Calvin Mulligan, Futurescapes.ca October 18, rev Oct 26, Nov 4, 6, 15, 2024 (c) All rights reserved
“You can’t handle the truth.” Jack Nicholson, (from “A Few Good Men”)
“It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.” Mark Twain
Why “good” men and women give evil a free pass
There’s a famous saying attributed to Edmond Burke that’s being cited with some regularity these days. It’s: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men (and women) to do nothing.” I wish an understanding of this wisdom had been impressed on my generation of Baby Boomers. If it had been, perhaps our country and the world at large wouldn’t be in the precarious position it now finds itself. The more important question however is, “Why? Why do those good men and women do nothing in the face of rampant evil?”
There are some obvious explanations. Moral fortitude is defined as having the wisdom and strength to do the right thing even if no one will ever know (Quora). It’s been in short supply of late. Perhaps it was ever so. Mark Twain observed, “It is curious that physical courage should be so common and moral courage so rare.” Add the fact that Evil’s relentless assault over the decades has left many people tired and jaded or inured. Their moral compasses are damaged or too rusty from lack of use to provide a useful reference point. In retreat against the relentless forces of evil, they resort to constantly redrawing the proverbial line in the sand as they surrender ground.
Another explanation for evil’s untrammelled advance in Western societies is that well-intended good men and women are untrained regarding the tactics of the Dark Side — specifically its rhetorical trickery and sleights of hand. Consider the example of the deceptively described gender affirming care for children. The Dark Side has cleverly packaged the systematic mutilation of children’s genitals and hormonal castration as “care” simultaneously wrapping itself in the cloak of moral superiority.
Think of it as a kind of rhetorical jiu jitsu. Pro gender transitioning radicals attempt to position those attempting to protect young children from a decision that’s often regretted down the road as uncaring and irresponsible. It takes good men and women some experience in word warfare to acquire the skill to counter the assault of the trans army. While it’s another story for another time, the Sabbatean inversion of reality no longer works. Today, battle-hardened children’s advocates are turning back the gender transitioning madness, a vile form of child abuse and Big Pharma strategy best described as creating customers-for-life.
Still others have convinced themselves that evil doesn’t exist. It’s consigned in their minds to an earlier, less-sophisticated era when blood-letting was a common medical practice. I’m reminded of the saying, the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he doesn’t exist. But non-believers can’t be expected to take up arms against something they have concluded doesn’t exist.
Beyond these explanations, there’s a subtle psychological phenomenon at work. And to some degree, it impairs all of us when it comes to our willingness to confront evil. It’s called cognitive dissonance (CD) Failure to understand its inhibiting role and manage our minds accordingly leaves us mentally and emotionally fragile, easily triggered and potentially immobile in the face of evil. Let’s start with a definition and an explanation of how CD can compromise us to the advantage of the enemy.
Cognitive Dissonance and the painful truth
I define CD as the discomfort one experiences when confronted by new knowledge that could threaten one’s current beliefs or worldview. I describe this uncomfortable clash (dissonance) concerning competing perceptions of reality as the “CD headache” (and potential “heartache”). It’s important to keep in mind that typically only oneof these contesting perceptions of reality can be true. Even the mere prospect of abandoning a cherished belief or assumption in favour of an alternative can induce considerable mental angst. (Without judging her analysis or conclusion, one individual told me she was in anguish for days before rejecting her model of a spherical planet earth in favour of a “flat earth” or flatter earth model.)
It’s as if there’s an electrical force field surrounding and protecting our world view. If or when we venture outside its boundaries, (our “comfort zone”) and encounter a challenging new possibility, it’s as if we’re shocked by contact with an electrified fence. This shock is often sufficient to cause the individual to retreat to the safe familiarity of his/her existing worldview. Thus, these “electric fences” installed around the boundaries of our worldview restrict us like domesticated livestock from venturing into the unexplored reality beyond.
Our controllers do an excellent job of posting the “No Trespassing” signs, and if some anomaly should catch our attention, are quick to divert us with the usual “move along, nothing to see here” directive. It reminds me of the “there be dragons” advisory ancient cartographers inscribed on unmapped territories. Suffice to say, these largely unexplored territories outside our paradigms thus become safe zones for Satan and his minions to operate in secret and engage in unimaginable evil.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle once said: “The Truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.” This is the misery of the CD headache/heartache which, in effect keeps the masses in a debilitating state of ignorance, captives of a matrix of deception and lies. (The Truman Show, 1998 is an excellent allegorical movie portraying this kind of captivity.) Thus, as the old the saying goes, ignorance is (temporary) bliss. Who in his or her right mind wants to exchange bliss for misery? What rational person wants to trade the comfort of blissful ignorance for painful truths which could demand messy and potentially costly involvement on his/her part?
