An evening with Sheep

Can we un-en-sheeple the people?

Tonight will be one of the very rare occasions that I Go Out.  While I had my time being a party girl, that was over long ago, and the trajectory of becoming increasingly solitary took a very sharp turn over the past year. To the point where I’m borderline reclusive. But there is a wedding in my very-large-extended family. If I declined to attend, my absence would so conspicuous as to work against my drive to be generally left-the-fuck-alone. So I will go spend an evening with the sheep. I think you all know what I mean. Not sheep-sheep. Sheople-sheep.

A piece of background information about my family: we have an unusually large proportion of MDs. The patriarch of the family, my paternal grandfather from whom everyone in this gathering is descended, was a doctor. Back in the day when doctors made house calls and carried black bags. Think Dr. Baker from Little House on the Prairie. Those that are not doctors are, nevertheless, still “well-educated”. Not a single person has no university degree, and most of those who are not MDs have other higher degrees. I will be The Only Unvaccinated person in attendance.

I have a new podcast which has made my favorites-list, by none other than the brilliant favorite-Substack writer Mathew Crawford. In a recent discussion, towards the end, the concept of education is brought up. And I begin to feel very bothered about how this word is getting bandied around. Which is not to say I disagree with any of the points made during the discussion. I do not disagree. But I wonder if we could use more specificity. More detail, more nuance, and not just throw the word out. If I recall, most of those who favored lockdowns – an unmitigated disaster which many of us warned (and warned and warned about) were the ‘well-educated’ work-from-your-home-office Zooming-in-their-pyjamas class. And if I’m not mistaken, “vaccination” rates also correlate with both higher income and higher education levels. I spotted this article recently, about Quebec university students being exceptionally compliant and was not at all surprised. Can I break off here and tell a personal anecdote?

In the spring semester of 2021, I was completing my psychology degree. (by Zoom obviously, as going to class was not safe. Insert eye-roll here). I was working as a TA as well, and it was quite the experience. Two points: a lecture where a student complained vociferously about her employer – a clothing store outlet in the local mall – wanting her to work. She was outraged. IT’S NOT SAFE. IT’S NOT SAFE!!!!!!!  Outrage.

The semester finished, and when we had corrected all the exams and assignments, it was mid-May already; the professor and I had never met in person, but she suggested we do so for a final farewell. By the time we arranged it, mid-June, it must have been the time-point when the “vaccine” roll-out had just been authorized for Everyone. (It began by age, so in my province you could get it early in 2021 if you were 65 or older, Feb-March 55+, April 40+ etc.). We met at a park and chatted. She was a bit younger than me, and had three children – 5, 10 and 12 years in age. Some music concert was coming up which the older two wanted to attend, but only the 12-year-old was able to get jabbed. The 10-year-old was so sad. So sad. He was desperate to get jabbed like his older brother. It reminded me of some of the things kids had been desperate to do when I was 8 or 10 or 12, and we were told we “Weren’t old enough yet”. I remember that feeling very well. The feeling of wanting so badly, when you’re a kid, to be “old enough” to do some thing. All I could think to myself was WTF. Not a sliver of a doubt in my mind that this professor has had all her kids jabbed now, even the 5-yr-old.

A third point: as you all likely know, I am a runner. In the summer, on nice days, I abandon my treadmill and head down to the Lakeshore, a lovely street that goes along the water. I run from my house to the western tip of the island and back. I pass through a college/university campus. For two summers in a row, as I ran across this vast open green space, (right across from a lake), I would see groups of students, all masked up. Me, 49, 50-year-old, running free. Them, 18,19,20 years old… masked.

I read a book called Bad Pharma, by Ben Goldacre, over the winter. Although he seems to be a big fan of the jabs, and incredibly enough a supporter of big pharma, he does an excellent job of outlining how pharma has captured… well, everything. The universities, yes for sure. The majority of the scientific journals. The regulatory agencies which are supposed to regulate them. And though he doesn’t discuss this in the book, I would add to the list of what they have captured governments and the mainstream media. But I digress. My point was that academia has been captured. And not only by pharma. By woke-ism. By who knows what else. Education in its current form does not seem to be leading us in the right direction. More-of-this does not seem like a good idea. It does not seem like more-of-this will get us out of the hole we are in. What’s the first thing you need to do when you find yourself in a deep hole? Stop digging.

As I surround myself with some of the most highly educated people around tonight – and I can tell you in advance many will be masked – I will need to maintain in my awareness at all times that it would not be in my own best interest to get involved in any discussions that go beyond “you look so nice tonight, I love that dress”, or “wasn’t the ceremony so beautiful”. I happen to adore sheep in fact, as you can see from the picture of me with them at a sanctuary where I used to volunteer. But my feeling of adoration for actual sheep is equalled by my feeling of horrified-ness at the fact that people are, through our educational system, being intentionally turned into sheople. There is an evil at work when education seeks to en-sheeple the people. Education itself has become weaponised against us. And above all else, if we are to get out of this hole, education must be freed from that. We need to turn it into a weapon for us, not against us.