If I go out in the world and get into a spin on the motorway, heart disease, malaria, if I encounter fire, flood, earthquake, drowning, liver disease, electrocution, sky diving anomaly, cancer, TB, or any other form of misadventure and death – then so be it. This is life. We live with the possibility of death everyday in countless ways no matter how carefully we try to avoid truly living. Epidemics do indeed come and go every decade or so (pre and post the phenomena of global media sensationalism.) And depending on our luck, our number may be called at year 0, 3, 23, 49, 56, 78, 93, no matter how bravely or cautiously we chose to live.

If I get a virus, then I will deal with that reality. If I get a virus and it kills me, then I’ll eat dirt. Meanwhile, I reject any fear impressed upon me by pandemia – the hysteria born of unconscionable hype, mishandling and misinformation through media, authority – and increasingly, blinded by fear and coercion – public opinion. I, like the unsung global multitude of critical thinkers, do not carry this fear virus.

Let me be clear, whilst respecting others choices, giving deference in particular to the vulnerable and elderly at risk, I have been fortunate enough to travel relatively freely, not washed my hands any more than common good hygiene suggests, and not “locked down” my life per coercive “guidelines.” Maybe I am just lucky, maybe my own instincts and innate intelligence are valid, or maybe those guidelines are in fact what have kept this particular virus in check – though that is really what is in question.

“Sweden is betting that strict coronavirus rules like those imposed in virtually every other European country can only work in the short term. Treating citizens as children lacking the judgment to make wise decisions is not a sustainable approach. Addressing a prolonged crisis, or one that comes in repeated waves, will require citizens to be active and responsible participants in their security — not mere recipients of government instructions.”

Yet the real question I don’t hear being asked by any public authority is, how are we in fact responsible for gross imbalances in environmental health globally? And, how can we change behaviours and responsibilities in order to mitigate the next “unexpected” viral mutation splashing back at us? How do our behaviours and encroachments on wilderness cause life at large to respond?

Like much of western science and politics, we continue patching and treating the symptom rather than looking deeply at the underlying cause. How about taking responsibility from the top down, instead of bludgeoning the citizenry with dubious controls, bandaids, smoke and mirrors, or other dumb political devices, divisiveness and assertions.

Asides from all this, there is the observable fact that the vast majority, and certainly the few people I know who have “had” covid, get over it soon enough like any pernicious rat-ass flu bug. There are many exceptions and those less fortunate, there is no argument here, but given the relative numbers, this is the exception proving the rule – NOT the other way round.

If you really want to look at the numbers without bias, review carefully, remembering that these numbers are all relative to inconsistent incidences of testing, unreported and asymptomatic cases, and those who have pre-existing conditions compromising their immune systems to any environmental dis-ease, just to name a very few frailties in the loaded statistics game.

Let’s just do a quick comparative reality check here anyway. After all the insistence of authorities, experts, doctors, independent researchers and alternative (conspiracy) theories around the world – very few, if any, verifiable let alone verified facts are apparent. This is evidenced by the extremely inconsistent views and ensuing policies, shifting government guidelines and expert advice. OK,  maybe it is an unravelling phenomena, if there really is any truly novel phenomenon here at all besides pandemia.

And what is also not being discussed publicly, in so called democratic society, are the profoundly dehumanising and disempowering mandates being enforced with no transparency by appointed authority – much like those born out of the dubious Patriot Act, also born out of a climate of fear – generally increasingly restrictive measures across the western world. These restrictions are never retracted after the “emergency” subsides, nor in fact have they made the world a safer place to live. Yet slowly, steadily, behind closed doors, increasing control measures are passed into “law”.

These measures are not a debatable concern. It is a reality. Whether that be in how we manage our money, how we are screened, referenced and manipulated just for the privilege of renting an apartment, boarding a plane, purchase goods, and increasingly, how we transact our lives. Forgive me if this sounds dramatic, but this does represent an increasing police state, enacting a slow strangle hold on our liberties through coercion.

Meanwhile, elderly people are forcibly dying isolated from their families (a heinous crime against any dignified humanity) weddings, family businesses, art, and all the institutions that make us human, are being denied, destroyed, or at best eroded to the verge of non viability.

We are unable to socialise, gather, celebrate, explore life and art in the way we, as civil (relatively) society chose. This has already been taken away, and lets be clear, it is not coming back unless we understand that our freedom to live our lives together as human communities is our sovereign right – not as given to us by the dictates of any authority who, whether purely instinctively, opportunistically, or by design, through division and fear mongering, are taking control of our lives and our liberties.

So let’s just do a real number check here. As of end of August 2020, we have an official count of some 847,000 recorded deaths by covid globally. (https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/)

This is a big number for a viral outbreak. This is also at present, an absolutely unreliable number due to numerous countries apparently not being transparent with their count on one hand, and on the other, that these numbers include a very (very) large percentage of people who had previous severe health conditions and died with covid – not because of covid. But let’s just run with 847,000 for now – or better still, let’s double it up to

Compare with global early deaths as recorded in 2017 (https://ourworldindata.org/causes-of-death)

Births and deaths are projected to be more or less comparable through 2016, 2018, 2019, and likely 2020 and 2021.

It comes back to the fundamental, primary and personal question of quality versus quantity. How do I want to live my life? In fear, controlled-protected by ever restrictive rules and regulations – or in self responsible freedom, as part of an increasingly autonomous, decentralised, civilised, adult global society – perhaps like the one seemingly sane stance exemplified by Sweden

Obviously, I chose mutually respectful freedom, even when that includes questioning the inevitable, agenda driven rhetoric of media and authority.