From white coats to camouflage: the patterns of coronavirus propaganda are repeating themselves against a new backdrop. A commentary.
This article first appeared in German at Freischwebende Intelligenz. You can find all the articles by Free-floating Intelligence in English here – subscribe now, to get the articles by e-mail! This article has been written with the Pareto client.
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Is history repeating itself as tragedy, as farce, or is everything already a real-life satirical tragedy? It has become impossible to ignore: Merz wants war. Whether it’s the reintroduction of conscription, billion-dollar debt packages, billions to Ukraine, alleged drone sightings, proclaiming military readiness as “the next thing,” considering the fall of tension, and then this sentence: We are not yet at war, but we are no longer at peace either.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx3QUZDpTrY
If history teaches us one thing, it is this: those who want war will always find a reason for it. The big question then is: who should follow these politicians into the trenches?
Geimpft, gefügig, geopfert – Die fehlende Front der Folgebereiten
It is impossible to seriously explain why a potential aggressor like Putin should wait for us to rearm or until we have perhaps built up a légion étrangère of migrants willing to fight. He learns from every talk show how poorly equipped the German armed forces are. Nor can one plausibly explain why a state of tension is needed now and why a state of defense has not been in place since the days when Nord Stream was destroyed. The timing and choice of words are always part of the choreography.
The return of mass hypnosis
The parallels to the escalation of the coronavirus pandemic are already striking. How similar will the further patterns be? First, the creation or intensification of a threat, often invisible or diffuse — first viruses, now cyberattacks or hybrid threat scenarios. The appearance of propagandists: experts who act as high priests of necessity — formerly virologists, today military personnel, security circles, zealous parliamentarians with lobbying ambitions. Then the shift of decision-making to small, non-transparent circles: once federal-state conferences via Zoom, when security cabinets and NATO back rooms? Then the demand for sacrifices: back then masks, contact restrictions, occupational bans, later energy sacrifices, asset interventions, conscription?
The result is the same: democratic control weakens, the public is put into a permanent state of alert, and society is reduced to a resource that can be mobilized, disciplined, and, if necessary, recruited. A state of health emergency here, a state of tension and defense there. Corona was a mass experiment in collective obedience — a dress rehearsal.
When will war come? The bitterly paradoxical answer: it can only be sold as a solution if everything has been destroyed beforehand to such an extent that war can be sold as a “rescue” and does not, as now, appear to be a problem.
Haven’t we been seeing the precursors to this for a long time? First, wreck the economy, weaken the industrial base, wear down internal structures. Then deepen the social divides: migration as a problem, AI as a job killer, deindustrialization as fate. When everything finally seems hopeless, when millions are unemployed and the narrative of national crisis dominates, then war appears not as a problem but as a solution. War becomes the great therapy, the lever that is supposed to create jobs, define enemies, and simulate national unity.
What can individuals do?
But how can individuals save peace? Perhaps not through large movements, but through inner determination. Through what Ernst Jünger called the Waldgang — the retreat of the individual from the intellectual and moral captivity of the masses. Peace begins when people refuse to follow the herd. It is the moment when one stops being a sheep and begins to become a wolf — not in the sense of violence, but of self-determination.
The tyranny of the state, according to Jünger, creates its own opponents. The greater the claimed consent, the more wolves hide in the herd. The unknown number of people who spend time in the woods, this invisible resistance, is the real nightmare of those in power. They know that there are people who can no longer be captured, who are not afraid on command, who do not obey on command, who do not march in step.Saving peace therefore means saving oneself. Developing sharpness of vision to recognize when a catastrophe is being glorified as a supposed solution.
Peace is not saved by institutions, but by those who refuse to delegate their conscience to them. In times of mobilization, going into the forest is not a retreat, but the last act of courage: the refusal to play along. For peace does not begin with treaties, but with the decision of the individual not to become an instrument of destruction.
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