Two Levels of Consciousness: A Modest Proposal


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According to Jewish tradition, when Moses was finally able to lead the newly-freed Israelites from Egypt to the Promised Land, only 20% of them went along. After witnessing the Ten Plagues and the utter decimation of Egypt, 8 out of 10 former slaves chose to stay behind. Among the Israelites, there were two completely different levels of consciousness, which led to dramatically different conclusions about the proper course of action.

Beginning in 1934, five years before the beginning of WWII, hundreds of Jewish parents sent their young children from their homes in Nazi-occupied Europe to the safety of the United States. By contrast, at the start of WWII in 1939, hundreds of thousands of Jews remained in Germany despite the fact that, in the face of increasingly severe restrictions imposed on Jews, at least half of Germany’s Jews had already emigrated. Among German Jews, there were two completely different levels of consciousness, which led to dramatically different conclusions about the proper course of action.

In 2020, there were people so utterly convinced that Donald Trump was such a vile excuse for a human being that they broke off lifelong relationships with friends and family who were Trump supporters. Among American voters in 2020, there were two completely different levels of consciousness, which led to dramatically different conclusions about the proper course of action.

There is nothing new about the fact that, when faced with massive historical shifts, people make profoundly different choices, often vilifying those who see things differently. This behavioral tendency is currently being repeated millions of times a day on social media.

With certain nuanced exceptions, I propose that there are, in the main, two levels of consciousness around the COVID vaccines operating today. Even as I’ve been personally involved in the debates, I’ve been simultaneously watching from above the fray.

I modestly suggest that the two conflicting worldviews on this issue can be summarized with the following bullet points. NOTE: This summary does not capture every nuance. There are certainly individuals who share some beliefs from each group. 

In general, people who hold View A believe that: 

• Masks work to reduce transmission of the COVID virus. 
• It’s a civic duty to wear a mask around others.
• People who refuse to wear a mask are selfish, ignorant and/or anti-science.
• The COVID vaccines are safe and effective.
• It’s a civic duty to get vaccinated.
• Unvaccinated people are selfish, ignorant, anti-science and/or are tinfoil hat-wearing conspiracy theorists.
• Unvaccinated people are disproportionately monopolizing medical resources to such an extent that vaccinated people are unable, or in jeopardy of being unable, to get the medical care they need.
• It may sound harsh, but it is a correct policy to deny hospital care to the unvaccinated, or to require them to pay for it out of pocket, because they had ample opportunity to get vaxxed.
• Alternative treatments are a sham and any doctor who prescribes them instead of encouraging their patients to get vaccinated is peddling snake oil OR alternative treatments are way more expensive than the vaccine and we don’t have the medical infrastructure to administer them.
• There is no media censorship and anyway it’s morally right to censor vaccine misinformation because misinformation causes death. 
• The government is doing its best to protect us and it’s impossible to justify the actions of people who are not complying.
• The FDA, CDC, WHO, Israel’s Ministry of Health and other governmental organizations, as well as the mainstream media, have proven themselves to be trustworthy.
• The government has every right, and even a responsibility, to segregate the population based on vaccine status in order to protect the vaccinated from anti-vaxxers. 

In general, people who hold View B believe that:

• Masks don’t work and are being used as an instrument of social control.
• The vaccines are neither safe nor effective.
• Vaccines weaken the immune system and leave vaxxed individuals vulnerable to other diseases.
• Vaccine injuries are significantly underreported.
• COVID deaths are significantly overreported.
• Safe and effective early treatments, such as the Zelenko protocol, are suppressed and doctors who treat patients with these medications are fired, deplatformed, censored and sometimes murdered. Pharmacies are fined if they fill prescriptions for these drugs.
• Heavy-handed censorship of opinions that conflict with official messaging in mainstream and social media is altogether real.
• COVID was a planned operation for governments to gain social control over their populations.
• Vaccine passports are a precursor to complete government control over the freedoms of private citizens.
• The vaccinated have been brainwashed by a sophisticated system of manipulation that includes an all-out operation by world governments and media working together.
• None of this is actually about public health. 
• Something very sinister lies behind this whole issue. 

People who hold View A and people who hold View B will never be able to reconcile differences, any more than the Israelites who left with Moses were able to convince their reluctant family members to join the exodus. We are operating on two completely different levels of consciousness.

So how do we move forward?

I have a few modest suggestions.

1. Unless you’re dealing with someone who is genuinely uncertain and is looking for evidence one way or another, stop sending links back and forth to “prove” your perspective. It’s an utter waste of time. Every link you send will either be countered or discredited by your opponent. 
2. Recognize that many good, decent, moral people have drawn diametrically opposed conclusions. It’s not a moral failing to disagree with you.
3. Talk with people who share your worldview for support, but do not vilify those who don’t. Recognize that they have their reasons for believing as they do.
4. Remember that we live in a world of spiritual tests and of darkness. Ultimately, none of us know the whole truth and it is God who runs the world.
5. Pray for God to show us all the real truth, to remove this and any future pandemics from the earth, to heal those who have been injured either from the virus or from the vaccine and to punish those who knowingly harmed others.

I’m no prophet and I don’t know how this will end any more than anyone else does, but I suspect that one of the tests of our time is how we treat those with whom we disagree. Any of us may, in the end, be proven wrong about the position we hold on the vaccine, but it’s a win-win if we treat all those with whom we disagree with dignity.