Hi Miles comrade in arms, it’s been a long time, hope you are doing well.
I write that response to your post on Facebook below, because I do not share the idea that we should not look at things with a critical eye as soon as they bear the official stamp of science.
You say you trust your doctor when doctor says it’s needed. I wish you Miles to never be in a situation where you have to decide against the doctors what is needed truly for a loved one. My wife and I have been in that position for one of our children. Doctors were speaking with certainty :"if the bladder is not removed your child will die". The choice given was between death and a lifetime disability. We chose death against the doctors’ knowledge and wisdom, we chose in the loneliness of our conscience, because sometimes when you choose death you live. That’s what happened, our son is now a strong man with a normal life. Doctors were filled with self-confidence but they were wrong, their choice was arbitrary, their was another option.
In 1995, a French health minister named Philippe Douste-Blazy launched an hepatitis B vaccination campaign on the assertion that the virus could be transmitted by saliva. That was a bald-faced lie, a fear appeal, this virus is not transmitted by saliva. Many people died from multiple sclerosis after the vaccination. A long trial was held afterwards, and the pharmaceutical laboratory Sanofi-Aventis-Merck, world leader at the time in human vaccines, was convicted for gross fault.
Politicians have not been investigated as always.
I consider myself lucky to have cancelled the third injection, for the second one caused serious damage to my immune system, and I had trouble breathing for the following months.
Mr Douste-Blazy was a doctor.
You will understand that this kind of experience made me prudent regarding the recommendations of the medical establishment and of the government as well.
But if we extrapolate from there to more general issues, science cannot be considered only for it’s luminous side, because there is nothing monolithic under the sun. "Nature strives for the opposites evenly and out of them she creates harmony, not out of equal things", Heraclites wrote that long before Aikido was brought to light by O Sensei. Moreover Miles, isn’t that what we have been trained to in Iwama, you me and others : trained to blend the opposite but complementary forces which make the Aikido movement a human action respectful of the essential requirements of nature ?
Harmony is at stake in the development of science like everywhere, but harmony has nothing to do with relative concepts such as good and evil. I am for instance grateful to the french nuclear power plant that enables me to write to you on my laptop tonight. But I cannot say it is a good thing. People who have lost their family, their home and their land in Tchernobyl and Fukushima would have good reasons to disagree.
A famous French writer named Rabelais wrote 500 years ago that "science without conscience is but the ruin of the soul". If behind that sentence is the idea that science can only provide the best to mankind, and that problems arise only as a result of the unwise use that is made of science - Hiroshima for example if we stay in the nuclear arena - then I do not follow Rabelais. Because there is no misapplication of a good idea, there is no good theory and bad practice, science like everything in the universe is a balance between opposite forces. And in this respect, it is irrelevant to find out wether science can be trusted or not, she is simply there with the best and the worst for essence, and we have got to stay in front of her with the liberty of our judgment.
Regrettably we generaly are lazy, we keep our eyes closed and go with the flow without questions, our selfish interests urge us to carry on the comfortable life we have been used to, we want to go to restaurant again and to go out dancing as you say, we want to enjoy our time because "life is short".
I think on the contrary that the comfort of our lives should never be a goal in itself. Look at the environment, the last century quest for comfort has led our world to the brink of collapse. We have now reached a harder time when change and transformation have become a vital necessity, comfort is a luxury we cannot afford anymore and we can no longer demand. In 1992, George Bush declared at the Rio Earth Summit that the "American way of life" was not negotiable, he was right nature will not negociate.
From that point of view covid, by making our lives harder, could be looked at as a painful but life-saving event, likely to change our approach of the world on the long term. And perhaps should we be thankful for the trouble caused by that tiny creature, perhaps should we learn from her and find something other than consumption for only response and sole horizon… just saying.
Do not misunderstand me Miles, I don’t want to die from covid and I may eventually get vaccinated, but not for personal reasons, not to maintain my comfort and quality of life, nor because I blindly trust science, the doctors, the government or the labs. For what then ? Maybe simply because there is a fair bit of work to be done out there for the children of our children, to whom we are accountable.
That is a 35 years old Suntory Red sayonara nikyo that I still feel on my wrists.
Philippe.
Miles Kessler Facebook Post 30 /08/ 2021
I'm vaccinated and, no, I don't know what's in it - neither this vaccine, the ones I had as a child, nor in the Big Mac, or hot dogs I used to eat, or in other treatments…whether it's for cancer, AIDS, the one for polyarthritis, or vaccines for infants or children. I trust my doctor when she says it’s needed.
I also don't know what's in Ibuprofen, Tylenol, or other meds, they just cure my headaches & my pains ...
I don't know what's in the ink for tattoos, vaping, or every ingredient in my soap or shampoo or even deodorants. I don’t know the long-term effect of cell phone use or whether or not that restaurant I just ate at REALLY used clean foods and washed their hands.
In short ...
There's a lot of things I don't know and never will…
I just know one thing: life is short, very short, and I still want to do something other than just going to work every day or staying locked in my home. I still want to travel and hug people without fear and find a little feeling of life "before".
As a child and as an adult I've been vaccinated for mumps, measles, rubella, polio, chickenpox, and quite a few others; my parents and I trusted the science and never had to suffer through or transmit any of said diseases ... just saying.
I'm vaccinated, not to please the government but:
* To not die from Covid-19.
* To NOT clutter a hospital bed if I get sick.
* To hug my loved ones
* To Not have to do PCR or antigenic tests to go out dancing, go to a restaurant, go on holidays and many more things to come ...
* To live my life and enjoy loved ones.
* To have more pillow fights with my kids, many more
* For Covid-19 to be an old memory.
* To protect us.
PS. Many sweet souls were lost to COVID last year.
I am doing my part to stop the spread.
I hope you’ll join me.
Text copied (with a few adjustments), you can too.
