Frankly Dear Shrew, I Don’t Give a Damn

Ok, ok, I’ve written about this before. In fact, nearly everything I write these days is a variation on this theme—sheep not seeing the light. It fascinates me. And apparently it fascinates a lot of other people. There have been books written about it, phrases created to describe it, and endless articles questioning this strange phenomenon that has risen out of this Covid/et al muck. Why are there so many people in this world who cannot see it is collapsing, and their compliance to a totalitarian agenda is the primary reason it is collapsing?

Because sheep don’t give a damn.

Tell them there is evidence the vaccine will kill them or seriously harm them, the response is, “so?” Or that Covid really never was as dangerous as everyone said it was, “I really don’t care.” At first I believed they said these things because they simply didn’t believe the statement they were responding to. I still think that, to a degree. But then what about digital currency replacing cash, or digital IDs required to do just about anything, or an implementation of a social credit system like they have in China. All this is met with a shoulder shrug. “So? I really don’t care.”

In previous articles I have taken the stance that the reason people acted as if they didn’t care was because they just didn’t know (see Freedom? So What!). They didn’t know how serious this was, and like the frog in the pot of slowly heated water, they would just perish once the water reached a temperature that was fatal. I believed if they actually felt the water heating up, they would immediately jump out. This may still be true, but I am beginning to wonder. I am beginning to wonder if they really do not care if they live in a totalitarian country, or a communist country, or any other sort of oppressively ruled country.

It does at times seem that some of these people honestly mean it when they say “so what is the big deal? Why is communism so bad?—or whatever other “ism” we end up living under. Maybe a modern form of oppression actually won’t be as bad as teleporting to North Korea—do people in North Korea or Communist China really know they are living under oppressive rule? Sure, if they got to compare their lives with their counterparts in the West, they would indeed notice the difference, but would they care? I kinda doubt it.

Remember (if you are old like me!) Khrushchev’s visit to the US back when Kennedy was president? He was indeed impressed, but I don’t think he considered defection. Back during the Perestroika era I was working in Hollywood as a film composer and got assigned to a joint Russian/American animation project. The producer and director were both Russians and lived their entire lives under the Soviet regime. They were “impressed” with the US, and enjoyed most of it, or so it seemed. The Jack in the Box’s fast food specialty “Fajita Pita” was the favorite and most envied Western decadence. But did they really think their Soviet way of life was inferior to the way of life in the West? I don’t think so…they certainly didn’t let on that they did.

Just like the frog in the water that doesn’t notice when heat is slowly added to the water, people do not notice when things are slowly subtracted. They don’t notice that they have to spend another hour catching a plane by waiting in line through security, having their privacy invaded with searches through their personal affects as well as their x-rayed naked body. They don’t notice taking off their shoes, their belts, giving up their water bottles. This is all matter of course now, few remember a day when you could run through the airport directly onto your plane with ticket in hand if you were a few minutes late. I mentioned this to my wife (one of the sheep in my life I dearly love) and she said, “You aren’t going to tell me that you have a problem with that, are you? That you can’t take your shoes off for the safety of other people and yourself when boarding a plane?” Yeah, sweetheart, I DO have a problem with that…but it is small potatoes considering what is coming up.

And yes, all the freedoms the Soviet Russians had lost were all lost under the pretense of “it is best for the people.” Very seldom (if ever) are freedoms taken away with the accompanying comment, “We are taking this away from you because we are a totalitarian government and we want you to feel oppressed.” Well, maybe it eventually comes to that, but by then they don’t have to give you any more reason than a gun pointed at your face. By that time the sheep will be entirely brain dead and won’t even entertain the response we hear now, “I don’t care.” They won’t even know, by then, what that means.

So am I still saying that when it reaches that point sheep will wake up and realize what they have done wrong? No, actually I am not saying that. From this point on they will say, “I don’t give a damn,” until they don’t say it anymore. It is that simple. I do not believe there will be some “mass awakening” along with an awareness that it is sadly too late to do anything about it. Once it reaches that point people will be thoroughly brain dead and will be zombies—for those reasons they won’t say a word. Not all sheep, some will flip…but I am sad to say, in my humble opinion, most will not.

This is indeed a strange situation, because I can almost guarantee you if you told a hard core sheep (which probably constitutes 30% to 60% of the population) all of what we shrews know, they would respond with a form of “I don’t care.” You can ask, “Do you want to live in a communist country?” Response: “I don’t care.” Ask: “Do you want most of your freedoms taken away?” Response: “I don’t care.” Ask: “Do you want to live under a totalitarian regime?” Response: “I don’t care.”

Again, I used to think this was simply because these people didn’t know what these things actually were. Now I don’t believe that, I believe they honestly do not care, and if any of these horrors were implemented tomorrow, they still would not care. Yes, if their smart phones were taken away, or their internet, or their ease of buying groceries, gasoline, or whatever, they would bitch and moan a bit, and then blame it on something that wasn’t to blame (like Putin or Global Warming, or The Unvaccinated). But they would get used to it, thinking it was temporary and would eventually return to normal, or maybe two steps back to normal after taking three steps away…

There is an interesting bit in Orwell’s 1984 when it is announced that the ration for chocolate will increase to 20 grams when just the day before it was decreased from 30 grams to 20 grams (therefore there was really no increase). It is an example of the state’s manipulation of the mind through its effort to convince the people that even when something had the appearance of being given to them, it was actually being taken away. We see that continuously in this current culture with the constant waffling regarding the release of mandates. For example, Canada just this week withdrew it’s Covid border re-entry tracking app ArriveCAN but included in the announcement that they could bring it back at any moment, for any reason, they deemed fit. We will give you your freedom, but not really.

I certainly could be wrong with my observation and subsequent future result. Maybe it could indeed get hot enough in the kitchen for people to realize their freedoms are not to be taken for granted, and they will not sit back and take it, the way they seem to be taking it now. However, people do seem to be more tolerant than they used to be, or, they seem to be incredibly more tolerant than us shrews. I have almost zero patience for abusive, or falsely assumed, authority—even to the point of loosing my cookies if someone tells me I am in the wrong line and to “follow the rules.” Most sheep are not like this at all, and I am not convinced they can be changed. North Korea, here we come.

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