Wednesday, June 29, 2022
Monday, June 27, 2022
Covid’s Infection Fatality Rate Now Same as Seasonal Flu
Daily Skeptic, June 22, 2022: Death rates from Covid are lower than ever, according to an analysis by Professor Carl Heneghan and Dr Jason Oke carried out for the Mail on Sunday. The IFR is now ~0.0333%, similar to seasonal influenza.
Experts say there is little need to fear a recent surge in cases as fewer than one in 3,000 infected people now dies from coronavirus – with the rate even lower for the vaccinated.
The analysis of official data by Oxford University shows the ‘infection fatality rate’ has dropped about 30-fold since the pandemic began due to a combination of vaccine protection and naturally acquired infection.
Professor Carl Heneghan of Oxford’s Centre for Evidence Based Medicine, who carried out the analysis with statistician Jason Oke, said: “There have been an astonishing number of Covid infections so far this year, but deaths have come down.
“Now we are looking at an infection fatality rate for Covid of around one in 3,000 which is comparable with seasonal influenza.
Related:
Harvard Prof. on Covid Science Denial by Both Government and University
Comments of Harvard University Prof, Martin Kulldorff via the Daily Skeptic
On the scientific community’s denial of natural immunity…
We’ve known about natural immunity since 430 BC during the Athenian plague. So this is not a new concept. It would have been shocking if the immunity from the vaccine was better than the immunity from having recovered from Covid. So by pushing these vaccines on those who already had Covid, was both unnecessary and unethical, but it also diminishes the trust in public health authorities and diminishes the trust in vaccines. […] These vaccine fanatics (e.g., Canada's low-IQ PM, Justin Trudeau) who insisted that everybody should be vaccinated, including those who already have immunity from having recovered from Covid, I think they have destroyed the confidence in vaccines in general, to an extent that a small group of pre-Covid, so-called anti-vaxxers had never succeeded.
On the reaction to the Great Barrington Declaration…
The difference was that it came from three people other than one person. All of the three of us have worked on infectious disease technology. […] All of us came from reasonably respectable universities: Oxford, Harvard and Stanford. So it was impossible to ignore. We were attacked, including by the NIH Director Collins and Anthony Fauci and Jeremy Farrar at the Wellcome Trust here and Christian Drosten in Germany who called us pseudo-scientists. But I think the key thing was to show the public that there was not scientific consensus for lockdowns.
On whether he was supported by Harvard after speaking out…
No, I didn’t get much defence from the university, no. […] I got private emails from many of the faculty members, many of whom I’d never heard of before. So there was support, yes, from individuals. […] I think that’s a huge problem for science as we move forward, because science can only thrive with discussions. It’s a process. And if we don’t have open discourse about science, science is going to die.
On the problems with epidemiological modelling…
I think these models where you predict a certain number of people are going to die, are pretty useless. And the key thing is what is the optimal strategy to use? So in the case of Covid, in the beginning, we didn’t know exactly what was the infection-fatality rate, which is what’s the risk of dying if you get infected, because we didn’t know how many people had got infected. The optimal strategy doesn’t depend on if it’s 0.1%, or 1% because the optimal strategy depends on the difference, the relative risk in the difference by age or some other factor. So in terms of deciding what is the optimal thing to do, these models that Imperial College developed, I think were very useless.
On the effects of mishandling the pandemic…
I think there will be an enormous distrust in public health agencies. I think there will be an enormous distrust in science, in the scientific community. I think that will take decades to repair, if it can be repaired, I don’t know. I’m sure there will be consequences, political consequences as well. They’re obviously enormous public health consequences from the collateral damage, which I mentioned. I think there’s also economic consequences of these lockdowns that we’re starting to see now. So I think the consequences are profound. And maybe we are in a tipping balance in terms of whether we accept this as the standard way of doing things, which I think would be terrible, or maybe we go in a different direction, where we say, this was a fiasco, let’s make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Monday, June 20, 2022
Ukraine and the Right of All Peoples to Choose the Form of Government Under Which They Will Live
Reflecting widespread Ukrainian hatred for Russians in Nazified, Banderite Ukraine, Ukraine's Parliament just passed a law to purge the country of Russian Culture. The policy is highly divisive, since 17% of Ukraine's population are ethnic Russian and 30% are Russian speakers.
