"May you live in interesting times".
That saying has long been used to denote a curse, because at the end of the day "un"interesting times tend to be far more peaceful and serene. Well, these times we're living in certainly are interesting, and are anything but peaceful and serene.
We've been told for decades now that there would be an eventual pandemic, a deadly virus circulating that would upend our world. It's been in movies like Contagion and Outbreak, people getting sick in the streets, hospitals overflowing with patients, dead bodies piling up in our morgues.
While I haven't seen anything close to that first hand, there were images on TV that were startling, from places like Italy and New York City. In point of fact I myself only know two people who've been sick with Covid, and two who tested positive but never got sick. But we all know that network news never lies, and that the measures taken were totally required to save the human race from extinction.
Tens of millions out of work in the United States, millions in my native Canada. People forced onto public assistance or to avail themselves of charitable orginizations like food banks and shelters. It had to be done, only essential workers could be sacrificed to the ravages of Covid-19: Hospital workers and others in the health care sector, police, fire and other emergency workers, warehouses, transit systems, grocery store and big box retail employees.
It's a long list of heroes who bravely went to work day in and day out during wave after wave of surging cases. Not everyone could work safely from their homes obviously, and people still need to eat and have services up and running like electricity and internet connection, sanitation and water.
While government agencies try to spin the economic devastation by reporting on the economic growth that's taken place since the economy was crushed, it's obvious to anyone with any fiscal savvy that there's not much further for GDP to drop before society collapses entirely. You can't get blood from a stone after all.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a video linked address to the United Nations hailed the pandemic as "an opportunity". Countries around the world can use the Covid-19 crisis to "re-imagine economic systems", we have the chance for a "Re-Set".
You can watch Trudeau's UN address here:
So what exactly does it mean to reset and re-imagine our economic systems?
To understand where we're heading it helps first to know where you've been. Up until the declaration of a pandemic western economies were largely capitalistic in nature. Within legal frameworks businesses were allowed to operate and if consumers rewarded these businesses they succeeded, if consumers stayed away they failed.
The state of emergency led governments to shutter much of the small business sector: Bars, restaurants, fitness centres and gyms, health and beauty shops, small retail outlets and many more. The big players were of course deemed essential. In Canada one could still get vital weed and booze, Amazon warehouses were busier than ever as people hunkered in their bunkers binge watching essential NetFlix shows that were often filmed in Canada during the restrictions. Some people simply had to be sacrificed to the common good.
The Bread and Circuses of the Roman Empire became the Weed and Gay Zookeeper shows of our modern age.
That's where we are and where we've been. So where are we going?
To understand that you have to know that Global leaders like Trudeau, Joe Biden and many in the European Union, that they're all in on saving the world from a climate disaster. Computer modeled projections are forecasting that this wonderful planet is going to be almost unfit for human life within a generation or two unless radical and drastic changes are made.
For someone like Justin Trudeau I imagine this pandemic was something of a god send, because without the fear that's taken hold of so many people he and his global brethren could have never succeeded in bringing about such a sweeping reform as the World Economic Forum's "Great Reset" agenda.
No longer can we afford our market driven economy, it is simply too damaging to the climate according to the data being being input into the climate models. We need the heavy hand of big government to save us all from destruction, because we'll never do it on our own.
Instead of money being the driving force behind what a person can do in society we will have a new system. The new currency will be behavior, someone who is good and does as directed by government rulers will have greater privileges than someone who bucks the system. It's a progrom that has worked to tremendous effect in China where it's referred to as Social Credits.
I am aware that many are thinking the new vaccines will restore things to the old normal. That is not going to happen, there is no turning back now. We don't even know if these new vaccines even work, the trials are still on-going and won't be completed until 2023. They're using an epigenetic technology never before approved for human use, sending instructions into a person's body in order to build the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus at the cellular level. We have no idea if there are long term safety issues or not, the data set is only months old, not years. Already a number of short term safety issues have been identified, Bells Palsy, Blood Clots, Allergic Reactions.....
Even with the vaccines people are still having to wear masks, keep distance, and restrictions on activities like international travel are still in place.
Buckle up, it's going to be an "interesting" ride.