I spent three years of my life employed as a university lecturer (equivalent to Assistant Professor) in Epidemiology and Public Health: that most corrupt and mediocre of all medical specialties.
The reason Epidemiology/ Public Health is so corrupt (and getting worse) is that its work consists in providing pseudo-objective rationalisations for Leftist political programmes; and that is the reason E&PH has long been mediocre - because such externally-driven service-work has no place for a genuine scientist or a real doctor.
Among other things, this period gave me an insight into the fake morality of Healthism; which currently dominates the world, and bears the brunt of responsibility for rationalising the global totalitarian coup of 2020.
Like all moralities which purport to be altruistic (that is, to favour others above oneself); the ideology of Healthism is impaled upon its own contradictions. But bear in mind that incoherence is a feature, not a bug, when it comes to evil; and the Leftist programme (which Healthism serves) is itself primarily-negative and destructive - therefore incoherence is baked-in.
The birdemic shows the way that Healthism works in practice, intrinsically. The 2020 global reality is extreme, sustained raw fear of multi-millions of individuals - fear of dying from the birdemic.
...A fear that leads to mass social avoidance, and treating all humans as rabid-leper-zombies.
The world believes that it is living in the midst or a rabid-leper-zombie Apocalypse! But, even worse, this is an invisible rabid-leper-zombie Apocalypse!
Therefore, everybody is dying, but invisibly: the bodies are being stacked like cord-wood in secret locations - too many to bury or burn.
The birdemic sickness is one of the great plagues of the world - the Black Death On Steroids; yet at the same time, we only know about it via the mass media; and we don't know if somebody has become a rabid-leper-zombie, unless they get a special Test.
The Test tells you that you are In Fact a rabid-leper-zombie - but The Test can never tell you that you are Not a rabid-leper-zombie.
SO... The terrifying scenario is that the world is full of invisible rabid-leper-zombies, who are dying in droves; and anybody I meet, anywhere might be an invisible rabid-leper-zombie; and I Myself might be invisible rabid-leper-zombie!
The Whole World might be invisible rabid-leper-zombies; past, present or future; whether dying or already-dead!
How Terrifying Is That!
This is how the morality of Healthism goes: Because I am terrified of invisible rabid-leper-zombies, I want everybody kept away from me and wearing masks - but I know that this doesn't really work - but I want it anyway because I am terrified of invisible rabid-leper-zombies.
But because I am a Leftist, I care more about other people than myself; so I want to wear a mask because I might be an invisible rabid-leper-zombie. If not today, then tomorrow.
Indeed, I demand that I myself, and everybody else, be compelled to wear a mask; because when it comes to an invisible rapid-leper-zombie We Just Don't Know that anybody is safe to be in proximity to anybody else.
Therefore, I keep my distance from everybody I most love and care for; and I demand they do the same for me; and I want this made compulsory, to make sure; because nothing is worse than an invisible rabid-leper-zombie.
(Except a White Supremacist, obviously.)
But I don't really love and care for anybody in particular - that would be *-ist, obviously... Instead I care Most about everybody-in-the-whole-world-at-the-same-time: and especially people I have never met, know nothing about, and who hate me.
(Except for White Supremacists, obviously.)
Obviously, when I say 'care' I mean specifically the birdemic; because Nobody wants to live in an invisible rabid-leper-zombie Apocalypse; stopping that must surely be the priority, yes?
Let's get this clear: I care most of all about about global birdemic health statistics - although I neither know nor care about how those statistics are generated, nor what they mean, and am resistant to learning this.
To be clearer yet: I care most in the world about what my chosen mass media tell me about global birdemic health statistics. Today...
That, for me, is The Bottom-Line.
(Unless it is Climate Change - which is also the bottom line. And antiracism. And sexual liberation... I mean 'rights'. They are also the single, core, key, essential, priority bottom line.)
My point is that Healthism works by an unholy alliance of extreme short-termist selfishness and clinging to life, now, at any cost; and the self-hating suicidal recklessness of systematic altruism - of favouring others above self.