Ukraine's hated Russians and Russphones naturally resents this policy of cultural genocide, more so the exterminationist ambition of former Ukrainian Premier, Julia Tymoshenko. Moreover, being concentrated in Eastern Ukraine and the Odessa region, they naturally want self government, which is to say independence from the hate-filled, NATO-backed, lynch mob in Kyiv.
So what to do? Obviously, the decent solution is to honor the principles of the Atlantic Charter set forth by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill at a meeting in Newfoundland on August 14, 1941.
Specifically, among other rights, the Atlantic Charter proclaimed:
the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will liveIn accordance with this principle, the solution to the Russia: Ukraine conflict is clear: A referendum in every Ukrainian Oblast with a large Russian-speaking population to determine whether the people wish to be ruled by Kyiv, by Moscow, or live independently under their own culturally Russian state, such as the existing sovereign Donbas republics.
But too many idiots now rule in the West, including Bojo the serially divorced, fake Churchill, Trudeau the Canadian dictator-wannabe who thinks it wise to provide Ukraine weapons with which to kill Russians, who are, after the Americans, our closest neighbours.
Related:
Understanding the NY Times Article on the CIA in Ukraine
John Mearsheimer's Ukraine Crystal Ball
G7 Commits To 'Indefinite' Military & Financial Support To Ukraine
Paul Craig Roberts: If the Kremlin ever Wakes Up Things Will Go Badly for the West
Col Douglas Macgregor - Ukraine Russia War Update 21.06.2022.
THE DARK SIDE OF THE UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT
Russian Ruble Becomes World’s Best Performing Currency, Reaches Seven Year High Against Dollar
Russia says it’s ready for ‘big, colossal war’ with NATO
Z.H.: Our New Best Friend, Nazified Ukraine, Bans Main Opposition Party, Seizes All Its Assets. Bravo
Meantime, in Canada: Trudeau’s online censorship bill charges ahead
THE DARK SIDE OF THE UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT
Sunday, June 19, 2022
Colonel Douglas McGregor: When the Lies Come Home
The American Conservative, June 17, 2922: Diogenes, one of the ancient world’s illustrious philosophers, believed that lies were the currency of politics, and those lies were the ones he sought to expose and debase. To make his point, Diogenes occasionally carried a lit lantern through the streets of Athens in the daylight. If asked why, Diogenes would say he was searching for an honest man.
Finding an honest man today in Washington, D.C., is equally challenging. Diogenes would need a Xenon Searchlight in each hand.
Still, there are brief moments of clarity inside the Washington establishment. Having lied prolifically for months to the American public about the origins and conduct of the war in Ukraine, the media are now preparing the American, British, and other Western publics for Ukraine’s military collapse. It is long overdue.
The Western media did everything in its power to give the Ukrainian defense the appearance of far greater strength than it really possessed. Careful observers noted that the same video clips of Russian tanks under attack were shown repeatedly. Local counterattacks were reported as though they were operational maneuvers.
Russian errors were exaggerated out of all proportion to their significance. Russian losses and the true extent of Ukraine’s own losses were distorted, fabricated, or simply ignored. But conditions on the battlefield changed little over time. Once Ukrainian forces immobilized themselves in static defensive positions inside urban areas and the central Donbas, the Ukrainian position was hopeless. But this development was portrayed as failure by the Russians to gain “their objectives.”
Ground-combat forces that immobilize soldiers in prepared defenses will be identified, targeted, and destroyed from a distance. When persistent overhead intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets, whether manned or unmanned, are linked to precision guided-strike weapons or modern artillery systems informed by accurate targeting data, “holding ground” is fatal to any ground force. This is all the more true in Ukraine, because it was apparent from the first action that Moscow focused on the destruction of Ukrainian forces, not on the occupation of cities or the capture of Ukrainian territory west of the Dnieper River.
The result has been the piecemeal annihilation of Ukrainian forces. Only the episodic infusion of U.S. and allied weapons kept Kiev’s battered legions in the field; legions that are now dying in great numbers thanks to Washington’s proxy war.
Kiev’s war with Moscow is lost. Ukrainian forces are being bled white. Trained replacements do not exist in sufficient numbers to influence the battle, and the situation grows more desperate by the hour. No amount of U.S. and allied military aid or assistance short of direct military intervention by U.S. and NATO ground forces can change this harsh reality.
