This is an update as of March 4, 2020 on the facts of flu deaths reported weekly by the CDC. Their facts, not their estimates that conflate flu and all pneumonia deaths and even then don’t add up. It’s absurd. You can easily keep tabs on this by clicking the link in the article, so this will be my one and only update.
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My father, a well-educated lawyer with a very sophisticated mind, used to advise me to “keep it simple.” By simple he didn’t mean simplistic. He meant fundamentally logical and to the point. So I will do that here and stick to some simple realities, now that understanding what is going on in the world has become an idiot’s game played by the corporate mass media to confuse people.
I have been writing about the dangers of technology for many years. Not all technology, of course, for the pencil I am writing this with is a technology, and an amazing and underappreciated one. I am referring to the techno-scientific, digital, high-tech sort, the world of computers, cell phones, genetic engineering, biological weapons development, etc. You know, all the stuff that has made our lives easier.
To some extent, it has made our lives easier. You can find out information about virtually anything with the click of a button, advertise and see what other people are getting up to on social media. You can even make money from these new technologies, like if you were to buy Monetized YouTube channels, And it hasn’t just proven useful on a personal level, but on an enterprise level as well. With the help of technology, you can even run your entire business online, especially if you have consultancies like Syte Consulting Group (https://sytecg.com/) coaching you about how software can help with a seamless and efficient workflow. However, it can’t all be rose-tinted.
Two of the major problems the world faces – world destruction with nuclear weapons and the poisoning of the earth’s ecology and atmosphere – are the result of the marriage of science and technique that has given birth to the technological “babies” (Little Boy and Fat Man) that were used by the U.S. to massacre hundreds of thousands of Japanese and now threaten to incinerate everyone, and the chemical and toxic inventions that have despoiled the earth, air, and water and continue to kill people worldwide through America’s endless war-making and industrial applications.
Technology and technique, the technical way of thinking that under-girds it, are what we should fear most, not the will-o’-the-wisps marched out daily by the corporate mass media to create fear and panic. Those are ghost fears that should only frighten children. But as I have written before, most Americans are children, living inside a doll’s house of illusions and delusions while government and intelligence forces and their mass media accomplices play with them through technological propaganda.
For every problem caused by technology, a technological “solution” is always offered that creates further technological problems ad infinitum. But since people have been taught to love technology, they embrace the alleged technological “solutions” that are necessitated by the problems caused by the original technology. It’s a circle game.
In our technopoly, logical thinking has become illogical; cause and effect, means and ends have been inverted. The causes of our problems are touted as the means to end them. These “solutions” are always offered with a straight face, as if they made perfect sense. This is how societies operate when in the grip of myths. In this case, the myths of science, progress, and history. Such myths render the obvious invisible as they create a hopeless inevitability in people who can imagine no alternative and have been convinced that science is the secret to salvation and the means to the things they have learned to desire, including longevity and perhaps “immortality.” And these things have become the means to additional means in an endless loop from which, by definition, ends are absent. As a result, the search for truth, celebrated as a goal of science, is slyly eliminated. Keeping it simple becomes harder and harder.
The important point is that the entire system of propaganda works on fear that is promulgated via the electronic media: television, cell phones, and computers. It is pumped out non-stop.
The fear is the fear of death, the fundamental human fear that the powerful know how to manipulate to control people.
Death that can come at the hands of fabricated enemies, disease, or state forces that will get you if you step too far out of line. Russia, China, Iran, corona virus, Julian Assange, and Chelsey Manning being a few prominent recent examples of what to fear and what will become of you if you resist the fear-mongering and lies, and are brave.
Since today’s news is dominated by the fear of coronavirus, here is a partial list of other diseases that since 2003 we were told loudly and repeatedly would become pandemics and decimate the human race. Diseases to be very afraid of since they were coming for you if you weren’t very vigilant and forgot to wash your hands.
2003 SARS
2005 Avian Flu
2009 Swine Flu
2012 West Nile Virus
2014 Ebola
2016 Zika
Well, they didn’t, very far from it; they were like scam telephone calls that scare the gullible into believing the message that they will be immediately arrested if they don’t send $1,000 to Mr. X somewhere. But just like the color-coded terrorism warnings under George W. Bush, the pandemic alerts regularly pressed the panic button and kept fear in the air, until the panic balloon later burst under careful scrutiny, but at a point when most people had ingested the false fear of the earlier headlines and were not about to follow-up.
