The Pneumo-Pathology Of The Covid Regime

Smart people want to know: Why do so many people still buy into the patently unscientific and false narrative of the Covid regime? A Belgian psychologist, Mattias Desmet, Professor of Clinical Psychology at Ghent University, has proposed that what we’re witnessing is a phenomenon that he refers to as “Mass Formation”. What he’s describing with this somewhat opaque term (in English) is a type of mass social hypnosis in which the mass of the population seems to share a “collective unconsciousness”—an obliviousness to reality and even a collective hostility to attempts to introduce them back into a relation to the real world. There’s an interview with Desmet on Youtube in which he presents his ideas, as an explantion for the strange psychological state of so many people under the Covid regime. The interview is about an hour and a quarter long, and you can watch it here:

WHY DO SO MANY STILL BUY INTO THE PANDEMIC NARRATIVE?

However, as it happens, there’s a shorter summary in a blog post:

Mass-Formation by Dr. Mattias Desmet Professor of Psychology University of Ghent

What I’ll do is present the basic theory with commentary. I view this theory as useful but overly elaborate. So …

The theory of Mass Formation derives from a book, Crowds, by Gustave Le Bon. Le Bon’s basic idea is that, under certain social circumstances, a tightly integrated new social group can be formed, characterized not so much by the usual common interests in society but by psychological characteristics—it’s a “psychological crowd.” The characteristic that typifies a Mass Formation of this sort really boils down to Anxiety—Anxiety and the provision of a way to combat that anxiety that galvanizes people into a crowd. Or perhaps a “hysteria” and “mob” would be a better terms for what Desmet—following Le Bon—is describing.

This is Desmet’s description of the social factors that can lead to Mass Formation, as well as the triggering mechanism:

1. There needs to a lot of socially isolated people or people who experience a lack of social bond.

2. People who experience a lack of ‘sense making’. Unable to come to sensible conclusions.

3. There is a lot of Free-Floating Anxiety (FFA). Free-Floating because there’s nothing to connect their anxiety to. No focal point. Unable to identify what’s causing anxiety and so no way to deal with it.

4. There’s also a lot of Free-Floating Psychological-Discontent. People may experience their daily lives as lacking any purpose or meaning.

Free-Floating Anxiety is the most painful psychological phenomena to experience and leads to panic attacks. In this state of unfocused anxiety the mind tries to connect it’s anxiety to something, an “Object of Anxiety”. The next piece of the puzzled is a strategy to deal with this Object of Anxiety.

I think you can see where this is leading—a cynical exploitation of these factors by a ruling elite seeking greater social control:

So when these pre-conditions are highly present within a population and then the media provide a narrative which indicates a focal-point for this anxiety while at the same time describing a strategy to deal with this object of anxiety then all the anxiety connects to this object of anxiety.

In the interview Desmet describes how he came to the realization that this phenomenon is what he was witnessing. In addition to being a clinical psychologist he has a strong background in statistics. At the onset of the Covid panic he began examining the statistical modeling that was galvanizing populations around the world to accept the ensuing lockdowns. What he soon discovered was that the modeling was utterly without basis and, in fact, was regularly falsified by real world data. The example he cites is what happened in Sweden. Or rather, what didn’t happen in Sweden—modeled predictions for mortality in Sweden were wildly exaggerated. They were patently false. And yet, the rulers have continued this pattern of stirring up panic and anxiety in the populace, rather than adjusting policies to coincide with actual reality. It was this that led Desmet to understand that something other than science was going on.

Now, if you look at the four factors listed above, the common denominator is clearly the common experience in modern society of a lack of meaning to life. If you look at the top of this page you’ll also see that this substack is titled “Meaning in History.” Coincidence? No.

What I would suggest is that all this can be boiled down into the loss of a sense of meaning or purpose in life. Man, as a rational (and social) animal—no matter how tenuously so, as it may appear at times—is driven at a deep level to seek the meaning of his existence. Loss of a common understanding of what that meaning is can lead to social dissolution—I appeal to history in this regard. It’s similar to what Marx describes as “alienation.” However, as Desmet argues, that human drive for meaning can be cynically manipulated by authorities who provide a focal point that substitutes for rational meaning in everyday life. This often leads to spasmodic outbreaks of what I would call mass hysteria. 

