description: A guide on how to get your attention back in the age of constant distraction.
featured: true
cover: /assets/images/cover/attention.jpg
tags: ["self-improvement", "featured"]
tags: ["self-improvement"]
---
## How to Win Back Our Time and Minds
@@ -19,9 +20,9 @@ And this is a good thing, as it allows us to extend our minds in directions our
The most precious thing you own is not money or time. **It is attention**. We all have the same number of hours on this planet. But what we do with it, what we achieve, is up to us. We decide where we point our attention to. However, do we?
<Pullquote
author="Annie Dillard"
source="The Writing Life"
text="How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."
author="Annie Dillard"
source="The Writing Life"
text="How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."
/>
## Feeding the Monster
@@ -71,58 +72,4 @@ The first step is to recognize, that the own behavior is problematic and harms t
My journey started 2 years ago when I began doing mindfulness meditation every morning for 20 minutes. Meditation is the opposite of distraction, it’s focused attention. It doesn’t matter if you point attention to your breath, body parts, an idea, or anything else. Meditation forces you to _be_. Distractions will try to lead your attention away while you meditate. The Buddhists call this **Mind Monkey**, as uncontrolled, restless, confused thoughts will flood the brain during a meditation session. But with time you will get better and be able to focus for longer periods and silence the monkeys.
I think my meditation practice was the main trigger in questioning my behavior with technology, and It is a key factor for a well-balanced person in the future. As we (should) train our body, to strengthen it, we should do the same with our minds.
These are a few of the things I did in the last few years to strengthen my awareness:
- **I started with Meditation** and did more than 730 sessions, more than 210 hours since then. Besides my daily 20 minutes session, I try to do half a dozen of breathing sessions for a minute throughout the day. I used the additional short sessions of my [meditation app](https://www.headspace.com/) to learn about mindful walking, eating, cooking, sleeping, running, and commuting. The app has an extra section for kids and courses for students.
- **I practice selective ignorance**. It’s not easy, but sometimes caring less is the best option, to get the attention back.
- **I try not to use my headphones in the subway**. When I’m reading, I can practice focusing on the book and not on my surrounding. Sporadically, I intentionally do nothing but focus on the people in the subway.
- **I read a lot about the brain and its weaknesses**. If you know all the biases and fallacies, you are less likely to be a victim of them.
- **I read a lot about habit-forming, addiction, and multitasking** (which is not possible in humans). I try to do intentional single-tasking: reading, eating, or watching a TV show, without the distraction of multiple other things at the same time.
- **I started living a [Minimalist](/minimalism/) life**. Fewer things mean less distraction and more attention to the things, which matter to you.
- **I watch and consume intentionally positive, inspiring, creative and uprising** videos or texts (e.g., [TED Talks](https://www.ted.com/)), to change the ratio of positive to negative messages I hear about.
## Prevention
While avoidance is about trying not to be exposed to dangerous things, prevention is more about attenuating situations. It’s about making it harder for dangerous things to be successful.
These are a few of the ideas I implemented or tried in the last few years to prevent my attention is taken away:
- **I deactivated many push messages**, keeping a few exceptions. I disabled push messages on an app from the moment it first pushed irrelevant, triggering, needy information to me. I allow relevant apps like weather warnings, and family messages to send real-time updates. When an app has useful messages but doesn’t allow selecting which ones, I switch them off. I love _Google Inbox_ because it allows me to select which type of message is allowed to use push messages.
- **I switched off all notification icons** (the red, annoying counters on app icons).
- **I use ‘Do not disturb’ on every device**, including phone, tablet, computer, and landline phone during off-hours (21:00-8:00). My inner family can bypass this wall.
- **My phone is silenced** during work hours (vibrations turned on), and even beyond.
- **I switched off autoplay of videos** wherever possible (YouTube, Netflix, Twitter). And if not possible, I intentionally quit the process of loading the next video, after each video. I go grab something to drink, or do push-ups before I continue watching.
