Where the bloody hell are you?
I am going to start this by saying that this post is not meant to give a full opinion (maybe a half opinion) on what’s happening at the moment. I am not an epidemiologist, I am simply an ex Biomedical Scientist who sold her ass to “Big Pharma”. The main purpose of this post is to tie these ongoing world events to some of the things I was told by this guy “John Rodriguez”. Now, those who know me also know that I don’t like conspiracies and I am not someone who is into the media or trash news however, what is happening at the moment is also worrying me a great deal and I will tell you why. Also, please accept my apologies for the length of this post.
Over the years, I have had many people sharing articles with me, talking about that “Q something” guy - my apologies, like I said, I am not into conspiracies and all this stuff that people from the dark world wide web talk about. While it is all good, I have a hard time getting into it. By this I don’t mean to say that the info I was passed on is 100% right or 100% confirmed; as I have said a thousand times now, I have no proof that guy was a real time traveller. I only want to provide an “analysis” (if you will) of this situation based on what he said and the current events - because number one, I am scared and number two, it is very interesting. Take this as a disclaimer.
I do recall this very clearly because “John” and I had this conversation during the 48 hour bus ride from Mexico City to Ensenada. He told me how (and he said this more than once actually, throughout the months we corresponded) there was no war in the scale described by John Titor but the US saw many “conflicts”. His job during that time was to help the police deal with these conflicts. Sort of like the Army but more similar to the “ Army reserves” (my apologies if this not how you call them, but you know what I mean). A lot of drugs, a lot of conflicts and the police needed the help of the reserves to deal with them. He once told me via email (screenshot below), and this was a while before that bus ride, how people he knew and a family was lined up and shot dead and only a little girl survived because she was able to hide. Yes, this is some pretty heavy stuff that he told me and that is why I am writing this post now. That was, unfortunately, the picture he painted. Back at the beginning of 2011, this to me was utterly unthinkable. How was it possible that a country like the US was having all these conflicts? What did these conflicts stem from? Unfortunately, as weird as it may sound, I never asked him these questions because I did not believe him. Today I can see what he meant.
Let’s fast-forward to what’s happening now. Like I said, this is not meant to give an opinion (although I do have one) but to discuss why this is both frightening and interesting. As you know, everyone in the world is now grounded. The whole world has come to an almost complete stop, like it’s never happened before. The part that I like the most about this whole thing is how we, as society, do not plan ahead for similar situations. We think that something like a pandemic is a thing of the past or a thing that only happens in Hollywood movies. We think that, because we consider ourselves “modernised”, “advanced”, you name it. We are in the future with our smartphones and internet and your home heather that you can control remotely through an app. Well, it is puzzling to me how a relatively low-aggressive virus (although very contagious) can cause all of this in 2020. Yes, 2000 AND 20. We have invested so much money and workforce on creating a useless piece of crap like Alexia and yet we did not bother to develop a vaccine for coronaviruses, even after SARS and MERS. We do not want to wait until we get home to turn on the heater and yet, we allow a simple respiratory virus to kill us. Perhaps, in light of all this, we should reconsider the way we think of our society. These thoughts aside (I admit I am guilty as charged), everyone is grounded. The stock markets are spiralling, borders are closing, people are losing jobs every single day. Already. What is going to happen down the road? While I don’t epidemiologically question the measures put in place, I also believe it is important to find a balance. Why? Because, without a balance, we will simply crash. Despite what the US President is saying that the economy will go back up rapidly (never trust any politician in time of elections), things are not looking good at all and, to be honest, with all of us facing a much bigger and scarier economic recession than the 2008 recession, I tend to doubt anything will go back to normal quickly. I hope I am wrong, but this is my impression. I hardly ever get scared about stuff like this, but we are heading towards trouble, pure and simple. We have two simple questions that we need to answer: how long are governments willing to keep these restrictions for? They can say: for as long as it takes. Now, the other question is: how long can they realistically keep them for? I bet the answer to this question is not the same as above. The longer we go for, the more damage. We hear so much about this “flattening the curve” that’s also presented with an almighty hashtag: #flattenthecurve. People have no bloody ideal what that even is but because it has a hashtag, they must share it. If it doesn’t have an hashtag, it’s not important. This is our beautiful society these days. Perhaps we should have put a hashtag in front of the word “vaccine” and we would have been fine now. Who knows, right? Anyway, we must flatten this curve. Sorry, my apologies: we must #flattenthecurve (hashtag, very critical). Now, we must also ask ourselves very simple questions (that’s what I do): are 2-3 weeks enough to achieve this? How much damage will the economy suffer from these 2-3 weeks? I am sure the top Economists have already asked themselves these very same questions. Now, and this is what scares me the most: what if 2-3 weeks are not enough? What if it will take 2-4 months of complete lockdown to #flattenthecurve? Then what? To be honest with you, the latter seems the more likely scenario and the one that will bring the most damage to the global economy, as China has already proved. The issue is, this time around is the GLOBAL economy. Not just one country. Now, many of you are at this point wondering what this has to do with “John” and the story I mentioned above. Well, as the majority of the readers of this blog are from the United States I bet you do know that panic buying in the US also involved purchasing of large quantities of ammunition. Any person from any other part of the world would say that’s because the Americans are gun nuts. I personally think there is a good reason and that’s the reason that goes back to my story. Let’s say governments listen to the people who want everything to be shut down. I am talking complete lockdown and isolation. We are essentially animals. Some may argue that we are a bit more intellectually involved (with all the due exceptions, of course, and I can bring up quite a few examples) than animals but I say we are animals. What happens once you cage animals for long periods of time? They start losing their crap, simply put. It is simple now for people to say “lock it down!” but I can assure you, being locked out for long periods can get to your head. People will