The problem today is not ceding territory and population to Moscow in Eastern Ukraine that Moscow already controls. The future of the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions along with the Donbas is decided. Moscow is also likely to secure Kharkov and Odessa, two cities that are historically Russian and Russian-speaking, as well as the territory that adjoins them. These operations will extend the conflict through the summer. The problem now is how to stop the fighting.
Whether the fighting stops in the early fall will depend on two key factors. The first involves the leadership in Kiev. Will the Zelensky government consent to the Biden program for perpetual conflict with Russia?
If the Biden administration has its way, Kiev will continue to operate as a base for the buildup of new forces poised to threaten Moscow. In practice, this means Kiev must commit national suicide by exposing the Ukrainian heartland west of the Dnieper River to massive, devastating strikes by Russia’s long-range missile and rocket forces.
Of course, these developments are not inevitable. Berlin, Paris, Rome, Budapest, Bucharest, Sofia, Vilnius, Riga, Tallin, and, yes, even Warsaw, do not have to blindly follow Washington’s lead. Europeans, like most Americans, are already peering into the abyss of an all-encompassing economic downturn that Biden’s policies are creating at home. Unlike Americans who must cope with the consequences of Biden’s ill-conceived policies, European governments can opt out of Biden’s perpetual-war plan for Ukraine.
The second factor involves Washington itself. Having poured more than $60 billion or a little more than $18 billion a month in direct or indirect transfers into a Ukrainian state that is now crumbling, the important question is, what happens to millions of Ukrainians in the rest of the country that did not flee? And where will the funds come from to rebuild Ukraine’s shattered society in a developing global economic emergency?
When inflation costs the average American household an extra $460 per month to buy the same goods and services this year as they did last year, it is quite possible that Ukraine could sink quietly beneath the waves like the Titanic without evoking much concern in the American electorate. Experienced politicians know that the American span of attention to matters beyond America’s borders is so short that an admission of defeat in Ukraine would probably have little or no immediate consequences.
However, the effects of repeated strategic failures in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria are cumulative. In the 1980s, General Motors wanted to dictate the kind of automobiles Americans would buy, but American consumers had different ideas. That’s why G.M., which dominated the U.S. market for 77 years, lost its top spot to Toyota. Washington cannot dictate all outcomes, nor can Washington escape accountability for its profligate spending and having ruined American prosperity.
In November, Americans will go to the polls. The election itself will do more than test the integrity of the American electoral process. The election is also likely to ensure that Biden is remembered for his intransigence; his refusal to change course, like Herbert Hoover in 1932. Democrats will recall that their predecessors in the Democratic Party effectively ran against Hoover for more than a half century. Republicans may end up running against Joe Biden for the next 50 years.
Douglas Macgregor, Col. (ret.) is a senior fellow with The American Conservative, the former advisor to the Secretary of Defense in the Trump administration, a decorated combat veteran, and the author of five books.
Friday, June 17, 2022
Scott Ritter, Larry Johnson: Ukraine War June 16, 2022
An opinion survey conducted by the European Council on Foreign Relations, indicates that the majority of Europeans expressing an opinion want the Ukraine war to end now even if that means Ukraine making territorial concessions:
"Respondents who want peace as soon as possible are in the majority in all countries except Poland, insisting the war must end even if Ukraine has to make territorial concessions to Russia. Italians are the least concerned about retribution for Russia, with 52 percent of those polled just wanting an end to the conflict that has destabilized the European economy and worsened the cost of living crisis. In contrast, just 16 percent of them would see the war continue.
A similar story can be seen in Germany where 49 percent want peace compared with 16 percent who back a continuation of the war. Romania follows with a 42:23 swing, France with 41:20, and Sweden with 38:22." Source
Which is consistent with our proposal for a plebiscite across Ukraine allowing citizens to indicate whether their oblast (that is, state or province) should be ruled by Kyiv, Moscow, or should become an independent self-governing state.
This creates a tricky situation for the NATO warmongers, Bojo the Clown, Biden the Oblivious, the airhead Trudeau, plus the, as normal, insane Poles striving to get a nuclear holocaust out of this conflict, so look forward to much hate-Putin rhetoric in the days to come.