CD — a protective mental mechanism or dangerous impairment?
It can be argued that cognitive dissonance is an essential psychological mechanism that protects our minds from traumatic exposure to things we’re not equipped to deal with. Fair enough. There are stories of cops who, in the course of conducting criminal investigations, have encountered unimaginable evil and been traumatized for the rest of their lives. So there are reasons for caution. And it’s entirely possible that the shock associated with the coming flood of revelations will lead to the greatest mental health crisis in history.
At the same time, it’s not difficult to see how clinging to blissful ignorance and living in fear of the ancient cartographer’s “dragons” works to the advantage of our mortal enemies. Consider the impairment of the easily-triggered Gen Z university “snowflake” needing the comfort of colouring books, puppies and safe spaces. Given their fragile emotional state, it’s unlikely such individuals are prepared to wage war with the wily forces of darkness. Given the critical state of our world, it’s time for each of us to ask the person in the mirror: “If not now, when and if not me, who?” Given the stark revelations that have emerged in 2024, it appears time has just about run out. It’s now a case of “coming ready or not” and no amount of playing dumb, demure or disinterested will protect us from on-coming painful realities.
The 2020-2024 Covid Propagandemic(c) is illustrative of the human tendency toward avoidance. Non-complying resisters wondered how it was possible that so many members of their families and so many friends failed to question the pandemic narrative. Evidence that the experimental vaxx was neither safe nor effective surfaced relatively early in the demonic, world-wide pressure campaign. Wasn’t the coercive “get-vaxxed-or-else” militancy in itself a suspicious sign?
My conclusion is that the reason family, friends and acquaintances often opted to blindly trust authority figures was because the alternative was unthinkable. Essentially, it was too much for these folks to believe that their family doctors, government, political leaders, favourite mainstream media personalities, and high profile members of their church community, along with the entire medical-pharma complex were misleading them. If this were true, it meant their entire worldview was at risk of collapsing. The resulting mental and emotional chaos and the personal sense of “lostness” that would result was too much to contemplate.
So millions, despite stacks of damning evidence to the contrary, clung to the presumed safety in trusting “authorities”. Millions of “believers” ignored the proverbial “elephant in the room” and sought safety within the herd, wrapping themselves in a thick blanket of denial. Four and a half years later, some still remain ensconced in that blanket. This was brought home to me in a recent conversation in a local mall here in Ottawa.
A CD episode at the mall
About two months ago, I casually asked a fellow sharing a bench with me why he thought some people in the mall were still wearing face masks. He promptly replied it was because of their concerns about getting Covid, adding with obvious concern that he had recently heard it was returning. I was impressed — not by his understanding of the sick state of medical-pharma complex of course, but by the sustained influence of his programming.
Four and a half years later, even the pharma companies have admitted their vaxx wasn’t/isn’t effective. And court ordered access to their records now reveals dozens of pages of adverse side effects. (Thus the satirical meme, “Ask your doctor if a drug treatment with 15 pages of side effects is right for you.”) Beyond that, hundreds of journal articles cite demonstrated evidence of vaxx harms. Yet this fellow (Mr. X) remained committed to the deceptive narrative and a captive of the establishment matrix.
I gently informed him that after more than one thousand hours of research, I had concluded the Covid narrative was likely the biggest scam in medical history. He was undeterred, “But millions of people died,” he countered. I explained that the reported Covid mortality figures were largely fabricated, combining death stats from a wide array of respiratory conditions including influenza, pneumonia and other maladies. Moreover, the PCR test was predisposed to generate false positives conveniently inflating the fearful Covid boogey man. (I didn’t mention that people were actually being killed by hospitals incentivized to employ deadly protocols employing ventilators and Remdesivir). I offered to share a link to my website where I had posted my research on the subject.
The man became increasingly agitated. “I don’t need a website when there are facts,” he declared hotly. But his “facts” required evidence. I hadn’t intended to alarm the man, but by this point, he had stood up and was walking away as if he were in danger of my infecting him with a deadly disease. He looked back at me as he walked away with a disturbed look on his face. “You’re one of those….” (his voice trailing off) ” Clearly, Mr. “X” was having a CD episode.
Reflecting on the incident later, I wondered if I could I have been gentler in sharing hard truth with him. Or have we reached the expiry date on the deadly deception? The truth truly can set us free, but first we must be able to endure the pain of tearing off the bandage.