add filters, change the width of the camera, you'll condition people to a distorted kind of vision, thus reality morphs into 'reality' (which, I'd argue, increases peoples' susceptibility to manipulation).
Yup, and don't forget McLuhan wanted to be wrong. Same as his "global village" statement; it was not meant in any positive way.
I think we're less than ten yeas off camera-tech coming with pre-installed "intelligent" filters making taking the wrong pictures impossible.
"The image you are trying to document is counter to the rules and terms of use. Repeated attempts will result in your device becoming inactive and permanently disabled until after inspection by authorised value system adjudicator-technician. If your device is found to hold untrue pictures, you may lose your picture-taking privileges and may need corrective education."
This is what I tell yo my wife looking at our child that now is 12, when she put this efforts after all her priorities...
I've our kid drawing here on my desk side, on a board on the wall.
Two days ago he came over to say good night with his iPad running and with his very smart smile, that means "I've something to show you dad, so I can go to bed later...". But this time I was very surprised, he asked me "What is G8?" showing me on the ipad a video of a youtuber, pretty young like less than 30, that was debunking step by step what happened at G8 meeting in Genoa on that bloody 2001, July 2001, few days after the electoral fraud of Bush Jr and family, and just 2 months before that domestic (by cia and mossad) terrorist attack to Twin Towers. (All of that not a coincidence. I've stopped to believe in coincidences in this western world by tens of years!)
So I told him what was G8 and G7, and I asked him what he learn from that video, and if he saw that neonazi black block dancing with a tamburine as the nazi use to, before the big clash with the militarized police. I told him that I've original videos that show from a roof view how plainclothes policemen, looking like protesters, where shot leaving the protest march and through a side street entering a police station and few min after coming out with arms and molotvs.
I asked him if he saw some shots from a dramatic documentary made by an Irish crew that was even beaten and had their cameras crashed by italian policemen.
Since Covid especially I tell him that we all need to be ready to fight, no matter how, but will come a day that we had to. He still thinks as war game, as something you play, but in a couple of years he will understands that is not a joke, neither a game.
At school he is able to recognize why his parents are like that, comparing other parents and other school mates, but the nice thing I'm proud of, is that he share his parents choices, politically and socially speaking. Not because we say it, but because he can find proofs online as he did on G8 2001.
As far as I know, I'll take care of him and of us as much as I'll. I grew up with 2 parents that saw the WWII when they were my child age, that saw how bad were fascist italians and nazi germans, as well british and american troopers, that were acting the same: raping and stealing everything they could.
But the problem today aren't only the parents, pretty ignorant of modern history, are the Teachers and Professors, the Director of Schools of any grade, the study programs of the Ministry of Ignorance.
Because since many years, like early '90s, they want you a perfect consumer only, not even a good Client. Overall they do not want you to be a good citizen that knows his rights and duties, but one that could be blackmailed, so you're on their side forever.
30 years ago I would never imagine to get to this point in our society
Thanks. Very touching. But a comment - I find the format of dark background and light text really hard on my eyes. I would like to subscribe to follow you but the format is really off putting. Anyone else feel the same way?
Thank you - poignant - I feel stopping at times to reflect is very worthwhile and regrounds me. And I have absolutely grieved or looked back with fondness for lost pasts (still am as madness escalates!). And yes we shall indeed carry on forward 😊🙏
When the corona madness started, I had a painful sense of déjà vu. It reminded me of the Yugoslav break-up, which I experienced as a child. The adults lost their minds, and life was never the same again. I don't think it'll ever be the same again after this, either, although the worst of it seems to be behind us (or at least one can hope).
I'm so sorry about this.
My sister-in-law is originally from Bosnia and came to Austria as a child refugee in the early 1990s (after her father had been killed by their neighbours). Due to my own research (Renaissance Dalmatia), I have many friends from 'the Western Balkans': your brief comment--'The adults lost their minds, and life was never the same again.'--resonates profoundly.
I hope you're correct about the future.
Very poignant, Epimetheus. I have similar feelings. Post-2020 I can never regard some people and institutions the same way again. There has been a psychological 'Bruch' in my relationship to the state and society. The state and many of my peers simply don't understand this has happened, that there is no going back.
Btw my two kids were born 2014, 2017 - snap ;) [EDIT: stated wrong year in sleepy state -haha!] I am quite happy they have heard me speak so often in the kitchen with family/friends critically of the measures and that they came to some kid-friendly demonstrations. They understand it is not something to be blindly accepted and followed (I hope and pray).
We were also quite lucky with Montessori schooling/kindergarten staying open but I do still worry a little about the long-term effects on them.
I'm with you, 112%.
I'm glad you have children: ours aren't spared reality, but, as my father once put it, one will find out if one's parenting was 'o.k.' by looking at one's grandchildren--it doesn't only take a village to raise a child, it also takes time--and it is inter-generational.
Curiously--what a coincidence--my wife's a Montessori kindergarten teacher and our children have been exposed to Montessori's ideas, too.
I'll throw 2008, 2009 and 2014 into the ring. And remark that we have been IKEA customers as well - we own the same green patining coat and the kitchen trolley, also repurposed for kids' stuff. :)
Making someone do or obey shameful acts is a way to make them complicit in their own subjugation - such as banning people from visiting their elders in nursing homes f.e.
I don't doubt that most of those who obeyed those rules - admins and staff and relatives all - did so with a deep feeling of unease and shame, a feeling they weren't very used to feeling.
After all, following orders and instructions from legally appointed authorities in a democracy is drilled into us as being an intrinsically Good Thing, isn't it?
