As a boy, I remember the fear narratives that were prevalent in school. Acid Rain was going to destroy all of the rain forests. There was a gigantic hole in the O-Zone layer that could not be replenished. Greenhouse Gasses were going to lead to Global Warming which would lead to a severe rise in sea level. The coasts would be flooded, property destroyed. The mosquitos had first West Nile Virus, and then Zika. We would all get bitten by a mosquito we couldn’t see and catch these diseases. The terrorists were going to come here and take our freedoms. We had to fight them over there.
I was young enough that the Acid Rain scared me the most. The others were too abstract. I couldn’t see the Ozone or the mosquitos. I couldn’t feel the greenhouse gasses. Sharia Law was elsewhere. Rain though, it was always present in South Florida. It rained almost every day. The thought of acid falling out of the sky was terrifying. Those were the thoughts of a young, school-aged boy.
More than two decades passed. I graduated college. I found a job. I fell in love. I got married. We had children.
There was a moment in the 2008 presidential election where my politics, and more so my life, changed entirely. In that moment, it struck me that I had been wrong. I became anti-state, anti-war, and pro-market. The shadows on the cave wall no longer entertained me.
The next fifteen years were embroiled in personal growth. I turned off the TV. I began reading voraciously. I studied languages. I learned several computer languages. I developed a successful career. I started a business. I learned to play the cello.
I was still naïve though. When the news stories about a novel virus began to spread, I will admit I did not know what to think. I had children. The oldest began coughing. I was overcome with terror. What if he has it? Will I be able to take care of him? For a moment, I was as terrified of this sickness as I was of the acid in the rain when I was a boy.
The moment of fear itself was an indication that I needed to check my premises. It did not last long. I privately voiced objection to the lockdowns immediately. In those first few months of turmoil, I lost friends, and I gained new ones.
The true heroes of the last three years, people like Jay Bhattacharya,
, and , spent their time publishing statistics, studies, and graphs. I spent my time using their work and sending it privately to the local school board. Jennifer Cabrera’s COVID coverage at the Alachua Chronicle, and ‘s charts were invaluable.There was a particularly fun moment of mine using one of Ian’s charts in a school board meeting. The “epidemiologist” on the school board was refuting one of the arguments against mandatory masks using Taiwan as an example. I delighted in producing this chart shortly thereafter:
To my shock, he dismissed it.
Though all of these people were absolutely correct, they have been utterly maligned in the news media. All of them have a tenacious courage that is absolutely enviable.
In a crisis, those are the people one needs to look for. The utterly un-shakable individuals who would also change their mind immediately if they were presented with evidence they were wrong. These are the people who have left Plato’s cave and are returning to free the other cave dwellers.
The “consensus” relies on an opposite approach. It relies on individuals seeking status within a group and reinforcing the group ideas in order to benefit themselves. It often comes at the cost of truth. One wants to believe that the “experts” are truly independent critical thinkers, and it is not at all easy to spot.
Thus lies spread as truth.
Meanwhile, I haven’t died from the Acid Rain. The hole in the ozone is recovering. The terrorists no longer control Afghanistan. The government has allegedly fixed all of these problems, just like they have done with the COVID pandemic.