Triumph of the Apocalyptics

And the Defeat of Civilization [The Daily Reckoning] October 27, 2023 [WEBSITE]( | [UNSUBSCRIBE]( Triumph of the Apocalyptics West Hartford, Connecticut Editor’s note: What was the animating philosophy behind the COVID lockdowns? Today, Jeffrey Tucker argues that it was “apocalypticism” — the philosophy of the Joker. What exactly does he mean? [Jeffrey Tucker] JEFFREY TUCKER Dear Reader, In the course of almost four years, and really dating back a decade and a half, I’ve managed to read most of the writings of the intellectuals, titans of industry and government officials who constructed the strange reality of 2020 and after. They wanted to conduct a science experiment on the human population. Because infectious disease knows no borders, they knew for sure it would have to be a global one. They had every detail worked out in their models. They knew how far apart people would need to stand. They knew that the best way to stop any common virus from spreading would be total isolation of the whole human population insofar as that was possible. Families could not do that of course but they figured that they could live in different rooms or simply stay six feet apart. If they couldn’t do that, they could mask up. It’s truly hard to imagine what the architects of this barbaric policy believed would happen next. Is it as simple (and ridiculous) as believing that a respiratory virus would just disappear? Or that a potion would show up in time to inoculate the whole population even though no one has ever successfully come up with something like that before? Is that what they believed? Maybe. Or maybe it was just fun or otherwise remuneratively advantageous to try out a grand and global experiment on the human population. Certainly it was profitable for many, even if it wrecked the social, cultural, economic and political lives of billions of people. Even as I write those words, it’s hard to believe they are not out of some dystopian fiction. And yet this is what happened. Goodbye to Human Rights Almost immediately, the idea of human rights took a back seat. Obviously so. So did the idea of equal freedom: That was immediately on the chopping block. By edict, the human population was divided into categories. It began with essential and nonessential, distinctions drawn from military protocols that suddenly pertained to the whole of the civilian world. In those days, you could feel the concern for basic rights and freedom slipping, and with it the moral conscience of the public mind. From the beginning, it felt like martial law and the population was being divided: sick versus well, compliant versus noncompliant, essential versus non-essential, elective surgeries versus emergencies needing medical services. And so on. 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Even houses of worship went along even though they didn’t have to, breaking their congregations into two parts. Behind all of this was a political motive that traces to a text that every high expert still celebrates as a prescient and decisive refutation of liberal values: Carl Schmitt’s Concept of the Political from 1932. This essay is utterly dismissive of human rights on grounds that such notions do not sustain robust states. He was of course a Nazi jurist and his thought laid the groundwork for the demonization of the Jews and the march of the totalitarian state. In Schmitt’s mind, the friend/enemy distinction is the best method of rallying the people around a grand cause that gives life meaning. This impulse is what gives strength to the state. He goes further: The friend/enemy distinction is best ignited in the reality of bloodshed: “The state as the decisive political entity possesses an enormous power: the possibility of waging war and thereby publicly disposing of the lives of men. The jus belli contains such a disposition. It implies a double possibility: the right to demand from its own members the readiness to die and unhesitatingly to kill enemies.” Now We Know Where It Ends If for years, you have asked the question “Where does this end?” we now have our answer, which seems inevitable in retrospect: war. We are looking at the deaths of innocents and probably this is just the beginning. The lockdowns broke not only the old moral codes and agreed-upon limits to state power. They broke the human personality and spirit the whole world over. They gave rise to a bloodlust that was barely beneath the surface. States went crazy in bullying and dividing their citizens. It happened nearly everywhere but Israel was a leading case in point. The citizenry has never been more divided and the state never more distracted from security concerns. The delicate peace was shattered in shocking ways on Oct. 7, 2023, in a ghastly attack that revealed the worst security failure in the vulnerable state in its history. That incident then encouraged and further unleashed the apocalyptics, whole peoples determined to take the next step in the dehumanization of the population and the use of appalling means of doing the unthinkable: extermination, a word now thrown around as if it is fine and normal to speak this way. [11/1: The Beginning Of A Brand-New Inflation Surge?]