Dr Piers Robinson
When COVID-19 initially concerned dominate the news back in March 2020, I wrote a post for the independent media outlet OffGuardian, caution of the serious threats we may deal with.
I was not referring to COVID-19, and whatever threat that might have been posing, but to the possibility that powerful actors might look for to make use of the crisis in order to additional political and financial programs. Drawing a contrast with 9/11, I noted that situations in which the general public was fearful developed conditions ripe for adjustment, in particular through propaganda.
In the case of 9/11, public fear of terrorism ushered in an international ‘war on horror’, whilst, as we now know from documents, US President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair communicated over the initiation of a series of ‘regime change wars’ during the weeks following 9/11. Blair composed to Bush: ‘If toppling Saddam is a prime objective, it is far much easier to do it with Syria and Iran in favour of giving in instead of striking all three at the same time’.
These wars were less to do with battling ‘Islamic fundamentalist terrorism’ than they were to do with understanding geo-political ‘regime-change’ goals. In a nutshell, 9/11 and the worry of terrorism were propagandised in order to mobilise assistance for broader geo-political objectives. Over 20 years later on we are still living with the repercussions of these ‘regime-change’ wars.
2 years on from the start of COVID-19, it has indeed become apparent to lots of that it has been an event involving high levels of propaganda and one in which political and economic programs have actually been advanced under its cover. For instance, we now know that behavioural researchers were used in the UK to increase fear levels in order to push populations to comply with lockdown and other measures.
Lots of people have been pressured to accept a series of injections in return for evasive liberties. We likewise now understand that propaganda activities have actually included smear campaigns against dissident researchers and, at least in one major case, were initiated by top-level officials:
In Fall 2020, Anthony Fauci, Chief Medical Officer to the United States President, and National Institute of Health director Francis Collins discussed the need to quickly shut down the Great Barrington Declaration, whose authors were advocating an alternative COVID-19 response focused on safeguarding high-risk people and thus avoiding destructive lockdown steps.
Collins composed in an email that this ‘proposal from the three fringe epidemiologists … seems to be getting a lot of attention … There needs to be a fast and terrible published takedown of its premises’.
Instead of a civilised and robust clinical debate, a character assassination followed. It is likewise now ending up being clear to numerous that policies of lockdown and mass injection, precisely those policies promoted off the back of extensive fear of a virus, are deeply problematic.
A big swathe of researchers and physician are now plainly and repeatedly warning governments and populations that lockdowns are damaging and ineffective whilst mass injection of populations may likewise be doing more damage than good.
With regard to the development of political and financial agendas, some experts argue that significant economic and political events have actually run hand-in-hand with COVID-19.
These consist of a drive toward Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in the context of a major approaching crisis in the financial markets that emerged during autumn 2019, and a political-economic project articulated by the World Economic Online Forum (WEF) and multiple leaders concerning ‘The Great Reset’. With regard to the political-economic task, the WEF has actually played a crucial function in promoting particular concepts about the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and ‘digitised society’ (e.g. ‘Smart Cities’).
The book COVID-19: The Terrific Reset was released in July 2020 and author Klaus Schwab stated that: ‘The pandemic represents an unusual however narrow window of chance to show, reimagine, and reset our world to produce a much healthier, more equitable, and more flourishing future’.
He likewise believes that the 4th commercial transformation will cause a ‘fusion of our physical, our digital and our biological identities.’ It appears that the WEF, as an arranging force, has considerable reach. In 2017 Schwab boasted:
When I mention our names like Mrs Merkel, even Vladimir Putin and so on, they all have actually been Young Worldwide Leaders of the World Economic Online Forum. However what we are really proud of now is the young generation like Prime Minister Trudeau, President of Argentina and so on, is that we permeate the cabinets. So the other day I was at a reception for Prime Minister Trudeau and I will know that half of his cabinet or even more half of his cabinet are actually Young International Leaders of the World Economic Online Forum … that’s true in Argentina, and it holds true in France now with the president a Young International Leader.
With regard to economic occasions, it is now established that a major crisis in the repo markets throughout the fall of 2019 was followed by high-level planning focused on trying to resolve an upcoming financial crisis of higher proportions than the 2008 banking crisis.
One reaction appears to have been a drive toward control of currencies via the Reserve bank (Reserve Bank Digital Currency, CBDC). For instance, the General Supervisor of the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), Agustín Carstens, stated in October 2020 that:
we intend to establish the equivalence with cash and there is a big difference there, for example in money we don’t understand who is utilizing a 100 dollar expense today … the key distinction with the CBDC is that the central bank will have absolute control on the guidelines and regulations that will determine the use concerning that expression of reserve bank liability and likewise we will have the innovation to enforce that.’
A current and informing example of the kind of power that can be wielded by federal governments in the monetary world was the Canadian federal government’s attempt to reduce the trucker demonstrations versus mandates through seizure of savings account.