Cults typically force members to make public confessions about imagined or real transgressions against the cult's rules. The soviets and the chinese and kambodjan Red Guards did the same: you were supposed to stand in the middle of a circle and confess your bourgeois thoughts. You were then harangued and hectored until you broke down crying, begging for help to be free of these unclean thoughts, help given by the same people who abused you. There's no dearth of christian, jewish, moslem or New Age-sects doing the same thing.
Feminists have done the same thing since the 1960s. So does eco-fascists. Only, today they do it via social media mostly. Not as in the 1970s or the 1990s when every woman attending could be ordered to take off her shirt to prove she didn't shave her armpits. Shaving meant she was a traitor, trying to entice and appease men and having a male perception of female-ness. Or even worse, every woman was ordered to strip from the waist down and squat over a mirror angled so everyone could see up each other's crotch. This supposedly built "natural feminine solidarity": needless to say, this was and is done in groups dominated by a cluster B type personality with several neurotic a/o traumatised subservient women.
As for pictures, having had it drilled into me at a young age to not waste film, I still behave as if I was using a Hasselblad with a flashbulb on top. At least it spares me from the fate a friend of ours suffered upon coming home from Lanzarote.
After a two-week stay, she had 3 000+ pictures to sort in her digital camera...
You're correct about these things, and I share these views to a large degree, hence I'll delimit myself to the 3,000+ pictures issue:
I've resolved, long ago, that the only pictures I'm keeping are those with friends and family members. Esp. in this day and (internet) age, there's no shortage of professional and/or much better pictures of this and that landmark or sight, but these, of course, don't feature, e.g., our children, which is the thing I'm interested in.
I've also noted that people these days are running around looking at things 'through' their phones (thereby proving Marshal McLuhan incorrect): it's not the medium that is the message, but 'the medium'--the phone--is akin to a layer through which people perceive 'objective reality' these days. Add filters, change the width of the camera, you'll condition people to a distorted kind of vision, thus reality morphs into 'reality' (which, I'd argue, increases peoples' susceptibility to manipulation).
Yup, and don't forget McLuhan wanted to be wrong. Same as his "global village" statement; it was not meant in any positive way.
I think we're less than ten yeas off camera-tech coming with pre-installed "intelligent" filters making taking the wrong pictures impossible.
"The image you are trying to document is counter to the rules and terms of use. Repeated attempts will result in your device becoming inactive and permanently disabled until after inspection by authorised value system adjudicator-technician. If your device is found to hold untrue pictures, you may lose your picture-taking privileges and may need corrective education."
Exactly. It's almost like we're on the way to living in 'The Matrix'.
Detox, cold-turkey style, is probably the way to go.
You wanna make me cry...
This is what I tell yo my wife looking at our child that now is 12, when she put this efforts after all her priorities...
I've our kid drawing here on my desk side, on a board on the wall.
Two days ago he came over to say good night with his iPad running and with his very smart smile, that means "I've something to show you dad, so I can go to bed later...". But this time I was very surprised, he asked me "What is G8?" showing me on the ipad a video of a youtuber, pretty young like less than 30, that was debunking step by step what happened at G8 meeting in Genoa on that bloody 2001, July 2001, few days after the electoral fraud of Bush Jr and family, and just 2 months before that domestic (by cia and mossad) terrorist attack to Twin Towers. (All of that not a coincidence. I've stopped to believe in coincidences in this western world by tens of years!)
So I told him what was G8 and G7, and I asked him what he learn from that video, and if he saw that neonazi black block dancing with a tamburine as the nazi use to, before the big clash with the militarized police. I told him that I've original videos that show from a roof view how plainclothes policemen, looking like protesters, where shot leaving the protest march and through a side street entering a police station and few min after coming out with arms and molotvs.
I asked him if he saw some shots from a dramatic documentary made by an Irish crew that was even beaten and had their cameras crashed by italian policemen.
Since Covid especially I tell him that we all need to be ready to fight, no matter how, but will come a day that we had to. He still thinks as war game, as something you play, but in a couple of years he will understands that is not a joke, neither a game.
At school he is able to recognize why his parents are like that, comparing other parents and other school mates, but the nice thing I'm proud of, is that he share his parents choices, politically and socially speaking. Not because we say it, but because he can find proofs online as he did on G8 2001.
As far as I know, I'll take care of him and of us as much as I'll. I grew up with 2 parents that saw the WWII when they were my child age, that saw how bad were fascist italians and nazi germans, as well british and american troopers, that were acting the same: raping and stealing everything they could.
But the problem today aren't only the parents, pretty ignorant of modern history, are the Teachers and Professors, the Director of Schools of any grade, the study programs of the Ministry of Ignorance.
Because since many years, like early '90s, they want you a perfect consumer only, not even a good Client. Overall they do not want you to be a good citizen that knows his rights and duties, but one that could be blackmailed, so you're on their side forever.
30 years ago I would never imagine to get to this point in our society
Hi Kazimir,
I've read and re-read your comment: well done, in terms of parenting.
When I typed the above, I was in a dark place. It's so weird what these past three years have done to us all.
I think your 'lesson'--be ready to fight--is the right one. Knowing why is the key.
Thanks. Very touching. But a comment - I find the format of dark background and light text really hard on my eyes. I would like to subscribe to follow you but the format is really off putting. Anyone else feel the same way?
Harr, some other reader pointed this out a while ago, in fact, around the time my Stack acquired its first subscribers.
I've been playing with the idea of revamping it for some time now, and I think I'll do it later this week.
Stay tuned!
Hooray!
Photos of their precious little toes♥️
Thank you - poignant - I feel stopping at times to reflect is very worthwhile and regrounds me. And I have absolutely grieved or looked back with fondness for lost pasts (still am as madness escalates!). And yes we shall indeed carry on forward 😊🙏
I felt like, well, what have we lost when I looked at the photographs. I don't even know why I did it, but it was a quite overwhelming sensation.
Onwards we march. Together.