What is happening in front of all our eyes at the moment is a huge scary dizziness. “Corona” is a geopolitical operation by the “global elite” and their “depopulation agenda” is real. Isolation imprisonment makes people sick and kills them. But most contemporaries are prevented from thinking and acting rationally by their sense of authority. This affects so-called “simple” people as well as intellectuals, doctors or politicians. There are hardly any real scientists left, only academics who are hiding. And the fellow citizens who have no possibility to obtain and acquire the necessary factual knowledge via alternative media are further manipulated via the mass media and kept in agonizing uncertainty. But if you try to take away the fear and panic of your fellow human beings and enlighten them, you will find that they are almost impossible to reach emotionally and intellectually. And this is because in this effort one naturally disagrees with the prevailing opinion of supposed authorities such as doctors and politicians. Many contemporaries seem to be impregnated by the sense of authority. They cannot or do not want to know anything about another opinion. But the human being is good, just irritated.

Roman Rolland’s Anti-war Novel “Clerambault”

The subject of Rolland’s book is not the First World War, although it overshadows it. His real subject is, as he says, “the sinking of the individual soul into the abyss of the mass soul”. This novel by the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature (1915) was published exactly 100 years ago. It is worthwhile to read about that time and compare it with the present day. (1) In the introduction Rolland writes:

“Free souls, strong characters – that is what the world needs most today! (…) Every human being, if he is a true human being, must learn to stand alone within all, to think alone for all – if necessary, even against all! To think sincerely means to think for all, even if one thinks against all. Mankind needs those who offer it chess out of love and rebel against it when necessary! Not by falsifying your conscience and your thoughts for the sake of mankind do you serve mankind, but by defending its inviolability against social abuse of power; for they are organs of mankind. If you are unfaithful to yourselves, you are unfaithful to them.”(2)

In the second part of his novel Rolland describes the attempts of his Protagonist Agénor Clerambault, to talk to his fellow men in order to win them over to his anti-war ideas. The mechanisms of the partly unconscious resistance he described among his discussion partners are also experienced today by those who strive to win over their fellow human beings to rational thinking and action:

“Clerambault tried to speak to one or the other. Everywhere, however, he encountered the same mechanism of subterranean, semi-conscious resistance. They were all girded with the will not to understand, or in fact with a persistent counter-will. Their reason was as little affected by counter-arguments as a duck is by water. In general, people are equipped with a quite invaluable quality for the purpose of their comfort, for they can make themselves blind and deaf if they do not wish to see or hear something. And if, by some embarrassing coincidence, they have already noticed something that is annoying to them, they understand the art of forgetting it immediately. (…)

Others were eloquent speakers, who were not afraid of a Word Tournament and gladly took up the discussion in the hope of leading the stray sheep back to the flock. They did not discuss the opinion of Clerambault himself, but only whether it was up to date and appealed to his good spirit. ‘Certainly, certainly. In fact, you are right, in fact, I think quite like you, almost like you. Oh, I understand you, dear friend… But, dear friend, be careful, (…) One must not speak every truth, at least not immediately. Yours will be beautiful… in 50 years. One must not want to be hasty. One must wait until the time is ripe…’ (…) Wait? Wait for what? Until the appetites of the exploited or the stupidity of the exploited grow weary?”(3)

Authority obedience – No! 

“Authority” is the term for the possibility of a person, group or institution to exert influence on other persons and, if necessary, to enforce its own will against them, thus constituting a relationship of superiority and subordination. Authority is associated with claims to power, which are founded in different ways. In the Middle Ages it was the church that enforced these claims to power. Anyone who dared to deviate from its doctrine risked hell. Many religious and supposedly non-religious people still fear these consequences today.

The representatives of a state also enjoy a certain authority, a special reputation. They too want to exert influence on us citizens. And there would be nothing to prevent us from subordinating ourselves to them if the rulers were the best people, the most important, the most peaceful, the most decent and the most honest. But since this is not the case, never has been and never can be (Tolstoy), we should urgently refrain from considering rulers infallible and subordinate ourselves to them without criticism. We should have the courage to use our own intellect (Kant).

How to win our contemporaries for rational thinking and acting?

For a long time we have not lived in an open society in which every opinion is allowed to be expressed and has its place. Nowadays, dissenting opinions are completely prohibited and sanctioned. Even in families, we do not take the time to openly discuss with the children both their burning developmental issues and the family’s concerns. Often both spouses are working and exhausted in the evening.

This social pressure and lack of practice makes it almost impossible to win our fellow human beings – regardless of age – to rational thinking and acting. Nevertheless, we must never give it up. Never ever give up! The human being is good, just irritated. Our own honesty, openness, independence and transparency are prerequisites for our counterpart to start trusting us slowly and to dare, in very small steps, to enter the supposedly mined field. The other person must also have the secure feeling that he can learn something from me as a trustworthy, authentic person or as an expert with a certain standing (authority).

But that alone is not enough. The contemporary must also show a certain readiness to accept something from another, must possess a spiritual and mental openness. Why not even leave the well-trodden paths of the past – these familiar habits (“I can’t get out of my skin!”) – and check whether new and unfamiliar paths do not lead to truth and a life worth living.

Do not give up hope that the former people of poets and thinkers, as well as the other enslaved peoples, will wake up, find rational thought and action and be ready for civil disobedience. This time they will not give the emerging world fascism a chance.

*

Note to readers: please click the share buttons above or below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.

Dr. Rudolf Hänsel is a graduate psychologist and educationalist.

Notes

(1) Reinbek near Hamburg (1988). Translated from French by Stefan Zweig. First published in 1920 by the Paris publisher Ollendorff. Original title “One against all” (1917)

(2) A.a.O., p. 12f.

(3) A.a.O., p.105f.

Featured image is from Getty