These political and financial agendas have major potential consequences for our societies and, arguably, result in a profound, and extremely problematic, concentration of power and curtailment of democracy.
One genuine worry is that we are witnessing a drive toward a Chinese-style social credit system, in which the combination of individual data and money through digital ID allows assets to be removed by authorities and, more broadly, extraordinary levels of control over the lives of people.
It is definitely clear that liberal democracies are experiencing serious limitations on civil liberties and free speech– witness recent events in Canada– and relentless financial and political crisis.
It is clear and empirically verifiable that populations have been subjected to coercive and aggressive attempts to limit their autonomy, consisting of limitations on motion, right to protest, freedom to work and flexibility to take part in society. Most especially, increasing numbers of individuals have been needed to take an injection at regular intervals in order to allow their involvement in society.
These developments have actually been accompanied by often freely aggressive and inequitable statements from major political leaders with respect to individuals withstanding the injections. The danger to civil liberties and ‘democracy as typical’ has been, probably, extraordinary.
Nevertheless, resistance has actually been considerable. We were, up until recently, seeing a mainstreaming of debate over both the effectiveness of lockdowns and the wisdom of mandated injections.
United States podcast giant Joe Rogan aired discussion of the WEF only two weeks back, whilst the premier entertainment reveal Saturday Night Live (SNL) ran a funny sketch mocking middle-class fascinations concerning masks and boosters.
Another popular YouTube giant, Russell Brand, has actually been repeatedly airing talks questioning numerous aspects of the COVID-19 response along with highlighting deceptiveness and adjustments individuals have gone through in the last two years.
Underlying this sort of mainstreaming of dissent have actually been relentless and widespread demonstrations against COVID-19 constraints and a wide range of well-organised groups and movements pressing back against numerous COVID-19-related policies.
The war in Ukraine, nevertheless, has significantly and exceptionally shifted the focus of mainstream political and media attention.
It is well developed throughout the academic literature that war circumstances are accompanied by huge levels of propaganda and censorship, increased feelings and a relative ease with which authorities can dictate the shapes of public and political argument.
This certainly appears to be the case in relation to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. However whatever the rights and wrongs of this specific conflict, there is an extremely genuine risk that it will be instrumentalised by authorities in order to divert attention from the multiple issues that had been surfacing with respect to COVID-19.
This is extremely worrying for anyone looking for to understand the actions of authorities during the COVID-19 occasion, the corruption and dangers seen in relation to the mRNA injection, and to acquire responsibility.
But likewise, perhaps more significantly, war fever may also function as a brand-new diversion from the underlying political and financial programs that some experts have actually been cautioning us about.
Undoubtedly, the war in Ukraine has substantial capacity to function as a brand-new making it possible for occasion facilitating the drive towards constraints on liberties and the roll-out of agendas that, for instance, the WEF has been waxing lyrical about for two years.
A distracted and war-terrified public will be simple to manipulate whilst policies such as digital ID, mandated injections and Reserve bank Digital Currencies are introduced.
Indeed, the current drive toward broadening the powers of the World Health Organisation (WHO) is a clear example of the threats of additional centralisation of power: Under the guise of pandemic preparedness, the objective is to allow the WHO to require states to carry out the sort of restrictive steps we have actually seen over the last 2 years.
The Council of the European Union revealed, on 3 March 2022, that negotiations were to begin with regard to this brand-new legislation. The possibility of an international bio-security program, that significantly disempowers regional and community-level autonomy, need to be of severe issue to everybody.
We just can not manage to continue toppling from one highly propagandised crisis to the next and allowing our emotions to be harnessed by those who wield political and financial power.
Many people over the last 2 years have discovered much about issues such as propaganda, mainstream media bias along with the levels of corruption, or conflicts of interest, that exist in both national and international institutions. It is essential those lessons are kept in focus and not clouded by events in Ukraine.
Now is the time for calm and rational evaluations of the events we are living through and, more than ever, figured out engagement with broadening public understanding of the agendas that numerous now think to have been underlying COVID-19.
This consists of the need to question the propaganda and adjustment populations have undergone over the last 2 years and the significantly discredited policy responses involving lockdowns and mass injections.
Even more significantly, crucial assessment and awareness of the concentration of power and loss of democracy inherent in developments such as digital ID and CBDC digital currencies, and their interconnection with political visions regarding 4IR and digitised society, is more crucial than ever.
It is these procedures that provide the most severe and substantive threat to individuals, potentially introducing an age of what some describe as worldwide totalitarianism. Lastly, a watchful eye must be kept how the Ukraine crisis might be feeding into and allowing the political and financial procedures already advanced during COVID-19.
More than ever before, we must have the confidence to challenge those in positions of political and financial power. We are, without doubt, at a turning point in our histories. Individuals need to stay concentrated on the huge image.