We all lived through three years of intimidation and fear. It has subsided now, but most people haven't processed what has happened… they haven't sorted and settled things inside themselves.

This type of delay is not unusual. In the aftermath of World War II, the Holocaust simply wasn't talked about. Even the remaining Jews spoke fairly little of it. "We didn't talk about it until about 1960," I was told by those who lived through it as adults, and the records bear that up.

Recalibration
Storms such as we've just been through distort human character. We suffered through a fear-storm of Biblical proportions, supercharged with the high-tech application of social pain. Anyone who differed with the party line was punished, and harshly. Millions were kicked-out of their jobs, tolerance for the opinions of others was destroyed, bodily autonomy was rejected, free speech was thrown away with force.

And all the authorities, all the holders of positions, all the enforcers and sacrifice collectors… they drove it all in unison, and mercilessly. Those with integrity and courage enough to object were removed in one way or another.

So, we have a lot to face and a lot to unwind.

We need to re-balance ourselves… to recalibrate ourselves. And we can do that in either of two ways: We can recalibrate to reality, or we can recalibrate to fantasy.

I think we need to choose reality, but this is the more challenging choice: reality is stark and doesn't cater to human feelings. Fantasy, on the other hand, is fitted directly to emotional desires: it succeeds by painting pictures of whatever the hearers would like to be true.

In the past, centering on reality couldn't be done as easily as it can now, and so people recovered slowly. For emotional reasons it hasn't been terribly fast even now, but we can move ourselves ahead rather faster than slower by centering on facts.

So, I think we should begin by facing the one, essential conclusion from the entire Covid business:

Everyone got it anyway.

All of the mayhem and abuse were sold with "We have to prevent people from getting it." And so we have to begin by facing the fact that everyone got it anyway… that the threats and enforcements and orders… the actions of authority and the authorized… simply failed. It was the greatest public failure in human history.