It’s the madness in their eyes

Everybody is going crazy, the subterranean traveller complained. I can’t have a normal, reasonably intelligent conversation with anybody anymore. It doesn’t matter what we are talking about, people say the stupidest and most trifling things. Even the weather. I mean, people can’t talk about the weather anymore. Can you imagine? After weeks of rain there is finally a clear day, and people go, oh, it’s so hot. And when I say, aren’t you glad after all those grey days, they look at me with glazy eyes and don’t know what I’m talking about. I mean, it’s like they haven’t got any memory anymore. Not even the slightest. I find that scary. It makes me sometimes wonder, have I got it wrong? I can’t be the only one who remembers yesterday, so perhaps I am mistaken, but then I hear them say other ridiculous things and I know it’s them. It’s just there are so many. It’s an absolute plague.

 

When I try talking some serious stuff, say, the war going on in Eastern Ukraine, people say, war is no good, it must stop. And I say, sure, but if you just keep poking and threatening someone, at some point they will hit out at you. The same goes for countries. And they say, what are you talking about? And I go, US has been at Russia’s throat for a couple of decades now, and people say, what do you mean? They just don’t know what’s going down there, they haven’t got a clue. War is bad. Yeah, sure, war is bad, that’s why we call it war. We don’t call it fun and games. But there’s something like karma, you know, there is getting your comeuppance. You can’t just have it your way all the time and expect other people to swallow whatever you throw at them. That’s not how the world works. And people say, we are peaceful, our countries haven’t fought each other for I don’t know how long. And I go, then tell me why your country is one of the richest in the world? How did you manage to pull that off? And they don’t have an answer. It’s like it is, they say. And they say, that’s why we should always let other people come and live here if they want to. I go, so, it’s not because we destroy their economies, and they have little choice but to come and live among their enemies? Then their eyes glaze over once again. They just don’t know anything. It’s madness.

 

The worst is perhaps the whole covid thing. I say, do you realise your leaders have been trying to kill you with their idiotic policies? I give the usual examples, the masks that don’t protect, the tests that can’t detect how bad you’ve got it and whether you should consider yourself a danger to other people, like actually feeling sick, you know, and the murderous lock-ups and the torture of our poor children, refusing to treat people who really are sick and who then die because nobody wants to help them, and the few doctors who do reach out have their licence revoked. And then to top it off they push everybody into taking a completely useless and at the same time very dangerous injection which they call a vaccine, but which is something completely else. You know, the whole shebang. And people say, what are you talking about? Covid is dangerous and we are being protected. I say, no, covid is not dangerous at all for most people, and you’re being robbed blind. Do you even remember what life looked like before all this madness took off? And I see those eyes again and I know, no, they do not remember. They have forgotten pretty much everything. Whatever the reason, people are losing their minds. I find that very scary, but I believe I already said that.

 

People seem to have stopped caring, the subterranean continued. You know, putting personal relationships first. Now it is fear ruling their decisions, fear of non-compliance and the inevitable consequences it might bring. Many people seem to be losing their personality, not caring because they somehow have lost the ability to tell real from fake. They think everything they see is real, not realising the gripping, sensational stories the entertainment machine is providing them with are completely untrue. And you live in this lie and the lie offers the opportunity to be heroic while promoting the lie simultaneously. And you accept, because everybody is doing it, it’s like a new normal.

 

I don’t think we should be taking this road which is controlled by ambition and power projection. It’s ugly and it’s senseless and it produces no Earth value. There’s nothing there that Earth might be profiting from, apart from a few deliberate restoration projects. I believe we are close to extinguishing ourselves as a species. So many people seem to be going to disappear or get modified into an externally controlled version of themselves, like street theatre puppets. The richness of human existence, the many cultures and challenges people face, is going to be mortally wounded. Human culture is disappearing, and our various ways of life will be utterly forgotten. You own nothing and you’ll be happy, remember that one? Whatever we whisper in your ear, dear.

 

I don’t want to stop this fight until it’s over, the traveller concluded, even if I may at times seem a lonely fool to be resisting all the laughable yet equally demeaning measures so many people obediently put up with. No, we’re not saving anyone by agreeing with our governments which have over the years become entrenched in conducting people’s lives – so many things you can’t or must do, so many rules that didn’t exist twenty years ago. And the last two years have seen a particularly sharp increase in behavioural dictatorship, or should that be dictatorial behaviourism? It is how it is, and don’t you dare whisper it ain’t true, so as not to be cancelled for indecent infringement. I say, please, people, let’s free ourselves from this madness. It is not necessary, it is not inevitable. We make it so, yes, that’s true, but we always have our free will – some say God given, others say nature deriven – to do things in a different way from what we are told, creating a different situation in which other types of decisions are prone to be made, which then will further stimulate ongoing promotion of the idea that nothing has to be like our self-appointed superiors tell us it is. We are human beings still, I hope, we possess a soul, we have a will, we are energy hidden inside an energy consuming machine called body. We continuously feel the need to express ourselves. Shall I tell you something funny? I see in fact a lot of expression of free will in people’s behaviour these days. The endangered mask free status, for one, makes people find new ways of showing their teeth and smiles. After all, you want to be remembered well when they lock up your face again. Don’t do it any longer, please. Let’s not get sucked into this monkey business. Resist. Be healthy. Don’t get diagnosed. Don’t get tested. Please. It would make all the difference. We can save ourselves by simple behavioural adjustment, pretty much like quitting smoking. Bit tough for a few days, but soon enough you start noticing the benefits. And no, there are no patches for mental strength, but rest assured that someone somewhere is working on a synthetic version.

