Mark Gray hails from the Kirkland Lake, Ontario area and has spent over 30 years as an Analyst/Developer in Big IT, mostly in Calgary's Oil-And-Gas Sector. Creator of an non-partisan, analytical methodology that seeks out and identifies Bias and Deceit embedded in weaponized information.
A pre COVID-19 post-mortem
Seriously, was it the bodies piling up in the coronavirus’ deadly wake? Was it the terrifying videos of bulldozers scraping heaps of COVID-19 victims into freshly dug mass graves by the thousands? Or, was it a national fear of those terrifying scenes that sparked political action? And was that national fear, irrational?
If it were fear of an unimaginable body count that forced our leaders to lock us down, what information did they use to come to that conclusion? Were they being informed through the media like the rest of us because the media were hyping COVID-19 models that predicted 500,000 deaths in the UK and 2.2 million in the U.S.?
- Saturday, August 1, 2020
"When thinking about privilege, think about who has the right to speak."
Why are we willing to accept a devastating economic shutdown or the quarantining of healthy people? Why do we think masks will save us or 6-feet of distance is necessary? Why are we focused on vaccines, testing, and contact tracing? It's because we believe in the threat of COVID-19. Why do we believe in the severity of that threat? Who told us to fear the virus? Was it really the models and experts? They were relied upon but, think about it, who gave them their voice?
“We’re first corralled by fear, then penned by panic. Thus trapped, we’re sheared of wealth and freedom. It isn’t by mistake.”
We are living in dark times, our future threatened by growing social, psychological, and financial stress due to overwhelming fear of the COVID-19 virus. It’s easy to fall into the pits of despair when life is bleak and the future uncertain.
As COVID-19 continues to keep the world in lock-down, there are signs that panic sparked by dire early predictions was hugely overblown, as were the draconian political actions that followed. Predicted death totals are plunging, not merely slipping, and somewhere in the discrepancies between then and now lies an important lesson for the entire world. Pray we learn it.
There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world and we likely won’t be going back to the way things were once we’re through the crisis.
Non-essential businesses have closed, or been forced to close, imperilling the economic health of the businesses and their employees. Usually busy streets are empty. Travellers and people showing any cold or flu like symptoms are expected to self-isolate and stay indoors for weeks, thereby reaping all the health benefits of stir-crazy. Masks have become the latest fashion trend and it’s surprising there aren’t more with pretty patterns. It’s now a sign of virtue to practice social distancing by respecting the magic six-foot rule.
Let’s face it, the world is in the grip of a full-fledge virus induced panic. It’s all virus, all the time. Whether its called Wuhan, Corona, Covid-19, Chinese, or xenophobic, the world’s latest killer virus has gone viral and is terrorizing populations into believing the deadliest plague in history is knocking on their front door with a battering ram. The Reaper has arrived! Run! Hide! We’re all going to die! Does that sound like a familiar refrain to anyone else?
Sure, a lot of Canadians think the country’s turmoil is a strong indicator that the Liberal Government is cruising down the wrong track. Protestors disrupting rail lines and killing pipelines in the west. Hundreds of thousands out of work. Billions in capital flight, with Quebec joining the party thanks to Warren Buffet’s quick escape from the quicksand that is the Canadian investment landscape. Anger boiling over from coast to coast to coast. Why, the very fabric of Canadian society is being shredded before our very eyes. “Incompetent!”, scream the government’s opposition.