- When in doubt, if I will be able to be aware of the time (like when browsing on Pinterest), I **set a timer** to 15 or 20 minutes, to be reminded of the passing time.
- **I put all my devices on my worktable** when relaxing on the sofa. It prevents the quick _let’s answer this question_ habit and adds a barrier. Plus, it will give you more movement.
- **I put my devices upside down on the table** to not get distracted by incoming messages.
- **I use mute filters to filter out content**, which drives my attention to places I don’t want it to go.
- **I tried to leave my phone in another room** while eating with my family.
- **I switched off Nostalgia features**, like ‘your day one year ago,’ wherever possible. These are annoying because they attempt to activate you again.
It’s not easy and sometimes even not possible at all to overcome the obstacles of attention-grabbing media with pure willpower. But by building habits of **mindful media consumption**, you might be able to get your attention back. Not every day, but it is a process worth working on. It’s not the device, it’s you. The device can be used to be creative, connect to other people, and be inspired. Or it can be used to distract yourself mindless for hours. It’s your choice.
By following my advice, I was able to finish redesigning [two](https://www.kogakure.de/) [websites](https://hamburg.stefanimhoff.de/) and wrote a book this year.
If you have read to this point, without being distracted, kudos! Now put down your phone and look out the window for a few minutes.
- [Social Media’s Dark Side: How Facebook and Snapchat Try to Steal Our Self-Worth](https://youtu.be/HBRLMoL_vTQ) (Tristan Harris)
- [How a handful of tech companies control billions of minds every day](https://www.ted.com/talks/tristan_harris_the_manipulative_tricks_tech_companies_use_to_capture_your_attention) (Tristan Harris)
- [Put social back in social media – TEDxLinz](https://youtu.be/gnbLLQwZxeA) (Christian Heilmann)
- [Hurry Slowly](https://hurryslowly.co/)
### Articles
- [It’s No Accident We’re Addicted to Our Devices](https://bigthink.com/robby-berman/its-no-accident-were-addicted-to-our-devices) (Big Think)
- [Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/) (The Atlantic)
- [‘Our minds can be hijacked’: the tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/05/smartphone-addiction-silicon-valley-dystopia) (The Guardian)
- [Technology is destroying the most important asset in your life](https://qz.com/1091883/technology-is-destroying-the-most-important-asset-in-your-life/) (Quartz)
- [Alarming Statistics That Show Just How Addicted We Are To Mobile Devices](https://www.breakthetwitch.com/statistics-mobile-devices/)(Break the Twitch)
_This article was first published on [On Advertising](https://medium.com/on-advertising/) and featured by Medium._
I think my meditation practice was the main trigger in questioning my behavior with technology, and It is a key factor for a well-balanced person in the future. As we (should) train our body, to strengthen it
description: Minimalism is currently popular, but Minimalism is hard to understand, and many misconceptions can be found. This essay carries my thoughts on Minimalism and my history with it.
@@ -3,8 +3,9 @@ title: Tools I Use For Note-Taking
slug: tools-i-use-for-note-taking
date: 2020-09-03T12:00:00+02:00
author: Stefan Imhoff
featured: true
description: I started my Zettelkasten in DEVONthink. But since then, I integrated more tools into my workflow. This essay describes which tools I use for my notes and why.
I started 6 months ago to use the [Zettelkasten](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zettelkasten) note-taking method. In this short time, my collection of notes grew from zero to more than 350 notes. And now I can see the first benefits of cross-linking notes.
@@ -56,7 +57,7 @@ Obsidian has a Quick Switcher that allows jumping between notes in seconds and s
The Graph View is a cool feature! It displays all notes as dots (depending on the zoom level with or without the note name) and all connections between notes are visualized as lines. This allows us to see how good (or bad) the notes are connected. You can drag notes around and all connected notes will follow.
