"The world you live in—your nation, your people—is not the world you were born in at all. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves; when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed. Now you live in a system which rules without responsibility even to God. The system itself could not have intended this in the beginning, but in order to sustain itself it was compelled to go all the way.” ― Milton Sanford Mayer, They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-45
And indeed, the forms did remain the same as the police state was ushered into America after 9-11. Sure, you had to take off your shoes and walk through a machine that showed your naked body to the new TSA employees, in order to travel to relatives for the holidays. And there is an entire generation who has grown to adulthood thinking that it is normal for the government and corporations to monitor your phone calls, emails and movement.
But most of it stayed fairly intact. No Child Left Behind was a disruption, but going to school remained customary. Medical care became more and more expensive, but the ritual of visiting the doctor was similar to the past, and medical care remained voluntary, with the concept of Informed Consent intact. Shops were open, even though credit card debt became more common than cash purchases. The Fear and Hate was rolled out in various waves, with various targets, at first foreign, but increasingly domestic as the decades rolled on.
Who would have predicted the massive disruption of the forms of society that has been implemented since March, 2020? The shutdown of jobs, shops, restaurants, schools, hospitals, concerts and cinemas? The canceling of holidays? The forbidding of get-togethers, now extended to family visits? The upcoming involuntary mandatory vaccinations. The ramping up of Hate and Fear so strong that Keith Olberman is emboldened to advocate that voters who don't vote for Democrats should be "removed from society".
Orwell told us that the future would be a boot stomping on a human face, fovever, but even he did not predict that the human face would be required to be masked at all times.
We live in interesting times. It will get worse.
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