( [Click here for more...]( Inflation officially peaked in June 2022 at 9.1% -- and ever since, it’s come back down to just 3.2%. But if you think the worst of this crisis is over, think again… Will Nov. 1 mark the beginning of a new – and far more serious – inflation surge? [Click Here To See My Urgent Warning]( This conflict has now reached further into the politics of every country and down to every civic association, communities of intellectuals and personal friendship. As Schmitt might have loved — and what Bret Weinstein calls Goliath (the unity of administrative state, media, corporate power and elite tech platforms) surely celebrates — everyone is being turned into the category of friend and enemy. We are reminded at last of how incredibly fragile civilization — and the peace and freedom that give rise to it — truly is. We should worry that in the drama of the moment, the history recounted above will be discarded from human memory. The Philosophy of the Joker The plans for virus eradication failed so badly that many of its perpetrators are desperate for a dramatic change of subject so that they can avoid responsibility. Again, this is the desire, and it might even be the plan. This simply cannot be allowed to happen. Those of us with memories of civilized life, including universal rights and freedoms, cannot stay silent or get emotionally drawn in to the point that we are willing to forget what was done to us, the damage it inflicted on public culture and the moral conduct a civilized people expect. Every war is preceded by a period of demoralization (I don’t matter), demotivation (there is nothing I can do) and dehumanization (those people are not worth saving). From there it is a simple matter of flipping the switch. I founded the Brownstone Institute in light of the above history to shine a light on higher ideals, not a Schmittian war between friends and enemies but societies of compassion, dignity, freedom, rights and the exercise of human volition against all threats and uses of violence public and private. This is our guiding light now and always. Apocalypticism builds nothing; it only destroys. It’s the instantiation of the philosophy of the Joker. No nation and no community can survive it. Few of us knew or fully understood the depth of depravity just beneath the thin veneer of civilization that had previously dominated the large expanse of our lives. It was the maniacal experiment in disease control only a few years ago that triggered this bout of man’s inhumanity to man. There’s a burning need to know how this came about and why, and take measures, now desperate ones, to put back into the Pandora’s box all that was released. Regards, Jeffrey Tucker for The Daily Reckoning [feedback@dailyreckoning.com.](mailto:feedback@dailyreckoning.com) Editor’s note: While the world is distracted by Israel and Hamas… Ukraine and Russia… and China and Taiwan… Jim Rickards is warning that there’s another [“war”]( just around the corner that NOBODY is talking about. Except Jim, that is. [And as Jim explains here, this war directly affects YOU.]( As you’ll see, it even has biblical connotations. This crisis will have rippling consequences Jim fears will cause financial tragedy for millions of unprepared American citizens. That’s why this Sunday at exactly 6:30 p.m. ET Jim’s hosting an [emergency war strategy session.]( One where Jim plans on revealing the real reason for the geopolitical chaos abroad. He’s even set up a private forum to help fill you in on the details. [Click Here to Log in to Jim’s War Forum and Register for His Event This Sunday]( Password: Patriot1* Clicking any of the links above automatically registers you for Jim Rickards’ War Forum, but does not obligate you in any way to attend the event. By reserving your spot, you will receive event updates. We will not share your email address with anyone. And you can opt out at any time. [Privacy Policy.]( Thank you for reading The Daily Reckoning! We greatly value your questions and comments. Please send all feedback to [feedback@dailyreckoning.com.](mailto:feedback@dailyreckoning.com) [Jeffrey Tucker] [Jeffrey Tucker]( is an independent editorial consultant who served as Editorial Director for the American Institute for Economic Research. He is the author of many thousands of articles in the scholarly and popular press and eight books in 5 languages, most recently Liberty or Lockdown. He speaks widely on topics of economics, technology, social philosophy, and culture. [Paradigm]( ☰ ⊗ [ARCHIVE]( [ABOUT]( [Contact Us]( © 2023 Paradigm Press, LLC. 808 Saint Paul Street, Baltimore MD 21202. By submitting your email address, you consent to Paradigm Press, LLC. delivering daily email issues and advertisements. To end your The Daily Reckoning e-mail subscription and associated external offers sent from The Daily Reckoning, feel free to [click here.]( Please note: the mailbox associated with this email address is not monitored, so do not reply to this message. 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