The Silver Lining

My wife had to defend her decision to stay unvaccinated twice today. One of the incidents was very unpleasant. Her vaccinated friend told her off for being a coward. The other incident wasn't quite as bad. But that too carried the underlying message that the brave thing to do is to take the vaccine.

Similarly, I was told by my brother a few weeks back that he took the vaccine knowing full well that it carried risks. He too found it a brave thing to do.

The weird thing about these incidents is that the vaccinated are quite aware of the risks involved. Yet they took the vaccine. They simply assume that whatever problems there might be in the future will be taken care of by the same people who made them sick in the first place. This is the sort of denial that Dr Mengele observed among his patients in the 1940s. The more openly brutal he was, the more his victims clung to him for help, expecting him to fix the ills he had caused them.

My interpretation of this is that we are at the very start of a grieving process. The vaccinated have fallen for propaganda, and are aware of the sort of loss this implies. However, they're in denial, framing their cowardly actions as somehow brave and noble. Seen in this perspective, we can make the prediction that we have four further stages to go through before the tragedy of the vaccinated has been fully processed.

The five stages of grief starts with denial. Then there's anger, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance. Of these, denial comes with peer pressure towards the unvaccinated. Anger may be directed towards the unvaccinated, but can probably be redirected towards the vaccinating authorities without much trouble. The bargaining phase will see peer pressure return, but hopefully with less conviction. If we manage to stand firm through the denial phase, and avoid angering people during the anger phase, we should see little further pressure to get vaccinated after the bargaining phase.

My guess is that each of these phases will take about six months to work through. That would make denial turn to anger sometime this fall and winter. Bargaining will start next summer, and depression will set in next winter. Acceptance will arrive two years from now.

The good news is that the current pressure to get vaccinated will soon subside. It will also become increasingly difficult for politicians to mandate masks and passports because these will be correctly identified as the tools used against the people. The anger phase will be a particularly difficult time to introduce more vaccine friendly regulations. However, the bargaining phase may see some politicians step forward with a promise of salvation, provided the unvaccinated can be coerced into taking the vaccine.

The trick will be to take maximum advantage of the anger phase in preparation for the bargaining phase. We have to make sure our vaccinated friends see us as thoroughly likable and upright. The anger must be firmly directed towards the authorities so that the bargaining phase fails to create much enthusiasm. The bargaining phase may otherwise become harder to endure than the denial phase. There may be real danger of forced vaccinations at this point, so we should be prepared for the worst. A six months vacation starting next spring or summer may be in order. However, once this difficult phase is passed, there will be smooth sailing, and several good things will be achieved.

Depression and acceptance will relate to the state and the role it played in the disaster. It will vindicate the liberty minded who refused the vaccine. The state is not the do good organization many believe it to be. That will be hard to accept. However, once this process comes to an end, the state will no longer be the omnipotent force that it's believed to be. Trust will have been thoroughly eroded, and liberty will make a comeback. We may even get a shot at true liberty as described in my book.

Liberty