(Altruism has to be systematic and compelled, because it is un-natural. People must be forced to be altruistic. Except for the Global Billionnaire Establishment, obviously - They just-are naturally altruistic, which is why they are multi-billionnaires. Obviously.)
"I am wearing this mask for other people, 'because' I am terrified of dying in the invisible rabid-leper-zombie Apocalypse."
In a world of invisible rabid-leper-zombies, invisibly infecting each other, and dying like invisible flies; Nothing matters but Health.
...Yet the basis of Health (food, economy, other people...) is systematically-being-destroyed by the pursuit of Health At Any Price.
After all; it makes a kind of Leftist sense. In a world gripped by terror of of invisible rabid-leper-zombies; the only escape from fear is for the invisible rabid-leper-zombies all to die. For them all to die; all must be killed (one way or another; preferably deniably).
If the cost of ridding our world of an invisible rabid-leper-zombies is that most people (including me) are killed by the measures ostensibly taken to rid the world of invisible rabid-leper-zombies - then That is a price worth paying...
We can, at least, then look forward to the a birdemic-free-world! A world finally free of fear...
We won't be there to enjoy it, nor will many other people (except the multi-billionnaire Global Establishment - obviously), and anyway it will not be an enjoy-able world.
They are doing Us a favour by killing us for our better health, if you really think about it.
And - in the end - what does it all matter to someone truly altruistic?
Dear Dr. Charlton,
ReplyDeleteThank you,
This is your masterpiece -- insightful, witty, and inspiring.
Mike Hanlon in California, USA
Thanks! I wonder if anyone noticed a stylistic influence from the late Tom Wolfe.
ReplyDeleteYes! This totalitarianism is the result of all of us being narcissistic self-loathers. This is paradoxical for sure but obvious on reflection: Self-loathing is impossible unless one is first a narcissist - for one cannot loath oneself if one is truly in service to something higher than oneself. Only the worship of self will get torn up about the state of that self. Because it is not recognised that egotism is at the heart of the self-loathing, redemption is wrongly assumed to be in the form of self destruction.
ReplyDeleteYou're pretty funny when you choose to be funny, Bruce (though considering the serious nature of this blog, I understand why you don't write in this vein more often). And, as they say, "it's funny because it's true."
ReplyDeleteAmong the good insights here, I was struck by the contradiction you point out between people being personally terrified of death by COVID, a natural consequence of their positivism/materialism, and their feigning altruism according to leftist fashions. Yet both the secret motivation (fear of death) and the falsely attested virtue-signalling motivation (save the world) end in their nonsense belief that "we must shut down everything for the common good."
I got into a heated argument about the Birdemic with a very leftist cousin because I argued that because "we" believe in abortion-on-demand as an inviolable right, the VirusCultists do not have a leg to stand on when they demand the whole mass of humanity impoverish and ritualistically humiliate themselves to give the already-dying a few more days to live.
ReplyDeleteActually, I was arguing against the idea that we derive our human rights from science; because "Science" has justified abortion on demand.
In fact, I conclude that the VirusCult is the bastard child of the sexual revolution and environmentalism. The former elevates the Orgasm as the pillar and summit of the leftist faith, and the latter views the earth as a goddess under assault by homo sapiens.
I don't often comment (if ever) but this is extremely well done.
ReplyDelete@Jonathan et al. I started out as mostly a humorous writer (firstly for revues at Medical School; then later New Scientist, Punch for Doctors, Times Higher Education Supplement, and other journalistic places). But it's mostly a young man's game, and forced humour is worth than nothing. Still, when the joke muse strikes, I don't hold back - e.g. https://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2018/02/if-ww-ii-was-allegory-of-lord-of-rings.html
ReplyDeleteOne of your best posts ever -- and I've been reading you long enough for that to mean something!
ReplyDeleteHi Bruce,
ReplyDeleteFWIW: Best blog post I’ve read about any subject, ever.
Thank you for your books, Not Even Trying and Thought Prison.
Regards,
Luke
@Luke - FWIW... Thanks!
ReplyDelete