By Janet Phelan
Human history is littered with examples of people following a political or religious leader into the depths of horrific depravity. Certainly, the twentieth century saw the results of the tendency to obey authority, no matter how cruel or morally reprehensible. Stalin and Hitler’s effects on their countrymen have been cited ad nauseum. As have Pol Pot, the implications of the Milgram experiments and Jonestown. Let’s throw Waco into the pot, as well.
Do the disastrous results of January 6 also apply? Do the exhortations to “Mask up,” “Lockdown” and “Follow the Science,” — which turned out to be not science at all but propaganda — also qualify? Remember, if you would that such commands came from both sides of the aisle and from both President Trump and President Biden.
It has been said that the country has never been more divided. Abortion rights, immigration policy and financial solvency all take a close second to the post-pandemic arguments as to who was actually responsible for the death toll of the last three years. And these conflicts may just boil down to which leader, which “Messiah” you endorse.
Social psychology is replete with studies showing the aspect of obedience as a determinant of human behavior. Some of these studies have challenged the original assumptions of the Milgram experiments. If you recall, the Milgram experiments definitively revealed that humans tend to obey authority even if the dictates of that authority are morally reprehensible.
Recent studies have attempted to hone in on biological factors, as seen in this study of obedience and conformity, in which people’s decisions as to whether or not to engage in acts of obedience and conformity were then followed up by electroencephalogram studies. Quoting from the abstract of another ambitious review of imaging techniques,
Normative social influences shape nearly every aspect of our lives, yet the biological processes mediating the impact of these social influences on behavior remain incompletely understood. In this Hypothesis, we outline a theoretical framework and an integrative research approach to the study of social influences on the brain and genetic moderators of such effects.
And this study looks into the role of serotonin in obedience and conformity.
It is a reality that humans tend to obey. And when they do pitch a tent into one or another camp, they may fiercely defend the Controller, both in words and in armed conflict. The history of the world is replete with armies of “God,” intent on spreading their faith even if it kills them. Or kills others. A sort of widespread “Stockholm Syndrome” could be hypothesized, with entire countries held hostage and identifying with their captors.
The advent of the “pandemic” appears to have solidified populations into such camps. In a word,” pro-vax” or “anti-vax.” However, this may be simply a perpetuation of the human tendency to glom together and declare those with other perceptions to be “the enemy.” In fact, pandemic propaganda encouraged this sort of group identification. Masking up, while generally now discredited as a form of real protection from an airborne virus, may serve as a marker for group identification—i.e. “I care about others and support the official narrative.”
One might almost say that we are being herded into groups and then pitted against each other.
And could it be that such a paradigm serves another agenda? Could it be that our essential humanity is being reduced down to this factor and that we are again “obeying” a hidden hand by identifying with a group and against those in that “other” group? Certainly we have seen that dynamic at work before.
Recently, a friend from Texas moved with her family — husband and a couple of kids — to the jungle of Guatemala. I receive regular updates from her — pictures of the kidlets swimming in a local lake, sunsets over the mountains and enviable pictures of exotic looking Guatemalan dishes. Not one peep about politics or group meetings to discuss this or that agenda, though I am aware that she had at one point voiced political concerns.
Just maybe that friend got it right. She is living on the edge of the world, raising her family and thoroughly immersed in what the jungle holds — secret pleasures and amazing beauty. At a time where ideas are weaponized and people are killing each other over which “God” they worship, she has removed herself from that battle and is living fully and joyously in an almost primeval Garden.
To paraphrase George Orwell, this may be the ultimate revolutionary act.
Art: Pawel Kuczynski
Janet Phelan has been on the trail of the biological weapons agenda since the new millennium. Her book on the pandemic, At the Breaking Point of History: How Decades of US Duplicity Enabled the Pandemic, has been published in 2021 by Trine Day and is available on Amazon and elsewhere. Her articles on this issue have appeared in Activist Post, New Eastern Outlook, Infowars and elsewhere. Educated at Grinnell College, UC Berkeley and the University of Missouri Graduate School of Journalism, Janet “jumped ship” and since 2004 has been writing exclusively for independent media. Her articles previously appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Oui Magazine, Orange Coast Magazine, the Long Beach Press Telegram, the Santa Monica Daily Press and other publications. She is the author of the groundbreaking expose, EXILE and two books of poetry. She resides abroad. You may follow Janet on Parler here @JanetPhelan and Twitter @JanetPhelan14. To support her work, please go to JanetPhelan.
