The Battle Is Over, But The War Goes On – OpEd

Much like in 2006, corporations, rich people and media have decided they should not be ‘forced’ to carry the burden of getting ‘our society’ back on its feet. 

Some ‘folks’ in both social and traditional media would have you believe we should take comfort in the fact that the Great Canadian Trucker Rebellion is over and will soon be replaced on the front pages by The Crisis in Ukraine. 

Politicians and media love that sort of symmetry, in part because when a new story takes over it leaves us little time or reason to contemplate the first one.

But we need to contemplate the first one in much more detail than we have done so far. Even if it is just among ourselves.

The truth is, we have been locked in a pandemic for almost two years. What that has meant to different sections of society is one of those things we are still not supposed to talk about. 

It is well documented, for example, that private jet usage and superyachts skyrocketed during the first lockdown as ‘the other ones’ sped off to secluded locations to wait out the damn bug. 

So right there a certain segment of the population will have stopped reading this, invoking internal (or social media) cries of fake news or propaganda, proof that the author is a tool of some sort of right wing spite-festival or suffering from the lingering infection of the Fake Insurrection Envy that is flowering on ‘the internet.’ 

No. Some people still love to cuddle the warm blanket meant to prove that ‘social media’ is feeding the flames but in truth it is social and regular media that always starts the flame to begin with. 

In the old days it was called ‘divide and conquer.’ In truth the only thing that has changed is its name. 

None News is Still No News

Take a step back even now and you may see that 90% of the ‘big stories’ we are subjected to every single day are not big stories at all. They are little more than little pieces of rice paper left to die in the rain. They do not fill our bellies or quench our thirst. 

Nor will they ever invoke future discussions about ‘where were you when that famous actor you know the one I mean announced to the entire world (!) that he was once so despondent about Hollywood paparazzi that he is actually thinking about QUITTING his job and moving to a huge cattle range he bought in Montana.’

Life does not have to be a constant struggle for 99% of the people on earth. 

None of this is by accident. Nor is it a ‘conspiracy theory.’ It is right there in front of us, every day.

One of the most humorous aspects of The Original Lockdown was the fact that we had the ability to actually track the progress of Covid-19 on a daily basis. 

For example, I accidentally started ‘following the story’ in a Hong Kong newspaper on almost the first day it ‘appeared’ in China.

We are not going there, but the point is that from that day on there was a very clear universality to the proclamations and solutions offered, each of which came with the same disclaimer: trust us, stay inside and don’t, under any circumstances, discuss our special social sauce solutions with anyone, anywhere, at any time. 

The most remarkable thing (and keep this in mind for next time) was the apparent inability on the part of our ‘leaders’ to understand that we the people actually had the means to access information, from around the world, on this new-fangled internet thing. 

The lockdowns and obscene restrictions -and future incursions like we are seeing now- will only work if people can be convinced that their situation is the worst, most unique, most deadly in all of the world and therefore the solutions must also be unique. 

Only they aren’t anything of the kind. 

This notion of a highly coordinated game-plan came to many people too late, but that is why we are now seeing dozens of ‘convoy protests’ ‘suddenly’ sprouting all over the world.

There is nothing sudden about them, of course. The post-covid plight of workers and single mothers and young people and seniors is the same in Canada as it is in Germany and France and the US and India and…

Who Should Pay for Covid Payouts?

And the issues are based on the universal notion that ‘the mouthy, unhinged protestors’ should pay for the pandemic payout. 

Much like in 2006, it has been decided that corporations, rich people and media should not be ‘forced’ to carry the burden of getting ‘our society’ back on its feet. 

So one of the things that will make this ‘truth’ a reality is the ability to pretend that each ‘incident’ of rebellion is unique and isolated and easy to control. 

You can see this in the grim determination in Ottawa, where both Trudeau and his government are trying to convince the world that the Ottawa story will die once the streets have been cleared of the ‘riff raff,’ replaced, with any luck, with the ‘Ukraine crisis.’

