Damar Hamlin’s Cardiac Arrest

I had never heard about Damar Hamlin before today, when he was suddenly all over the news for having suffered a cardiac arrest live on TV while playing American Football. The 24 year old athlete passed out on the field for everybody to see, and he was only brought back to life after several minutes of emergency medical care.

This event is in line with what many vaccine sceptics have said for some time; namely that a day will come when a high profile athlete will pass out on national TV. It's therefore unsurprising that some vaccine sceptics have been quick to remind us of this. However, this is seen as grotesque opportunism by vaccine supporters, such as Philip Bump over at Washington Post.

Philip Bump claims that young people suffer cardiac arrests all the time, and that this latest event is nothing out of the ordinary, except for being the first of its kind in an NFL game since 1971. To suggest otherwise is to be out of touch with reality. Only right wing conspiracy theorists will even suggest the possibility that the vaccine might be doing more harm than good.

This illustrates a central point in my previous post. The world is becoming increasingly divided between those who cling to authority, and those who trust their own eyes and common sense. People like Philip Bump will continue to take advice from the experts. He will take the boosters as they come. He will follow expert investment advice, and he will remain confident that the state and corporate pension funds will provide for him as he grows older.

Philip Bump's article contains nothing sufficiently convincing to make a vaccine sceptic less sceptical. He's preaching to the choir. If he's right in his claim that vaccines do more good than harm, he's doing his followers a service. If he's wrong, he's doing them a disservice. Either way, it makes no difference to the vaccine sceptic.

My thesis is that people like Philip Bump will become increasingly rare to find. We've entered a new era, and it will be the sceptics and the self reliant that will thrive in the decades to come. Those who trust government and corporate entities to make good decisions on their behalf are going to suffer.

This will become increasingly obvious as we progress into the new era. People will see that the sceptics are doing better than the conformists, and the effect of this will reinforce the trend. One institution after another will crumble and fall. The medical establishment, journalists, and politicians will see their credibility erode, followed by central banks, merchant banks and other large corporate entities.

This process will take decades to unfold. But it has already started, and this latest news is an example of it. Reality is setting in, and those caught unaware will be crushed.

The social contract