Related:
Moon of Alabama: Ukraine - The U.S. Is Moving Towards Escalation
globalresearch.ca: Ukraine War: Western Media Have Systematically Misrepresented Developments on the Battlefield Well, obviously. In times of war, deceiving the public is what the media, plus Google and other public information providers, are for.
Mainstream media survey finds no one trusts the mainstream media, or presumably, Google, Twittter, and all the other lying bastards. Question is, why are they announcing that they found out what is obvious. So they can act surprised? LOL
Thursday, June 16, 2022
Jordan Peterson at His Best: Flays Doctors and Phsychotherapists Pushing Gender Transition of Children
Doctors and Psychotherapists, Liars and Butchers:
Wednesday, June 15, 2022
An Open Letter to Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google
Here's a letter I mailed Last July. My name and business address have been deleted. Otherwise the wording is exactly as sent.
Thus far, no reply has been received
Google, Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy.
Mountain View, CA 94043,
Attention: Sundar Pichai, President and CEO
July 31, 2021
1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy.
Mountain View, CA 94043,
United States
July 31, 2021
Dear Mr. Pichai
I should be most grateful if you would explain this:
When I do a Google search for a new post on Google's blogger platform such as:
Canspeccy + "Imagine If They Hadn’t Lied To Us For The Last 18 Months"
I get this result:
2. Censorship of my blog by Google?
3. Some other factor?
I should be most grateful if you would explain this:
When I do a Google search for a new post on Google's blogger platform such as:
Canspeccy + "Imagine If They Hadn’t Lied To Us For The Last 18 Months"
I get this result:
It looks like there aren't many great matches for your search
Tip Try using words that might appear on the page that you’re looking for. For example, 'cake recipes' instead of 'how to make a cake'.
Need help? Take a look at other tips for searching on Google.
But if I do the same search on Bing, I get this result:
CanSpeccy: Imagine If They Hadn’t Lied To Us For The Last ...
10 hours ago · Imagine If They Hadn’t Lied To Us For The Last 18 Months. Town Hall, July 29, 2021: Everybody wrap something around your face again even though they said you wouldn’t need to if you got vaxxed! But they didn’t lie – no, apparently a bunch of people – and not just those evil white nationalist-Christian-gun-Jesus-flag people – are ...
Is this difference between the search engines in result reflective of:
1. The relative utility of Google versus Bing?2. Censorship of my blog by Google?
3. Some other factor?
Your comment would be much appreciated.
Yours truly,
........
AS OF today June 15, 2022: NO RESPONSE RECEIVED, which is a bit different from the reaction when, in the early days of Google, I wrote them to express my concern over their caching my copyright material. Then, I received a prompt, reassuring, and friendly email response from Sergey Brin.
Tuesday, June 14, 2022
What's the Use of a Search Engine That Cannot Find What's Published On Its Own Platform: Google Versus Bing
We did a search for our latest post using the following search string:
Canspeccy: How will the Ukraine War End?
Bing came up with this, which is what you'd expect, though they were remarkably quick to index the post.
Here's Google's shot at it. Even if we put the post title in quotes, Google can't find it even though it exists on Google's own servers or in their own cloud.
Is that pathetic or what?
Yeah, pathetic absolutely, although when you search Google for the title of this piece they do give you a link to 21 other search engines most, perhaps all, of which do better that Google, or should that be "Gurgle" as in going down the credibility tube.
And yet some guy at Google says their system has achieved consciousness. LOL: The consciousness of the oblivious.
Or should we say that Google is the sanitized search engine: What you don't know cannot cause you to challenge the official narrative. In this case the message telegraphed by NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg as his message rotates 180 degrees a minute.
Which brings to mind, once again, the story about the Russian who is on an airliner heading to the US, and the American in the seat next to him asks, “So what brings you to the US?” The Russian replies, “I’m studying the American approach to propaganda.” The American says, “What propaganda?” The Russian says, “That’s what I mean.”
Postscript, August 10, 2022:
Today, a Google search for our latest post, which is entitled:
As the World's New Number One Bully, Is China Paving the Way to World War
Returns:
But today, Google is again the search engine that can't find its own arse with both hands. Search for:Who Really Killed Kennedy: Joe Rogan gives Steven Pinker's Expert on "weird beliefs" a hard time on the Kennedy Assassination
and you get this:
Pretty amazing, since that item is our current post on Google's own blogger platform.