start getting agitated but that’s not all. What happens if you prolong the lockdown for months? Businesses will go bankrupt, more and more people will lose their jobs, we officially enter recession. Slowly but steadily those now empty shelves that get restocked every night, will remain empty. Once people have no money and no way of bringing food to the table, they will take it to the streets. They will start protesting, rallying, all sorts. People will resign to illegal activities (namely, dealing drugs) in order to make money to feed their families. Houses get robbed, people get killed. The issue with the US is that, at that point in time not only will you have hungry people….you will have hungry, desperate people with GUNS. It’d only be a matter of time before groups of rebels are formed (I bet some of you have heard of the “Diamondbacks Militia” mentioned by John Titor – yes, sort of like that, but real). You will descend into complete chaos. The police would not be able to handle it and the Army would be called in. That is officially conflict. Conflict can escalate further, to a full blown civil war. Like I said before, I don’t do conspiracy and this is not conspiracy or a “prediction” – this is a potential outcome. Perhaps it wouldn’t get to the point of a civil war however, it is very likely it would lead to conflict. What we are facing here is far worse than 2008. In any case, to me, once the Army is called in, that is war. This is why what I was told in 2011 doesn’t seem that unlikely anymore. My main question now – and this is purely objective: do people think that a conflict or, worse, conflictS, would kills less people than the virus? This virus only kills a specific category of people (with some exceptions of course)….conflicts kill anyone. Starvation kills anyone. Suicide kills anyone. These all potential outcomes of a full blown, massive recession like the one we are facing. This why I said it is important to find a balance. These conflicts, if they do come, would not be immediate. Any form of bailout from the government, does not last forever. This lockdown accounts for damages to important industries, such as the airline industry (with titles in the stock exchange) and others. The government funds are not unlimited. The longer they keep this on, the more damage. I am not saying it is an incorrect manoeuvre – I am only stating the facts. It may potentially take years for conflicts to develop. Just like the French Revolution, this would not happen overnight and would be the result of years and years of recession.
I didn’t initially want to use this post to give an opinion however, I do have to say that lately it seems to be more and more common for politicians to bow to “social pressure” and do what people want, when they want it. Such as, the UK changing their strategy and Trump changing his tone of voice. While I appreciate that democracy is all about listening to the people, I also do think that governments need to base their decisions and actions on concrete facts and science, rather than social pressure or people’s opinions. That is simply because people are clueless. People make decisions based on emotions and the prevailing emotion right now is fear. Recent times have shown how politicians just give people what they want because, under the pressure of social media and the actual media, politicians just crack. It is democracy taken to the extreme and, frankly, the government is the one that’s supposed to lead a country. The moment you let the people “govern” the government you descend into Anarchy. From what we have (hopefully) learned from history, Anarchy never leads anywhere good. With this, I do not mean to say that people should not be given what they want or need, all I am saying is it can be pointless because you can never please people. I can assure you that the people who, today, are calling for a complete lockdown will be the same exact people that will turn against the government tomorrow, and blame it for causing the economic recession. These days it seems that social media govern the western world, so why even bother to vote? Social media are clearly the new and more modernized form of Anarchy.
You can start voting for the next influencer or journalist, now.
I hope my post was clear enough to explain why this is scary to me as well. I normally do not make a big deal out of things like this but I couldn’t push away the thought that this could lead to the scenario that “John” guy described. What scares me this time around is not the prospective of dying (I have battled pneumonia 5 times in my life, that I can remember) rather the possibility of losing my freedom. To some this may sound selfish but it all depends on how much you value the freedom that people have so dearly fought for. To me it is hard to see my freedom being taken away in time of democracy over a virus they knew was coming. Losing my freedom is the thought that keeps me up at night and makes me cry countless times during the day. People lost their lives here in Europe during WWII to give us these freedoms we have today. Yet, some chose to violate them in order to cover for their own mistakes. I do not tolerate any violation of my personal freedom, whatever that is. If governments cannot deal with this, they should try harder. The situation was not my fault, it was not the average citizen’s fault so the weight of this should not fall on our shoulders. I believe liberty is just as important as life itself. There is no life without freedom.
Before I go I want you to stop and think about this for a long moment. Many of the people out there are probably feeling anxious and scared. Well, this is exactly how I normally feel, every single day of my life. Do you find it unbearable? So do I, but now you can see how hard it is to live with anxiety. This is when Trism provides the comfort I need.
Finally, I shall go back to the title of this post: it is 2020, this year will mark the 20thanniversary of the very first John Titor post (Nov 2nd2000) and we are facing the end of an era. This is probably the end of the world as we know it but I do hope it is yet not the end of our freedom and our civil rights. If this is a turning point, then I am hoping they won’t leave people behind. I am hoping this is the year of my exit. Yes, that’s right, I am not holding back, I am actually writing what I think. I do not know what is going to happen during this already horrifying year, but I can tell you that my exit would be spectacular. Some people should get ready for a special treasure hunt.
I don’t know why this silence and I don’t know why this John Titor guy, whoever he is (fraud or not) is just sitting behind a computer watching this chaos as it unfolds. If he is real, I am not asking to intervene (unless it’s part of the protocol), I am only asking to be able to speak to him. That’s all. Before I die, whenever that is, I would so want to speak to him. Like I said, this year feels like a turning point and I find it very hard to believe things will ever be the same after this. As we face death, devastation and more – potentially even harder times to come, I will continue to ask you, John Titor (whoever You truly are): where the bloody hell are you?
-Stella
One last thought: I like how some people call this virus "Corona"...like my fake last name from the Trism song. Coincidence or yet another message?