Now we have Coronavirus (COVID-19). So beware. Let us show you how to wash your hands and protect yourself.
Ten minutes viewing of any of the major television networks news shows is like entering a house of horrors at an amusement park. After viewing one, you want to wear your football helmet and mask, go to bed, and never get up. They ooze fear, as is their intent.
The game is both obvious and subtle. Even while COVID-19 is hyped, here and there the media throw in exaggerated figures on the regular flu, as if to say: we are fair and objective; both are bad, even if the coronavirus might soon become a pandemic.
It’s akin to their saying Trump is really scary, but look how scary the socialist Sanders is. You don’t want either. You want the one we will tell you to want who will protect you. Listen to us, for we are here to advise, so you will consent.
The news reports about the regular seasonal flu are most interesting. If you peruse the media across all platforms, including alternative sources, you will see people repeating as fact the numbers of flu deaths in the U.S.A. so far this flu season (October 1, 2019 until today). The numbers range from 12,000 to 18, 000 and higher, from CNN, CBS, NBC, etc. Try it. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates the “flu deaths” for this season will be 18,000 to 46,000. However, if you dig down into the CDC figures and look at its table, which few do, you will see that the actual number of flu deaths claimed by the CDC for this season so far is 3,482 at the time of writing (the latest data through seven weeks of 2020). They also claim the number of cases is decreasing and this season doesn’t look particularly bad. (Go here, scroll down, and click on “View Data Chart”).
Isn’t that strange? A bit of a simple discrepancy, wouldn’t you say? Why would the CDC do that, and why would the media repeat it?
The CDC claims there will be 18,000-46,000 deaths this season but only 3,482 have so far died of the flu and the peak months for flu have ended. Where are those tens of thousands of additional deaths going to come from?
What kind of game is going on here?
To repeat: the essential fear that the powerful use to manipulate and control people is the fear of death. Death in many guises: physical, social, psychological, etc. But the fear of death must be used in a way that is very confusing and scrambles people’s thinking while it frightens them.
If we keep it simple and examine what there really is to fear, it is the growth of the sophisticated modern technology in the hands of governments and corporations that has destroyed privacy, poisoned people and the earth, created digital dementia on a vast scale, allowed propaganda to flourish as never before, and is poised to blow the world to smithereens with nuclear weapons.
Then, of course there is the biologic disease warfare research and development that the U.S.A. has been involved in since it brought the German scientists here after WW II (Operation Paperclip) to continue the work they did for Hitler. Genetic research and the creation of virulent forms of viruses and bacteria became twisted into a system of science and medicine funded by the government to serve duel purposes that have become hard to distinguish.
So instead of panicking, perhaps it is better to ask some simple questions and seek simple answers. Maybe start by checking the CDC data and then asking what those anthrax attacks following the attacks of September 11, 2001 were all about, and why the U.S.A. refused in the summer of 2001 to sign the Protocol to the 1975 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) that would have added verification procedures to the BWC. Maybe read Graeme Mac Queen’s eye-opening book, The 2001 Anthrax Deception.
Maybe see that the mass media reports about the coronavirus conceal more than they reveal.
Keep it simple and question.
Hi,
Thanks a lot for your article. I try also to keep it simple and question.
Is this a fear play? who is playing and what are their goals?
I don’t consume much TV or radio, yet information about coronavirus colonised my thoughts.
My life is governed by sciences (informatical, economical, humanities, legal, artistic, political, medical), in that order. Politics and healths have made it to the top 4 of my concerns today.
Could this be a science coup d’état. 2 sciences (political and medical) showing their power of human societies ? A demonstration of force ?
To who ? which science is affected most by this coup ? The economical one.
Last year in France, we have seen the economical forces taking action against the political and medical establisment. Would this be some kind of payback ?
The Medical Science is strong in France. The “Ordre des médecins” can give access by signing or not ausweis, or not, to a drug, they can force you into psychiatric hospital (without a judge approval), they decide which drug is reimboursed or not by the social security.