Bing, in contrast managed to find our current post and list it first out of, allegedly five billion, three hundred and twenty million results. Wow, can there really be that many Web pages devoted to the Kennedy assassination?
Some time ago we pointed out to Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, in a polite letter that Google was either failing to retrieve our blog posts, or deliberately hiding them. We received no reply. Google is evidently run by a philistine, or maybe a CIA agent, or both.
Bing, in contrast managed to find our current post and list it first out of, allegedly five billion, three hundred and twenty million results. Wow, can there really be that many Web pages devoted to the Kennedy assassination?
Some time ago we pointed out to Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, in a polite letter that Google was either failing to retrieve our blog posts, or deliberately hiding them. We received no reply. Google is evidently run by a philistine, or maybe a CIA agent, or both.
How Will the Ukraine War End?
Jens Stoltenberg, head of NATO, spoke earlier this month of the Ukraine war lasting years during which he presumably looked forward to having NATO's Ukrainian proxy test out all kinds of military stuff on Russians. But now, damn it, the stinking Ruskies are winning. What to do? Well, you'd better negotiate a peace deal and his territory while you can, Stoltenberg tells cokehead porn actor, Ze.
Trouble is, it takes two to make a deal and Russians, as the're winning this war, will have the major say as to how things turn out. For example, they may just propose a referendum across Eastern and Southern Ukraine, where the resources are and where the Russian speakers are in the great majority.
The choice? One imagines there'd be three options. (1) Rule by Kyiv, (2) Rule by Moscow, or (3) Independence. Who could object. It'd be democratic, just as all the simpletons in Canada flying the Ukrainian flag surely want.
As for the outcome? Option One, Rule by Kyiv, seems a non-starter. So whatever else happens? Ze will be seen to have trashed his own country, which will be reduced to a poor, land-locked rump, with a fractious multiracial society, most of which seems destined to be absorbed by Poland with some particularly non-Polish ethnic bits going to other adjoining states.
Related:
"It’s possible that there are still people in the State Department trying to push this thing all the way to the end, but if the head of NATO is saying it’s time to concede to Russia, the show is over and it’s just a matter of how long it is going to take for the gears to move."
The thing is, Ze better surrender now before Russia takes more territory, or worse, before the Ukraine Armed Forces revoit, or even worse, change sides.
Yep, hurry up Ze, go pay your respects to Putin before his guys take you away and deposit you in Moscow's Lublanka jail, pending a war crimes trial.
Sorta makes sense. UAF troops may be deciding en masse to give up, or worse, to change sides.
Friday, June 10, 2022
Is Ukraine Losing the War or Has the Russian Invasion Stalled?
A report from Zero Hedge states that the Ukraine army is suffering 100 to 200 casualties a day in the war with Russia, and are running out of ammo.
"Everything now depends on what [the west] gives us," Ukraine's deputy head of military intelligence, Vadym Skibitsky told The Guardian.
"Ukraine has one artillery piece to 10 to 15 Russian artillery pieces. Our western partners have given us about 10% of what they have."
So after receiving $53 billion in mainly US aid, amounting apparently to about 10% of the weapons the NATO states possess, Ukraine wants, um, well, according to Skibitsky, the other 90% "of what they (NATO) have," which seems unduly hopeful.
What if Russia decided, in the face of a disarmed NATO, to reincorporate Finland, Poland and the Baltic states, while taking in Sweden too?
Ukraine should have thought more carefully about what they needed before poking the bear.
But there is still the matter of the $53 billion in mainly US aide that Ukraine has already received or been promised. What happened to that? Have the Ukrainian oligarchs already flogged it off at, say, a 90% discount, to Third World dictators?
Or is that huge infusion of weapons along with German and Polish training for the Ukrainian forces, -- the equivalent to more than one year of Russian defence expenditure (or approximately ten times Canada projected 2022 defence expenditure, including the cost of sending big guns to Ukraine) a game changer as Scott Ritter contends:
Related:
Kremlin Responds After Polish EU Official Says West Should Give Ukraine Nukes
Beach Pics From Kiev Tell a Very Different Story From the One the Globalists Are Selling
Gonzalo Lira Series series #37 : How Odessa Might Be Captured
Washington Starts Blame Game Over Defeat In Ukraine
M of A: Ukraine Bits: No Ammo, More Casualties, Thin Lines, Propaganda And Passing The Buck
Biden Throws Zelensky Under The Bus: Ukraine Leader 'Brushed Off' Invasion Warnings
UKRAINIAN FORCES PREPARING TO START ANOTHER FRONT IN EASTERN UKRAINE
Going to war with Russia may be suicide for U.S. – Larry Johnson
Is Ukraine Losing? By Walrus
Yes of course Europe's dumbest, people like Liz Truss, Bojo the Greased Piglet, and the blond bombshell, Ursula Van der Leyen, can set off a nuclear war if they feel like it.
