Unvaccinated Citizens: The New Pariahs
Those who wish to control populations need an enemy to demean, and that enemy could be you regardless of your vaccination status.
Human nature being what it is, we tend to fall back on characteristics that expose our flaws when dealing with situations that have no clear solution. One such situation is the fact that nearly one-third of the U.S. population will simply not be getting a COVID shot.
How do you react to this issue? Do you immediately segregate yourself from people who have not received the shot, even friends and family? Do you actively shame them or deny them products or services? Do you support measures to force the shot on others, under threat of punishment if they refuse?
You might think you know what’s best for others. You might even believe that punishing others for not being in alignment with your thinking is a morally sound belief system.
The idea that if we are polite and treat others as we would wish for them to treat ourselves, we will have a cooperative society founded on respect and solidarity. That is how civilizations are created and sustained.
So where does the notion of singling out unvaccinated citizens fit into this ecosystem of societal behavior? Frankly, it does not fit in at all; in fact, it signifies the beginning of a major societal decline.
Solidarity and the perception of having common bonds is how societies thrive, while isolation, separation and lack of empathy take hold during societal decline and eventual collapse. As Plato wrote over 2,300 years ago, societies follow a predictable arc of decline once they have been established. Founded by philosopher-kings, these societies denigrate as greedy, stupid people attain power within social and political circles. “Consent of the governed” becomes a quaint footnote from the days of Thomas Jefferson; today’s demands of vaccination compliance and the demonization of those who don’t comply are very much in line with the historical trend of cheapening lives as a way of elevating one class of citizen over another.
The aggressiveness of those who would insist on vaccination compliance is telling. “Get the vax and wear the mask or else” is not a message of persuasion; rather it bypasses all effort to persuade and goes directly to making outright threats. In my business and personal experience, those who threatened me in the past were doing so because they assumed that they could intimidate me into compliance or they were hiding their insecurities. Either way, their malevolent behavior did little to mask their true intention of bullying me simply because they thought they could.
But today’s aggressiveness over being vaccinated is more than just hiding one’s insecurities. There have always been those among us who believe they are better than others. Vaccination status is now thought as having elevated one’s place within the social structure, with those making an informed decision to refuse injection relegated to being a second-rate citizen worthy of contempt. All under the guise of “the common good.”
Using vaccination status as a tool for the outcast of others is completely unsustainable and leads to consequences that harm everyone. If the unvaccinated are ostracized from society, as many social and political leaders are openly suggesting, what immense damage will be inflicted? Putting millions of people out of work, disrupting supply chains, reducing access to countless services, destroying entire industries and severely reducing quality of life to the entire population are undisputable consequences if nearly 30 percent of society is denied their freedom to earn a living or contribute to society.
A well-earned distrust of health experts, politicians and legacy media is a major source of the reasoning behind those who wish to remain free of the COVID shots. Continual coercion, demonization and outcast of unvaccinated citizens will not lead to compliance. We are rapidly reaching a point where societal damage might be permanent, where two distinct tribes – the vaccinated and the unvaccinated – aggressively view the other as an existential threat.
Perhaps this is what our so-called leaders want; a divided nation viewing each other as an enemy for the purpose of consolidating power. This time it’s about one’s vaccination status. What about next time? Whether you drive a gas-powered or an electric car? Got solar panels on your roof? Are you visiting approved websites or those on the blacklist?
“Oh, but I’m part of the vaccinated class. Surely you won’t take my freedom because I enjoy air conditioning and drive a Chevy Suburban…”
As Americans, we have the capability of turning this trend around if we use our heads, refuse to consent to politicians and social climbers, and recognize the inherent goodness in your fellow citizens. Resist the lure of being accepted into a social “camp” of the vaccinated while demonizing the unvaccinated and understand that one-size-fits-all vaccine mandates are dangerous to some, unnecessary to others. Above all, exercise compassion to your fellow humans until they act in ways that don’t deserve it.
Hating on those who have chosen to be unvaccinated says much more about you than it does them.