A military veteran can experience relatively little active combat, and a crime victim might be violently attacked by a perpetrator only once. However, both can experience a lifetime of panic and trauma that can impede their daily functioning, which will make it impossible to live happy and fulfilling lives in the long term while simultaneously robbing them of any daily happiness at all . It is instinctual for us to clench up in terror, but it can be nearly impossible to dispel the fears that caused the adrenal overdrive in the first place.

As we coast toward the two year anniversary of unending Covid-19 doomsday warnings, lockdowns, shutdowns, social isolation, compulsory masking, remote work and learning, grim financial hardships—and the consequences of the dismal and destructive personal coping mechanisms that frightened and confused people often adopt—one has to wonder just what the shape of that which could possibly pass for normal will look like in the years ahead.

Given that a number of recent public opinion polls show that a significant portion of Americans are planning to hunker down, mask forever, and chase endless fantasies of vaccinated bliss—dreams of illusory security that will continually elude them as viral variants continue to multiply—it seems likely that a form of national PTSD will be upon us for many decades to come.  

This week Chicago public school teachers announced they are refusing to return to their classrooms because they fear infection; the news media are definitely infected with panic-inducing stories warning of endless pandemics.  Both of these circumstances speak to the depths of readily manufactured public hysteria.  Apparently oblivious to the plain fact that we humans exist in a mucky soup of viruses and bacteria—and our continued good health is actually dependent on daily exposure to these germs so that our bodies can maintain our natural immunities—we are succumbing to dangerous neuroses that damage us as individuals and hobble our society as a whole.

Our frantic and fruitless pursuit of lives that allow us to huddle inside our very own isolation bubbles while we coat ourselves with hand sanitizer and flinch away from all human contact is a symptom of the damage demented government policies and media fear porn have inflicted on our over-adrenalized brains and increasingly fragile souls.  We are victims of domestic terrorists masquerading as our leaders and protectors, and the sheer lunacy of continuing to follow these charlatans, who are chasing their own dreams of wealth and power by inciting never ending panic, becomes more obvious with each passing day.

However, we are still left with a fundamental problem: Fear mongering is a big, lucrative business that markets to our insecurities and frailties to make megabucks, and those who are profiting—whether politically, financially, or both—are going to be loathe to hop off their gravy trains.

Covid-19 is, of course, not the only panic-inducing scam on the agenda today.  When it comes to creating the anxiety that prompts our compliance with the most outrageous ideas and demands, climate change alarmism and insisting that racism exists in every nook and cranny of American society have already paved the road to perdition with crises that—surprise!—cause taxpayer cash to rain down on those who slow walk unworkable solutions which will require yet more infusions of lovely money.  

There are wonderful careers to be found in creating problems that can be solved in the most desultory and incredibly expensive manner possible, which perhaps explains why so many social justice warriors are so remarkably affluent.  The Covid-19 playbook is remarkably similar to the intrusive, impractical, and wildly expensive tactics we have already seen from the climate and racial activists—and the love for money and power we see with all three is likewise a match.

I can easily understand why it must be alluring to fill your pockets with cash and pontificate about your intellectual and moral superiority to a credulous audience of acolytes and media cheerleaders.  However, the societal harm caused by monomaniacs—who diligently work both inside and outside of government—is beyond all reckoning.  Whether mindlessly destroying jobs, sowing hatred, or pledging to erase our rights to free speech, those who claim to be helping us are actually stealing both our current wellbeing and hopes for the future.

In a very real sense, we are all today both badly scarred combat veterans and frightened crime victims, and those who have been most harmed by this madness are children, adolescents, and young adults, who have been compelled to watch helplessly as America has gone crazy around them.  

I am at least old enough to have experienced a more normal world, but I worry about those younger than me, who have known nothing but chaos and discord during their formative years and might wrongly presume our current mass psychoses represents a reasonable reality.  Both individuals and society at large can grow accustomed to mania and misery if they continue for long enough, and we should be deeply suspicious of those who advocate that we continue on our present course.  

Although a great many seem bizarrely reconciled to—and even strangely excited about—screeching rather than talking, blaming rather than solving, and destroying rather than building, these are the very last people we should look to for either leadership or guidance.  Those in politics, the media, and academia who celebrate suspicion, embrace censorship, and extinguish all hope are leading America to a national collapse by employing divisive antics that bring them the attention, power, and money which they crave.  

We all must remember there is no future in following societal arsonists; there are only ashes to be found by continually following the masters of disaster.

We can—and must—let go of the Covid-19 craziness that is ruining our lives and nation, but we must also recognize that it is but one of a sad triumvirate of national insanities being pressed upon us by those who see profit and power in promoting fear and anger.  The dull drumbeat of doomsayers claiming that planetary demise is imminent and racial hatreds are everywhere reinforce and reflect the carefully constructed state of national panic that has made it easier to strip Americans of our most basic civil and human rights in the name of public health.  

Claims that we can be made safer by being imprisoned in our homes, our planet can be saved by crushing our economy, and societal harmony can be created by branding everyone a racist are laughable, but the joke is really on us.  We have allowed this kind of nonsense to rule our lives for many years and erode our hopes and dreams, but we must allow it no longer.

In is time for Americans to breathe free again—in every possible way.