But don't forget what these incredibly stupid people are proposing: it is to enable Zelensky to nuke Russians because they seek to end the relentless murder of Russian-speakers in Donbas who don't want to be ruled by people in Kiev who think it acceptable to refer to them as orcs and cockroaches.
And apparently, the idea that people should be free to choose how they are ruled is now held in contempt across Western Europe, except of course when Scotland bids for another independence referendum, then the Russian haters will be all for it.
Washington Starts Blame Game Over Defeat In Ukraine
Is Ukraine Losing? By Walrus
Ukraine, as many skeptics including myself, warned is just a proxy vehicle to attack Russia. It has served its purpose. The Europeans have committed economic suicide by refusing Russian oil and gas. They are now totally dependent on America for energy. NATO has been invigorated and American dominance over European foreign policy must now be approaching 1950/marshall plan levels. Sanctions are supposed to weaken Russia although the collateral damage to the world economy continues to increase. American arms manufacturers are rubbing their hands over the forthcoming European orders and American oil producers are doing likewise. So what’s not to like?
Tuesday, June 7, 2022
Norwegians Must Be Really Stupid People
Norwegian Feminist Faces Three Years In Prison
Covid Vaccination to Promote the Spread
Vaccine orders for kids under 5 underway
But perhaps Norwegians aren't stupid, but are being conditioned to fear questioning even the most obvious, absurd or monstrous lies told by what is laughably called their democratic government -- and amplified by what is laughably called their free press.
And, clearly, acceptance of similar bullshit is being compelled throughout the West. Here in Trudovia, those peacefully protesting against stupid vax mandates (as we have noted, the vax actually promotes Covid spread*, a fact just confirmed by none other than the CDC) are declared by Prime Minister Turdeau to be racists and misogynists.
* A prize of one year's free subscription to CanSpeccy to anyone able to find a search engine that links to our November 12, 2021 post:
But don't waste your time with the big search engines Bing, for example or Quack Quack Doh! Non of them have it. Not even Google that hosts this blog. Why's that, do you suppose?
Related:
What about the unborn? Would it not be possible to vaccinate the fetus in utero?
Russia's Special Operation and the degeneration of the West
Silicon Valley Taking Control of History
UK Gov. report confirms COVID Vaccination significantly increases the risk of Death
Monday, June 6, 2022
Gonzalo Lira: What Happens to Europe When Russia Wins in Ukraine?
Related:
Gonzalo Lira: What Russia Has To Do After Russia Wins
Russia-Installed Leader in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Considers Referendum on Joining Russia
Russia Says It Will Take More Ukrainian Territory to Defend Against Longer-Range Weapons
Ukraine and US only countries to vote against UN Resolution Condemning Nazism
Ukraine To Ban 'War And Peace' From Being Taught In Schools
Ukrainian Official Breaks Silence, Admits She Lied About Mass Rape By Russians To Garner More Aid/Arms: It worked
Saturday, June 4, 2022
A Man's a Man for a' That
Since Edmund Cartwright invented the power loom in 1784, mechanisation and automation have destroyed jobs at an ever increasing pace. That these processes would have a huge impact on working people and the distribution of wealth was already evident two hundred years ago. Thus, in the Edinburgh Review of 1829, Thomas Carlyle wrote:
In the face of this prospect, I am grateful to Yusef for his response to a question I raised in an earlier post. Namely:
... Nothing is now done directly, or by hand; all is by rule and calculated contrivance. For the simplest operation, some helps and accompaniments, some cunning abbreviating process is in readiness. Our old modes of exertion are all discredited, and thrown aside. On every hand, the living artisan is driven from his workshop, to make room for a speedier, inanimate one. The shuttle drops from the fingers of the weaver, and falls into iron fingers that ply it faster. The sailor furls his sail, and lays down his oar; and bids a strong, unwearied servant, on vaporous wings, bear him through the waters. Men have crossed oceans by steam; ... There is no end to machinery. Even the horse is stripped of his harness, and finds a fleet fire-horse invoked in his stead. Nay, we have an artist that hatches chickens by steam; the very brood-hen is to be superseded! For all earthly, and for some unearthly purposes, we have machines and mechanic furtherances; for mincing our cabbages; for casting us into magnetic sleep. ...