 

 

Mask rules

For close to two years the Spanish population have been waiting for someone to finally lift the ever more ridiculous mask wearing rule. People who were wearing masks at work would meet outside or simply walk to the bus stop together mask free. Children who were perfectly healthy and who were touching each other continuously, as children do, had to wear the horrifying mask of shame for no other reason than to be born in the wrong year. What grown-ups, whether parents or teachers or strangers, have done to our children is a crime of unimaginable cruelty. We have destroyed two years of their lives, years we often relish as being among the best of our own existence. That is sadistic. You know you are going to hurt them, and you do it anyway. You know the masks were not fit for purpose, that was openly stated early on, yet you accepted the rule when it came along. Whenever a rule changed or a new one was implemented, you simply obliged, considering the rule of law always above human relations. Mummy loves you, honey, but the law says she must punish you with unnecessary mask wearing. We must always follow the law, remember? Mummies are not allowed to protect their children from the law.

 

As a teacher and a neighbour, I’ve seen a lot of children suffering. For two years, they were not allowed to have normal relationships, to breathe freely, or to see faces. Out of the blue, they were forced into a different way of life, full of restrictions, with strange and cruel rules such as distancing yourself from your friends, which never seemed to make any sense. Suddenly, their youth was taken away from them. And it lasted two long years. Remember how long two years seemed when you were at school? Think about that if you haven’t already. Their youth was stolen. These children’s brains must be seriously impaired. And we did it. We let it happen. We screwed them over. So, how do you think they feel?

 

On holiday in Madrid, we saw a remarkable number of middle-aged couples with one or two masked teenagers in their wake. And while the lonely ones looked as if they were being hauled off to the nearest slaughterhouse, the pairs often seemed quite lively, though only among themselves. Whatever life still had to offer to them, it clearly did so within a hostile environment. Back in class, the girls initially kept their masks on, though hanging below the nose so as to be able to breathe again. The boys did show their faces, and they were disappointingly ugly. I am not going to describe them here, but let it be said that the girls noticed too.

 

Overall, Madrid was pretty mask obedient, less than a week before the priorly notified lifting of the main sanctions. On the metro, nobody opted for the below the mouth wearing style that has become quite generally practiced in Barcelona recently, a trend I pride myself in having been one of the early adopters of. Also, in bars the ridiculous practice of sporting a mask while walking past tables, only to tear it off immediately once being seated, was still enforced with gusto. As welcoming as cafes generally are in the nation’s capital, even at this late moment the mask laws still ruled supreme. Whatever the activity one engaged in, hugging friends and strangers alike, being at work or simply embezzling money, the mask had to be worn at all designated times and locations. We don’t poke fun at humiliating rules here, remember? I guess it is the price you pay for living near the centre of things.

 

It's not only teenagers who love wearing their mask with an unhealthy desire. There are the adults who have always believed that their society was the best possible, if not perfect, and that government, with all its flaws, ultimately speaks the truth because it was chosen by the people and is there for the people. They have been the most fanatical in upholding the various lockdown measures – always keeping distance, washing their hands continuously, sporting masks even in the confinement of their own cars - and feel betrayed now that so many measures have been eased. Double masked and with a straight back, their heads held up high, they angrily walk past all the mask- and carefree losers who so desperately need fun in their lives. See them sitting in the sun, having drinks and snacks, laughing with friends! They, on the other hand, are not afraid to be afraid and hate their circumstances. They feel well-prepared for the necessary hardships that are inevitably coming our way. Bring on the new rules, chastise us with well-deserved punishment. We are ready to give it all up for new unpleasant realities.

 

It's surprising to see how many of these covid fanatics – covidians in the tongue of the infidels – are left leaning. I always thought that left in the West was a mostly libertarian affair, giving people the means to have their own unique experience, something like that, certainly since the unproven convictions of the twentieth century after the fall of the Soviet Union started watering down to become today’s cultural Marxism. Yet, it seems the covidians are more of the Stalinist type, ready to slay all those who oppose the mask if only in the deepest of their dreams. They really feel superior in a sadistic kind of way.

 

One week in, many people are still expressing their joy at being freed from the horror of being a stranger to neighbours and friends (while torturing their children at the same time). So, I asked around: what are you going to do if the mask rule is reinstated. You clearly hate it a lot, don’t you now? It’s a difficult answer for most. They never want to wear the damn thing again, ever, and they know it’s not childishness but their soul calling, that you just can’t live your life wearing masks, that life is about something else, and you know it is true and you really wish you could be free, but you also know that in fact you can’t. You cannot change the world on your own, so there is no sense in stepping forward. We need someone crazy enough to actually step forward, so we can all be early adopters and help humanity moving on from the present madness. So, that’s what everyone is waiting for. The new messiah. First public appearances should take place before Pentecost if one hopes to make it through revolution month. In the meantime, many would likely follow up renewed regulations. You know, it’s the law, and remember, it’s probably only temporary, more than two years it can’t last, just like the last time. There’ll be life after that, perhaps.