That modern life is—for large sectors of the population—suffers from a lack of meaning is, to me, a given. The collapse of social organized religion is symptomatic of that. As a social phenomenon this is most obvious on the Left—the susceptibility of the Left to “causes” that lead to mass hysterical reactions is well known and is especially typical of the formative stages of totalitarian states. However, beyond this psychological fringe of society, people whose lives are not directed by a strong sense of purpose and articulable meaning are also susceptible to going along with narratives of this type.

Desmet argues that something like this is what we are witnessing. I agree. The true antidote is a recovery of meaning—to prevent future outbreaks of mass hysteria, rather than merely temporary cessation of whatever the current hysterical fixation might be. A mass hysteria  has been induced, providing a focus for the unfocused anxiety of modern life: The supposed threat from an unseen enemy, a viral foe that is stalking you through your everyday life and can attack you without your even being aware of it. Everyone surrounding you or with whom you come in contact is a possible threat as a carrier and spreader. The solution? The moral equivalent of war against this unseen threat.

With all that in mind, the blog post continues with a description of what Desmet sees going on around us (I summarize and excerpt—as always, follow the link for more):

If a large segment of people are willing to follow this strategy to deal with this object of anxiety no matter the cost, then in a second step people start a collective & heroic battle with this Object of Anxiety and in that way a new kind of social bond emerges & with that a new kind of “sense making” or purpose. Suddenly life is all directed towards battling this Object of Anxiety. This creates new sense of connectedness with others in the Mass-Formation.

This sudden and radical switch from the negative state of lack of social-connection to the opposite, a massive increase in social connection leads up to a mental intoxication.

The difference from the usual experience of hypnosis or, I would say, hysteria is that this experience of Mass Formation takes on a social dimension, with large sectors of the populace acting in concert.

When people experience this mental intoxication it no longer matters if the narrative is wrong or even blatantly false. What matters is that it leads up to this mental intoxication. This is why they will continue to go along with the narrative.

It’s a sort of “high”, occasioned by participation in what is experienced as a life or death struggle. Lack of meaning in life fades in the face of this perceived existential threat.

The resistance to understanding the narrative is false or wrong is driven by the fear of returning to the state of Free-Floating Anxiety and wanting to continue to experience the mental intoxication.

Have you ever tried to talk someone out of Global Warming hysteria, or Pandemic Panic? As in most cases of this sort, what’s needed for people to break free is often a kind of exhaustion, rather than rational argument.

This explains why arguing based on facts will not work. Facts no longer matter to them. Given the facts, they are be unable to come to sensible conclusions, even in their own best interests.

Mass-Formation is also similar to mass-hypnosis in terms of people’s willingness to put up with things normally intolerable.

...

In Mass-Formations people become radically intolerant of dissident voices. This person threatens to wake the people up and they get angry when confronted by the initial anxiety and discontent they experience by challenges to the official doctrine.

And this radical intolerance of dissident voices can be—has been—exploited by the ruling elite, who pose as protectors.

At the same time they are radically tolerant of their leaders who pronounce the mainstream narrative. These people can lie and cheat and do everything they want and will always be forgiven by the crowd. All the lying, dishonesty and misbehavior is seen by the crowd as doing it for their own safety.

I want to conclude with some incisive Twitter excerpts from Robert Malone today. They may strike you as darkly pessimistic, but he presents them as ways to combat this gathering darkness—note the emphasis on meaning:

Robert W Malone, MD

@RWMaloneMD

7:57 AM · Nov 15, 2021·Twitter Web App

And a good comment/insight from Mordock Shram, who sees 3 groups immune to this effect:

• Those who've been abused and are suspicious of manipulation attempts,

• Those with religious, spiritual belief in a creator, and are aware of evil,

• those who have been scapegoats in their family, and are independent, or have had a hard life and so have life sense.

And I knew it was a lie from the first moment. I felt the evil.

Intentional communities are how we can "think global, act local" and survive during this period of collective insanity.

Paraphrasing William Gibson-

Global Totalitarianism is already here – it's just not evenly distributed.

Think global, act local, and find a way to ride out the coming storm while remaining true to the facts. That is what it comes down to. The WEF has the upper hand at present.

✵ ܣܐܪܐ @soulwithsarah

Don’t let that be you.