Two months ago, I was writing a post “Report from a ghost country.” And now, two months later, things have changed so much that I can say «we are the ghosts». Without civil rights, without political representation, with increasingly precarious economic resources. The hammering propaganda has made us psychologically subjugated to the regime. Fear has been transferred from the virus to the police forces, to other people. It seems to me that we are in the Russia of dissidents (in the ’70): those who protested were locked up in asylums. And it is that happens here in Italy, in Sicily (in Ravanusa, Agrigento). A young man, Dario Musso, 40, in a car, alone, protesting with a megaphone was stopped by the police, sedated by three nurses and locked up in the psychiatry ward of the hospital. But it also happened in Germany with the lawyer Beate Bahner.
They hid our body, locking us at home, now they are also erasing our opinions, dissidents are insane: what remains fo us if not the vague form of a ghost? More naked than that…
Lighting is magnificent!, Thanks Vittorio!
Whatever the rhetoric, the image is just awesome. Look at all that contre-jour!
This is outrageous. We are facing fascism, nazism with another name, for our own good.
Thank you, Luis.
I don’t know what’s going on, much less how things are going to evolve. I can say that the population is split in two: a majority that has squeezed around the government like a dog seeking refuge with its master, who kneels before the one who beats them. Someone couldn’t believe that “powerful ones” are bad. Feeling weak, he seeks some support, hope, a fixed point – (it’s better a dictator than uncertainty and fear). Then there is a minority that has considered this story a colossal fabrication, because of the inflated data, the communication itself, the disproportion between the real danger and the measures of containment. From here, a current of counter-information developed, based on unmanipulated data, which led to trusting doctors and their knowledge and work, rather than the government and its experts. The government wanted to prove its strength and got millions of likes and buuhs.
In this second phase, the gap continues. We are facing severe economic difficulties, and we present to Bill gates 130 million euros for research on the vaccine (when Bill Gates patented it a few months ago through the Pirbright Institute).
Through the concept of “flock immunity” is passing intolerance towards black sheep, implemented by decrees and forced hospitalizations.
For this reason, we have to be very careful. The first point, we have to be equally inflexible on the interferences that concern our body and our health, especially when we have even the suspicion that this is for the benefit of some pluto-pathic (money addict) or crato-pathic (power addict).
It has it’s good points I suppose having elected judges & sheriffs but surely that leads to a more turbulent and unstable way to apply laws. Isn’t it possible that judges can be too flexible to local opinions or pressure groups when it comes to how rigidly (or not) laws are enacted. When election time come around I bet you see the ‘friendly’ side of those law enforcers more exposed?
Since most people don’t have any real interaction with the legal or law-enforcement systems, the incumbents tend to run on a “We maintained law and order” platform without going into the details. A judge or sheriff really has to screw up to get thrown out of office (unless the party as a whole gets replaced by an opposing party). In these few cases (really I’ve only heard about two or three that were bad enough to get publicity throughout the state) there’s a good opportunity for an opponent to take the job, but it’s always possible that the citizens of that patch approve of the official actions and will re-elect them.
As for judges being too flexible or influenced by local opinion, etc., there is a fair amount of external scrutiny from the higher courts. Judges can be relieved of their position if they are shown to be not following the law. Sheriffs, I think, not so much but even there we have a state police system (with officers appointed, not elected) that can be used to correct local injustices. Yes, it definitely can be messy and unstable, but that’s true of any elected government.
I hear you. Things aren’t that bad in Texas, but we still have overbearing police and courts. They’re getting pushback, though, so a lot of people aren’t putting up with the crap from the government. Also, our judges and sheriffs are elected, so if enough people remember this come election day the tyrants may find themselves out of a job.
Thank you, Roger,
Maybe I overreacted. I got carried away with the rhetoric and metaphors. Once you see the extreme point, you can appreciate the right medium. Having imagined myself as a ghost, it helps me not to become one. Stripped of everything, it helps me to be on my guard with my only means, to see the danger and stay away from it, or to equip myself to defend or resist it. Nudism has given me an extraordinary consciousness of the presence of the body as my identity, a consciousness that I didn’t know I had and would never have imagined could exist. It is a consciousness based on the fact of my corporeity, which is the same as saying: of my life.