Just few month ago I read a paper about how tech giants would take on french pharmacist and doctors monopolies. https://lapharmaciedigitale.com/actualites/amazon-pharmacie/
And the poltical power is strong too, they also have the power to intern in PH you with a judge approval : https://www.lepoint.fr/societe/fonctionnaire-interne-par-le-prefet-a-grasse-on-ne-souhaite-ca-a-personne-21-08-2019-2330973_23.php
They can close school, halt all economy, with just a signature.
I think those sciences are united to get back on to of the power that lead people life and thoughts.
Would they play a kind of God war between Sciences.
Julien,
I can’t speak to all the specifics about France that you mention, but I feel certain that this virus matter is far more than a natural outbreak of disease. It is shock therapy administered by authoritarian forces to maintain control of people disgusted with the reigning order. Merci and Pax, Ed
I’m glad the topic of fear is being discussed. It’s a good discussion and I feel is necessary. My own experiences with fear started before reading the news, watching television and so on. It might be helpful if we consider our first experiences with fear which just might start before we leave the womb. This first experience is then reinforced and possibly intensified as our experiences broaden and multiply with age.
Joe,
That’s a good point. We may pick up fear in the womb. No doubt we learn it when very young. You are right: those initial fears are intensified and broadened as we age. I was in the supermarket two days ago getting groceries. I saw a guy I know with a shopping cart piled very high with seven large 18 count packages of toilet paper. I said to him he was in a bit of a fear-induced panic, and he responded with startled eyes, “Oh no, I buy toilet paper only every three years.” He looked like a frightened small child despite his 6 foot 6 inch height. Pax, Ed
How did MacBeth put it? “Hang those that Speak of Fear!”
Underlying a very substantial problem, a flaw, in the technical methods is Jevons’ “Paradox”. Essentially every “advance” creates secondary effects that tend to ruin. It’s not the simplistic Jevons, but the general implications. Jevons is never mentioned, not in the canon of Engineering, or indeed any canon – yet operating before our eyes.
Ed’s possibly in error so far as US bioweapon program. The Merck Report in 1941 claimed that US industrial biowarfare production began almost immediately after reports of Japanese biowar being used in China. see “Report of the International Scientific Commission for the Investigation of the Facts Concerning Bacterial Warfare in China and Korea” (1952).
Ed’s essay brings to mind this sentence: “The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.” This is the opening line from Ted Kaczynski’s famous Thesis “Industrial Society and Its Future”.
About the hokem and the Virus – John Helmer’s new book on the Skirpals touches on the Porton Down (UK) bio lab …and if you read Helmer’s website and chase down the links you can see strong documentary evidence suggesting the CV is a designed weapon, and by whom.
Thanks for your essay. As usual, you provide so much to think about.
In an excellent and informative article by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, trusted sources referenced in his reporting indicate that CoVid-19 was manufactured in multiple, government sponsored labs as a bio-weapon, counter to international law, and then accidentally released.
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2020/02/23/coronavirus-could-be-on-the-verge-of-worldwide-breakout/
If this is the case, this could be “the story behind the story,” that you suggest, and I agree, exists.
In reference to the topic of fear, I think it’s important to differentiate between actions and events clearly manufactured to foster fear, illegitimately so, and those that are masked as being for “the public good” (vaccines, 5G, for instance), but upon close examination reveal possible hidden truths, the results of which ought to be truly frightening.
The cognitive impacts of our collective fear of death, both on the conscious and unconscious level, has been very well researched documented by social psychologists examining what is called TMT (Terror Management Theory). The theory comes out of the work of Ernest Becker and his book “Denial of Death.”
https://ernestbecker.org/resources/terror-management-theory/
Though we have long known that elites use fear of the dangerous violent “other” to short-circuit the thinking of their subjects, TMT goes a long way toward showing how this actually happens. There are now decades of well substantiated research papers, and several books on TMT now available. The books are well worth reading to better understand how/why we are constantly the target of these fear-mongering campaigns.