<Figure caption="Obsidian Graph View of my 3,500 notes" size="wide">
<Image src="/assets/images/posts/obsidian-graph-view.jpg" alt="Obsidian Graph View of my notes" />
<Image src="/assets/images/posts/obsidian-graph-view.jpg" alt="Obsidian Graph View of my notes" />
</Figure>
One plugin allows opening a note via custom shortcuts in the default app, which I use to edit longer notes in iA Writer.
@@ -89,58 +90,4 @@ Putting my notes in a folder on the hard disk has the advantage of additionally
I use [BibDesk](https://bibdesk.sourceforge.io/) to manage my citations, as described in the essay [Manage Citations for a Zettelkasten](https://zettelkasten.de/posts/bibliography-zettelkasten/). For every book, webpage, or video I want to reference, I create a new entry. It’s a quick process, but immensely helpful later to find the source again.
I updated the citation template mentioned in the essay to my wishes (to support URLs).
## Note Creating Workflow
If I sit at one of my Mac computers, I press a shortcut in Obsidian to automatically create a new Zettelkasten note, automatically suffixed with a timestamp ID. I enter a title for the note, and a template feature of Obsidian automatically fills in the basic structure of a note. I use Alfred to create other types of notes. My note template is as simple as it gets:
#### Zettelkasten Principles - 202008311912.md
```md
#
## Related
Tags:
```
I add the title, content, commented links to other notes, and tags. I decided to drop the ID from the title of the headline. This example is translated, I use the German language for my notes:
```md
# Zettelkasten Principles
The 12 Zettelkasten principles mentioned in [#Clear2019aa].
1. Atomicity – Just one idea per note
2. Autonomy – A note should be self-contained and comprehensible on its own
3. Link your notes – Link the note to already existing notes
4. Explain why you’re linking the notes – Add a comment to the link
5. Use your own words – Don’t copy and paste. Writing in your own words forces you to understand the idea.
6. Keep references – Add references to your notes to remember where you got the idea from.
7. Add your thoughts – Add comments or ideas.
8. Don’t worry about structure – You don’t need folders
9. Add connection notes – If you see a connection between random notes, add new notes connecting these.
10. Add outline notes – If you see topics emerging, create outline notes, that contain just links to other notes and create a story or narrative.
11. Never delete – Don’t delete old notes, link the new notes describing what’s wrong or outdated.
12. Add notes without fear – You can’t have too many notes.
## Related
- How to add a custom template to BibDesk: [[Add BibDesk Markdown template - 202008231056]]
- Blog posts on my website on how to use DEVONthink for the Zettelkasten method: [[Zettelkasten Note-Taking Method With DEVONthink - 202005171813]]
Tags: #Zettelkasten
[#Clear2019aa]: David B. Clear (2019): _Zettelkasten – How One German Scholar Was So Freakishly Productive_, <https://writingcooperative.com/zettelkasten-how-one-german-scholar-was-so-freakishly-productive-997e4e0ca125>.
```
In DEVONthink I select all notes I created on a given day and press the right mouse button, select `Tags` → `Convert Hashtags to Tags` which will create Mac tags out of the Hashtags on my notes. It’s possible to activate this feature in the settings automatically, but I didn’t do it because Obsidian doesn’t have a save feature, instead automatically saves the note on every keystroke. The Hashtag feature in Obsidian supports auto-complete, but as the sync to DEVONthink is instantly the feature would create multiple meaningless tags, e.g., `Zet`, `tel`, `ka`, `sten` – depending on how fast you type or when you select the auto-completed tag.
DEVONthink can create a nice preview thumbnail of the notes and will sync all notes or changes via the sync storage with other devices (including the Mac tags).
I commit all changes or additions to my Zettelkasten folder and push the changes to GitHub. It’s not needed to pull my changes on another computer (unless I want to commit to a different computer) because DEVONthink handles the synchronization.
I try to connect notes when I find a note without connections and split notes into small notes if I stumble upon a note that is too big.
