If we want to be compassionate we must be conscious of the words we use. We must both speak and listen from the heart.
~ Marshall B. Rosenberg
Today, one of the greatest threats to our health and well-being is inflammatory language and hate speech.
Again this week, I was exposed to stories of public shaming and fear-mongering. There are victims on both sides.
A once highly trusted Canadian news provider asked people to submit anecdotal stories about people who have chosen not to comply with current public health mandates and have lived to regret it.
A derogatory term was used to describe such people. When I submitted a story about those who did choose to comply and suffered consequences, there was silence.
It is courageous for those who know better and have no fear to respectfully persevere and remain part of a diminishing control group. Retrospective studies comparing treatment groups to abstainers will be revealing.
What is propaganda?
Propaganda is the manipulation of public opinion to get buy-in for a certain agenda, new product or change in worldview. It is structured use of information and misinformation to change group think.
A freedom of information request report published by the Ottawa Citizen last week acknowledged that Canadian military leaders saw the pandemic as a unique opportunity to test out propaganda techniques on an unsuspecting public.
“Shaping” and “exploiting” information to “head off civil disobedience by Canadians” and “bolster government messages about the pandemic” was the objective.
Defence is the first act of war.
~ Byron Katie
When an invisible enemy is used to turn people against each other, I become concerned.
A British Medical Journal (BMJ) article published on October 1, 2021, helps corroborate Dr David E Martin’s research on the origins of the current health crisis for those who wish to delve further into my allusive references.
Once a belief is ingrained, new facts are often ignored
A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.
~ Max Planck
We are programmed to have unquestioning adherence to authority. Having attempted to help change outdated public health policy in the past, I learned how difficult it can be to replace old beliefs by presenting new facts.
To question the Top 10 Public Health Achievements of the 20th Century is considered heresy. Twenty first century science that debunks a few of these sacred cows is violently opposed.
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
~ Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher
Today we are being inundated with policy-based taxpayer-funded research designed to manipulate public opinion and achieve compliance with unreasonable public health mandates that may be causing undue harm..
Medical Officers of Health have talking points that no opposing fact seems to change. The goal post keeps changing for meeting objectives. Tarnished are the reputations of those having the courage to question the science. Dissenting views, no matter how credible, are silenced or ignored.
As Upton Sinclair once said, it’s difficult to get a person to understand something, when their salary depends on them not understanding it.
How can we engage in compassionate communication in time of conflict?
Marshall E Rosenberg’s model for non-violent (NVC), or compassionate communication, combines the following four components:
Observation: Observe without judgment
Feeling: Notice any emotions and physical sensations that arise
Needs: What unmet needs and values are causing uncomfortable feelings?
Request: Request any concrete action that may help serve your needs
A personal example of compassionate communication:
Observation: When I hear stories from healthy people who believe they have no choice but to comply with irrational public health mandates, even when working or studying remotely and not posing a risk to anyone
Feeling: I feel righteous anger.
Needs: My needs to trust policymakers and the medical establishment are unmet.
Request: I request that Medical Officers of Health behave ethically and admit that current mandates will never achieve desired outcomes of herd immunity, reduced transmission and hospital admissions. I ask that people not be given just one novel treatment. There are many other cost-effective, time-tested, evidence-based remedies at our disposal that will save countless lives.
The feeling of righteous anger mobilizes me to take action for the greater good. A heart-centred approach helps me do so compassionately. I want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. I exercise my right to express an informed opinion, and respectfully I contact those who have the power to create change.
On a positive note, my letter-writing campaign to political leaders has given me faith that wrongs will be made right. I have received sincere expression of gratitude and acknowledgement that my questions are worthy of respectful debate.
Efforts being made to increase transparency, offer me glimmers of hope for a revamp to how research is funded and how health care is practiced in our country and abroad.
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
~ Buckminster Fuller
Inspirational informative beautiful page.
Transparency is helpful.