I quite agree Ed, the old red and orange alerts under Bush the Dumber’s reign are an excellent example of this, as are the current pandemic fears pushed by all MSM are. A trip to Costco here in southern California yesterday found the parking lot oddly overflowing with cars and inside people were piling their carts full of water and toilet paper. People were literally pulling TP off of the pallet before the stock people could even park it in place. It all felt quite surreal. It is quite likely that we peons are providing those responsible for this fear mongering with reams of real-world statistical data on the effectiveness of these current “pandemic” fears through such mundane activities as our “toilet paper hoarding.”
So funny! Madness.
Becker’s The Denial of Death is one of the most brilliant books I have ever read. I used it in courses for many years. Thanks, Gary.
I agree Ed. I read Denial of Death in 1982 at the age of 30 as my own father was dying of cancer. It was life changing in many ways and at many levels.
Thank-you, Ed Curtain.
Your words are a harbor in the tempest.
“Duel purposes”? Or “dual purposes”? Or “dueling purposes”? It may have been a typo, but I love that kind of ambiguity. It reminds me of Elvis Costello lyrics.
That’s a nice compliment, BKO
Thanks for this! I’m so sick of this insane corvid-19 hype.
To me it’s worse than 2003 SARS and 2006 avian flu because now we’re more “connected” with cell phones everywhere, and so more fear can be stoked. Last night I tuned in to Univision News (I speak Spanish), and fully 20 minutes of their 30 minute broadcast was on corvid. The other 10 minutes was so-called Super Tuesday. So 2/3 fear, 1/3 distraction with some fear thrown in.
A couple thoughts:
Lewis Mumford (whom i haven’t read, I’m getting this second hand through Derrick Jensen’s books “Dreams” and “The Myth of Human Supremacy” apparently distinguished between “authoritarian” and “democratic” technologies (which he called “technics”). democratic being those–like arrows or digging sticks, etc, which you can make yourself. Authoritarian being things like guns, etc.,–which require mining, smelting, factories–and other top down technologies. These technics make a lot of money for someone and enslave a lot of other someones. Mumford (paraphrasing, yeah I gotta read him) wrote that ALL authoritarian technics tend towards domination and control. It makes sense–they’re based on enclosing the commons, creating wage slavery, etc.
What we have now is uber-authoritarian technologies, which, as you say, are getting more and more insane. Technologies to solve problems created by other technologies. That’s pretty much the story of western civilization and it’s obsession with so-called “science”. It’s all about capitalism and control. And we americans don’t even dare have the imagination to see out of it, in large part because of…
Fear! Every time we start to see the ruling (military, corporate whatEVER) class’s pursuit of control in all its naked horror, something comes along to terrify us into (1) distrusting ourselves, (2) distrusting our neighbors, (3) distrusting the real world (i.e. nature), (4) relying on “experts” and “scientists” and media and cops and politicians (the mind boggles) to keep us “safe.” Et cetera, et cetera.
Bleah. I’m so sick of it.
Other thought. This is worth reading–about 5G and corvid (I’m a lot more scared of 5G than I am of corvid-18).
https://blog.nomorefakenews.com/2020/02/28/5g-and-the-china-epidemic/
Again, thanks for the sanity. In short supply these days.
best
Lorie
Lorie – great comments. Thank you. I think I first came across both Mumford and Ellul through reading Derrick Jensen’s book “Culture of Make-Believe.”
I’m with you, Lorrie. Mumford is fantastic. My favorite of his is The Pentagon of Power. 5G is definitely to be feared and is part of the sick game of social control that underway.
Pax,
Ed
Gary & Ed,
well I have to read Mumford, no doubt. I’ve got a long convalescence ahead of me and so–time to read finally!
thanks again,
l
I think that by “simple” your father may have meant “consistent”. If things are still scary then, we must delve backwards and find flaws in the beliefs we are being consistent WITH.
If we see all “NEWS” sources as advertising or promotion agencies (which they are), then it is easy to see what they are advertising, promoting, or selling. NONE “report” what doesn’t suit them or their product.
Couldn’t help but recall the relentless media hype in 1999 of the catastrophic “computer disease” called Y2K, which was about to end the world as we knew it. Actually had friends leave my New Year’s Eve party that year, well before midnight, to hunker down in survivalist mode.
My all time favorite Y2K anecdote was when a fellow worker thought it was an actual virus they were talking about – and wondered what was the best way to fight it off. We laughed; now with corona the laughs on us.