As we continue into what we should assume is the Age of Unreason and hope to be just an Era, I think back to how we got to this point.

How is it that we are not allowed to say the “vast majority of unvaxxed will survive Omicron, in fact, over 99.9% will survive.”? It is, after all, a true statement.

How is it that we believe that vaccines are the only solution?

Or that one person can go into a stadium and infect every single person there when no virus in human history that had ever been so devastating.

We believe things that, if we just stop and think about for a few moments, we should see the absurdity in them. At least most of us would.

It’s absurd to believe that you’re going to get a virus you’re vaccinated against from somebody because they are unvaccinated. Being unvaccinated is not enough to cause the spread of the virus. I know, some heads are exploding because I speak “dangerous words,” but it is true. In order for an unvaccinated person to spread the virus, the unvaccinated person must first have the virus. We have people telling you that they mask up to “protect you from me.” and pat themselves on the back with holier-than-thou glee but the reality is they are actually trying to protect themselves even as they admit the mask does not protect them.

Edgar Allen Poe wrote about the spread of plagues in The Mask of the Red Death, and no matter how isolated you think you can be or what you think you can do to save yourself, you can’t avoid it forever. Some people value their lives so much that they are afraid of living and don’t take chances.

The reality is you will die.

You cannot live forever.

Patrick Henry argued this very point when advocating for the American Revolution, “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” Life is short, and those of us who reach old age must look back at our lives and ask ourselves “what have I done with my life?” The tolerance of our own inevitability depends heavily on that answer, and we’ll face death with either fear or courage.

But the question is, how did we reach this unreasonable stage? How is it that some otherwise intelligent people believe the earth is flat? Wouldn’t some consideration of their facts only lead one to conclude that the earth is indeed round as a ball? That if it were flat, that we’d have at least some sunlight 24 hours a day, for example. Even if the earth were truly flat, what difference does it make to me? It’s completely irrelevant, it does not change my life one bit. Yet, some people insist that it is flat and are extremely passionate in their quest to convince everybody believe as they do. Perhaps it was a social experiment gone awry – Can we make intelligent people believe something absolutely false?  Perhaps that’s how it started, that some people did a social experiment and discovered they had the power to manipulate people in any way they wanted and are now using that power for “good.”

Maybe the answer is less conspiracy theory and much simpler, that we as humans have a tendency to fall for the expert fallacy, that we assume that if somebody is an expert in one thing, they are an expert in all things? Bill Gates may be an expert in computers, but that does not make him an expert in human viruses. Maybe we’ve become so accustomed to everything being sensationalized that we now super-sensationalize everything. Think of the NFL breathlessly selling us the idea that “parity” is good football, when the reality is, parity means mediocrity.

I do know that pursuit of truth and facts is an endless quest, and science is exactly that, and endless pursuit of truth and facts. The late great literary writer Jonathan Swift succinctly wrote “Falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after it.” We humans have a tendency in our youth to err from being gullible and as we become older and wiser, we learn to wait for the truth.

We are being inundated with hyperbole, that a virus with a 99% survival rate is extremely dangerous, the world is coming to an end because of cars, that democracy ends unless we give total control of our elections to the central power, and leaders who have sympathy for murderers while calling people charged with the crime of trespassing and parading are called terrorist. This is a time that unreasonable people have a stranglehold over society and who use fear and lies to bully people in submission. It is a choice each of us must make to either learn patience in the face of hyperbole, or to bow down in ignorance, obedient to our manipulative masters.

The most telling sign is if your questions of doubt are greeted with unreasonable anger. So, ask away and keep asking. Seek Truth, and you shall find it.