A bitcoiner reading books so that you don't have to! (even though you totally should...)

initial virus outbreak.

But Institutionalism Dies Hard The book is not without its criticisms however. My biggest qualm with the book is in its treatment of potential, forward looking “solutions” to buttress society against the next great panic. The problem that arises is that while the authors can clearly sense the bottomless depths of present-day institutional corruption, they cannot imagine any solution that might require, or be necessitated by, the total unraveling of these institutions, or any solution that simply does not require institutional “management” at societal scale.

In thinking about how society can protect itself from the next crisis of fear and overreaction, the authors propose the following:

The status quo academic-scientific monoculture actively subsidizing heterodox schools of through across all disciplines (an idea they authors free admit would immediately yield to the monculture’s own perverse incentives). Imposition of the Nuremberg Code upon the political and public health perpetrators of destructive covid policies for crimes against humanity (an idea the authors free admit is rank fantasy). Establishment and/or strengthening of independent public health authorities (an idea that the authors freely admit would immediately fall to political capture almost everywhere). Appointment of key unelected officials by citizen juries rather than elected officials anchored to the idea that even without the particular field “expertise,” “citizens do not want their country run led by buffoons, careerists, or destructive mavericks” (an idea that the authors recognize as their strongest but still note that the institutional machinery required to organize citizens juries would by no means by immune from corruption). A World Anti-Hysteria Organization (WAHO), that might alert governments that a panic is building so that they could take actions such as temporarily shutting down social media to stem the tide of panic-driving information (an institution that the authors freely admit could just as easily start a panic - and, rather unironically, that they seem to ignore could be abused to surpress information or political dissent). Pursuit of a divine artificial intelligence to usurp and perfect away the flaws of imperfect human leadership (an idea that the authors freely admit is probably a terrible one). Conclusion Where documentation of the absurd grotesqueries of global covid hysteria is concerned, the book is both blisteringly and superb. Yet in its consideration of solutions, the book's authors offer very little that would not fall prey to same institutional pitfalls that gave the world the Great Covid Panics.

It is obvious that the authors fashion themselves as free-thinking Jasmines - and in a certain sense they definitely are - but from what can be sensed from their proposed solutions, they are at their core Ivy Tower institutionalists. As such, they can be utterly stunned and horrified by the spectre of institutional decay that they uncover, yet can never envision that these overpowered national and transnational institutions are the problem themselves. With a rigor mortis vice grip they still cling to the institutionalist worldview that had defined their success and prestige prior to being labeled conspiracy theorists and covid pariahs. In this, they simply cannot help themselves - they hope dearly to save a thing that may already be dead, they yearn desperately to reform a thing that may ultimately need to be destroyed.

That said, it is clear that authors’ experiences and revelations during the global covid panic has, at least, deeply shaken them in their well-appointed and much credentialed cages. From this, I think there is hope that can be taken, as this book is evidence of a deeply broken system finally turning in upon itself in a spirit of righteous intellectual dissent, even if perhaps only on the margins.