OBEDIENT - To Whom and Why?
Words Matter is today’s theme; ‘obedience’ is the focus.
We were expected, then compelled, to obey.
During the pandemic years, under their call for a ‘state of emergency’ by the Prime Minister and Premiers, our citizens were told to obey orders from government authorities. These leaders knew full well that our Charter of Rights and Freedoms would be “temporarily” suspended while the ‘state of emergency’ remained in effect.
OBEDIENT definitions:
If you always do what you’re told, you can be described as obedient. Authority figures love to have obedient followers. (vocabulary.com)
Submissive to the restraint or command of authority: willing to obey (Miriam Webster dictionary)
WHY obey authority figures? WHAT justifies it?
Respect is one possibility.
MY respect for my personal physician is not what it was prior to 2020. I do generally respect his medical advice knowing that he passed the arduous training to be a doctor and he has 25+ years of experience treating patients with all sorts of medical conditions. He has certainly learned what works and what doesn’t for most patients he serves. However, his repeated advice to take a jab with a drug under EUA that has no long term safety or efficacy data concerned me greatly.
Respect, however, is something that my doctor also experiences in his profession. For example, he is expected (obligated?) to rely on government institutions like Health Canada or the CDC (Centre for Disease Control). These organizations boast their alleged expertise in medical standards and treatments. Given the enormous resources that these government institutions command, one might expect that these are credible and trustworthy sources, but are they? A friend of mine, a retired family physician, claimed that she only trusted these information sources and that all other source were suspect. This myopic view alarmed me.
Fear is another possibility.
Another physician friend of mine confided in me the restrictions he felt from authorities under which he is governed. I asked him to join me as a guest on a podcast and he declined saying that he would not answer any questions that would potentially put him in trouble with the Ontario Medical Association which holds his medical license. He is acutely aware that some MDs have had their licenses revoked for not supporting the current government narratives and standard protocols for Covid treatment.
Conformity is the order of the day for all MDs in Ontario. Unlike an American doctor, a Canadian MD cannot set up a private practice outside of the provincial medical monopoly. In other words, they are held captive to the rules and regulations of governing bodies such as Heath Canada, the CMA and other government entities.
My own fear of doctors has grown since 2020. I understand and accept their need to conform to “public standards” in order to protect their livelihoods. However, now that I understand the extent to which Medicine is subject to highly political ‘Regulatory Capture’, I wish for the pre-pandemic era in which the doctor-patient relationship was one built on trust and respect. I now find myself second-guessing every bit of pandemic advice coming from doctors.
Tradition Is A Major Culprit.
We were all raised from birth to respect authority figures starting with our parents. As children, we are completely dependent on our immediate care-givers who provide of all forms of sustenance, safety and comforts. Our parents were raised in the same manner and understandably carry forward their learned respect for ‘institutions of authority’ into their adult lives.
Traditional ‘institutions of authority’ include family, school, religion (in most cases), corporate media and the full range of public institutions. Among government responsibilities are education, health care and law & order enforcement. From our earliest age, we are trained to conform unquestionably to the rules set by and enforced by these “authorities”.
Some conformity is good, but “too much of a good thing” can certainly become bad. Can any citizen honestly claim that our public institutions are not too big, too expensive and command too much authority over us?
Golfer ‘Man of Fear’
I will never forget playing golf with Golfer ‘Man of Fear’ last summer. A man in his 70s, he was known to be a stickler for following rules and quick to criticize others who failed to do so.
One sunny, breezy day, I played in a foursome with Golfer ‘Man of Fear’. He started without wearing a mask and evidently assumed that we were all “fully vaccinated” with Covid jabs. On the third fairway, I revealed that I was not. He recoiled with outrage, donned his mask immediately and then accused me of exposing him to virus risk and threatening his life! He refused to hear any explanations for my choice to not accept the jab and indignantly wore his mask for the remaining holes.
Golfer ‘Man of Fear’ was clearly reacting out of fear - the intended result of fear-mongering from political leaders, public health authorities and the dominant corporate media organizations such as the CBC, CNN, Toronto Star and New York times. He, like many other conformists like him, had succumbed to the goal of establishment leaders who sought conformity to “the rules” by as many citizens as possible.
I felt sorry for Golfer ‘Man of Fear’, but have no interest in playing golf with him again or anyone like him who will not respect my choices under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms without making a public fuss about it.