Yet despite the ongoing destruction of jobs, prosperity as Carlyle noted, had never been greater or more widely spread:
What wonderful accessions have thus been made, and are still making, to the physical power of mankind; how much better fed, clothed, lodged and, in all outward respects, accommodated men now are, or might be, by a given quantity of labour, is a grateful reflection which forces itself on every one.Yet, Carlyle asked:
What changes, too, this addition of power is introducing into the Social System ...increasing the distance between the rich and the poor, will be a question for Political Economists...
And today, the answer to Carlyle's question for the Political Economists is at last becoming evident. Not only is machinery replacing human labor, but automation, robotization, and control by artificial intelligence is altogether eliminating the economic value of human intelligence except for that of a tiny elite of highly trained specialists. Increasingly, the objective of the business corporation is not to increase the productivity of human labor but to eliminate it from the productive process.
Thus the telephone company has no human to answer the phone, but seeks to meet their customer's need with a synthetic voice driven by artificial intelligence. Though, currently, the response such systems provide to any inquiry is generally inane, confidence must exist that with incremental improvement, the system will become a fully effective replacement for human intelligence at a great saving in expense.
The auto industry, likewise, seeks to eliminate the need for for human intelligence as well as muscle, not only in the production of motor vehicles, as evident with the introduction of lights-out robot factories, but in the operation of both cars and freight vehicles. The result: not increased labor productivity, but labor elimination, indicating that we are fast approaching a period of massive and irreducible unemployment. What then for the mass of mankind?
As we noted several days ago, Yuval Harari, a futurist much admired by Klaus Schwab, founder and Chair of the World Economic Forum, considers that other than the class of high IQ and highly trained techies, the plutocrats who seek control of the globe will have no desire to perpetuate the existence of what Harari calls the "useless people," which is to say most of humanity.
The implication is clear: the human surplus should off themselves, in the way that the Government of Schwabb-acolyte, Justin Trudeau intends with its Medical Assistance In Death legislation for the old, the depressed, and the terminally ill, to which list will surely be added the permanently unemployable.
Though shocking to those not familiar with it, this is a solution long endorsed, not only in Nazi Germany but by many in the enlightened West, as these comments by the famous Anglo-Irish playwright,George Bernard Shaw make clear:
In the face of this prospect, I am grateful to Yusef for his response to a question I raised in an earlier post. Namely:
"what are the alternative futures, if any, for the mass of humanity when a pair of hands is no longer worth its keep."
Yusef provides two quotes:
(1)
Mark 2: 23: And it came to pass, that he went through the corn fields on the sabbath day; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn.
24 And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful?
25 And he said unto them, Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was an hungred, he, and they that were with him?
26 How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the shewbread, which is not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave also to them which were with him?
27 And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:
28 Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath."King James Bible
(2)
Immanuel Kant: "An end-in-itself"
An explanation of Kant's concept of "an end-in-itself", often put more informally as the idea that we should not "use" other people.
The word "end" in this phrase has the same meaning as in the phrase "means to an end".
The philosopher Immanuel Kant said that rational human beings should be treated as an end in themselves and not as a means to something else. The fact that we are human has value in itself.
If a person is an end-in-themself it means their inherent value doesn't depend on anything else - it doesn't depend on whether the person is enjoying their life, or making other people's lives better. We exist, so we have value.
Most of us agree with that - though we don't put it so formally. We say that we don't think that we should use other people, which is a plain English way of saying that we shouldn't treat other people as a means to our own ends.
This idea applies to us too. We shouldn't treat ourselves as a means to our own ends; instead we should respect our inherent worth. This can be used as an argument against euthanasia, suicide and other behaviours that damage ourselves.
The idea also shows up in discussions of animal rights, with the idea that if they have rights, animals must be treated as ends in themselves." (Source)
To which I would add Robbie Burns' fine poem: A Man’s a Man for a’ That
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