Fake Insurrection Envy

But the people in Germany or France or in Washington, DC or anywhere else are not basing their protests on the outcome of Canada’s ‘insurrection.’ 

Most of them do not suffer from the same Fake Insurrection Envy that the Canadian and American media are pushing. To say nothing of the fact that many people in these other countries have actually lived through real and deadly insurrections. 

But these protests also prove that we are all in the same boat. And some people will do whatever they need to do to prevent that boat from sinking. Why wouldn’t they?

It would be easy to write this notion off as yet-another unfounded ‘conspiracy theory.’ After all, you don’t see the rich camped out in public squares or marching through the streets on a daily basis or publicly bemoaning the fact that inflation might kill all of us. 

It is only the underlings who resort to such uncouth public antics. 

A Guinea Pig or Delusions of Grandeur?

So at this point we don’t know whether Canada’s Prime Minster Justin Trudeau has been anointed the G7 guinea pig or if he is suffering from some post covid-cottage-isolation lockdown delusions of grandeur. 

The most important thing at this point is for people -everywhere- to wait and watch and see what is happens next. 

No matter your feelings about the ‘protests,’ the possible passing of the Emergency Act is not an accident. And it was not invoked simply to clear the streets of Ottawa. It is beginning to look like the ‘oh by the way’ banking add-ons may have been the real reason for any of this. 

One can only wonder if this is the reason the G7 allowed one of its members to propose a law that would allow one of their own to seize bank accounts, vehicles and weekly wages.

Superfans Unite

Someone recently posted a selfie with Larry David taken while he was out for a stroll. 

The SuperFan was mortified when Mr David failed to show any enthusisam whatsoever about meeting him, a bonafide SuperFan!

SuperFan is probably out there now, calling for a Larry David Boycott because he ‘was once mean to one of his superfans,’ but SuperFan had confused ‘TV Larry’ with ‘Real Life Larry,’ who in reality is someone whose net-worth is estimated to be around $400 million. 

I am not bemoaning his wealth, but let us state the obvious: The worth of a $400 million person is more than that of a SuperFan any day of the week. Lots more. And you know what kind of ‘worth’ I am referring to. 

People as Corporate Entities

Our world is now filled to overflowing with such corporate entities. One need only glance at Dirt magazine to see how many of our ‘favorite’ entertainment or business stars or clearly midling recording artists are not just wealthy, but are admired by their peers for their real wealth and real estate portfolios. 

One might ask, again without malice, whether or not seemingly likeable Leo DiCaprio has any real need for any number of massive, truly glorious mansions. 

So in short, post-pandemic or not, they are not involved in either the war or the battle. And they intend to keep it that way. Many people count on them for their daily bread! Not just their families, but their lawyers and their real estate agents and their high-end auto manufacturers and ad agencies. 

We have all seen what can happen to that cash machine if a ‘superstar’ goes off the rails and provokes a cancellation. Of profitable corporate endorsements.

Not one of which is ‘real life,’ is it? That is to say ‘our’ real life. So when the rich and famous have proof of our ‘real life’ foisted on them they react in much the same way that Larry David is said to have reacted: With disgust.

It is not quite ‘how can people live like that.’ But it is close. 

Fake Silver Trays

Because it is clearly our fault if we have not ‘succeeded.’ 

Anyone can be a success. All you need to do is try hard. And visualise living in a penthouse overlooking Central Park. 

The rest will come to you on a silver platter. I mean a real silver platter. Not one of those cheap knockoffs you can buy in Dollarland or EuroStore or the Pound Store. 

So the solution to post-covid anxiety is clear: Go out right now and buy the damn fake silver tray and be happy that you live in a world where you can even buy a cheap fake silver tray because you know damn well that millions of people around the world would (almost) kill to be so lucky.

So please, play your part in The Great Recovery and shut the hell up about food and money and inflation and protests and take your fake silver platter home and stop moaning about the fact that post-covid world will be living hell for the unwashed for the next decade. 

Everyone else knows this is a basic truth. Even Larry David. 

This article was published at Clipper Media.