Only three years ago, most governments in the world, even those that proclaim fealty to democracy, divided their populations into groups deemed essential and nonessential, classified health needs based on political priorities, and channeled populational behaviors according to the whims of our own high priests, the sanctified Scientists and their findings and judgments. Their power to override our laws was awesome to behold, and the valorization of compliance was similarly on display. Those who masked up, isolated, and took their forced medicines were deemed virtuous while those who doubted and dissented were and are demonized as enemies of public well-being.
What did we sacrifice to the gods of our time so that we may survive? Freedom for sure. Human rights, absolutely. Democracy, it had to be put on hold while the administrators had their way, together with their propagandists and the builders of all necessary tools. Social media platforms, once seen as friendly and ennobling, became weapons of surveillance and cancellation, while states consisting of elected leaders were quietly overthrown in favor of the power and privileges of the permanent bureaucracy. And then there’s the children, many of whom lost two years of education along with social connection, all supposedly to keep the teachers and administrators safe.
The peoples of the Mayan and Aztec empires were surrounded by monuments to the greatness of their leaders and their faith, and they celebrated both. We too look back in awe at what they built despite what we know: their social systems were bloody and barbaric in ways we cannot imagine now. And yet when we study their histories in our own times, with the appropriate amount of humility, we face a similar problematic disorientation.
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