«Now we are faced with a crucial decision. Do we continue pushing harder and harder down the path of coercion and dehumanization, with ever-increasing harm and ever-diminishing returns? Or do we take a beat, admit that the picture has changed, and try to find ourselves back to acceptance and sanity?»
Coming Clean | Cory Zue
I’ll continue to have a few … well, more Covid related entries on this blog. They are usually related to personal freedom, the increasing authoritarianism in Government, the threat to the function of important organizations (including — unfortunately — universities, which are also threatened by becoming corporations and stifled by bureaucracy and policy), in short, all the things that stifle creativity. If this continues, we are ending in world in which you may only think in a very narrow band of opinions, make only small, incremental progress that does not threaten anybody, and … well, that’s not a world I want to live in.
But besides writing what I think is true, and perhaps using ridicule (two of the strategies mentioned in the mass psychosis video), I’ll also try to make it less depressing and sucky. Even though the development is really concerning. I’m currently collecting my thoughts, but yeah, the issue sucks but it shouldn’t suck to talk about it.
Anyway, reason for this posting, I stumbled upon the essay Coming Clean by Cory Zue, which is in many ways similar to my own development on the topic (with a few notable differences, like place of work, non-academic parents, no reviewers 😉 ). It’s also a nice example of writing that doesn’t leave you depressed.
Highly recommended.