Over time, these connected notes convert into a second brain. New ideas emerge by connecting notes that weren’t originally intended to be connected.
I updated the citation template mentioned in the essay to my wi
@@ -3,8 +3,9 @@ title: Zettelkasten Note-Taking Method With DEVONthink
slug: zettelkasten-note-taking-devonthink
date: 2020-05-18T10:00:00+02:00
author: Stefan Imhoff
featured: true
description: "The way we write notes determines how we think and learn. I was introduced recently to an old method of writing notes: The Zettelkasten method. This essay describes how I implemented the method into my workflow with DEVONthink."
tags: ["productivity", "note-taking", "featured"]
tags: ["productivity", "note-taking"]
---
The way we write notes determines how we think and learn. Many studies have shown how useful writing notes is. The best retention comes with writing, reading, and listening combined. Repeated reading and connecting ideas is another important part.
@@ -127,7 +128,7 @@ Originally, I had the tags included in the note, but I discarded the idea, becau
One of the best features of DEVONthink is its fantastic sorter. It can be used as a menu bar item or a floating index tab, it can be triggered with various shortcuts. It allows capturing notes in many possible formats. Additionally, audio, video, screenshots, and websites. The latter one is powerful and able to strip all clutter and keep text and images or convert the content to Markdown, save it as HTML, rich text, pure text, PDF, or web archive.
<Figure caption="The DEVONthink sorter to capture content quickly">
Every afternoon I clean the inbox and properly tag the items. Every Zettelkasten note gets a unique ID and title (generated with a snippet in [Alfred](https://www.alfredapp.com/)) and then moved into a separate database for notes. Inspirational items and documents get moved into their database.
caption="A page from a 19th-century copybook, in which the printed headings have been copied. The homily is paraphrased from a 17th-century sermon of Isaac Barrow, Against Detraction — “Good nature, like a bee, collects honey from every herb. Ill nature, like a spider, sucks poison from the flowers.”"
size="wide"
caption="A page from a 19th-century copybook, in which the printed headings have been copied. The homily is paraphrased from a 17th-century sermon of Isaac Barrow, Against Detraction — “Good nature, like a bee, collects honey from every herb. Ill nature, like a spider, sucks poison from the flowers.”"
size="wide"
>
<Image
src="/assets/images/posts/copybook-headings.jpg"
alt="A page from a 19th-century copybook"
/>
<Image
src="/assets/images/posts/copybook-headings.jpg"
alt="A page from a 19th-century copybook"
/>
</Figure>
Copybook Headings were lined pages with short wisdom, aphorisms, or verses at the top, used to practice cursive writing. The student was challenged to repeat the sentence a few dozen times on the page and by doing not only learned the handwriting but took in the wisdom and morals transmitted from one generation to another.
@@ -102,203 +103,4 @@ We live in a time filled with lies that deny objective truth and create pseudo-r
Large parts of the world honesty believe that Black people are hunted by racist police in the streets. Instead of researching the topic to get to the truth, the self-proclaimed social justice warriors replace their social media profile images with black images to show solidarity. This doesn’t help to solve the structural problems of Black communities but gives a quick way of feeling self-righteous and morally superior.
But when investigated, the stories begin to crumble quickly. The “Black Lives Matter” organization was founded on a lie repeating the mantra <q>Hands up, don’t shoot</q> of the _Michael Brown_ case.[^elder2020aa] More worrying is that the organization was founded by confessing Marxists. The founders have ties to the radical-left terrorist organization “The Weather Underground” which bombed buildings like _The Capitol_ and _Pentagon_ in the 60s and 70s.[^kohls2020aa]
Until recently, they stated one of their goals was the “destruction of the nuclear family.” The organization is used every four years to help the Democrats win elections. It is used to transfer billions of donations through dubious channels to political agitators, the money will likely never reach Black communities. Even the mother of _Breonna Taylor_, a victim of a police shooting, called the organization a fraud.[^byrne2021pl] The co-founder, however, grew exceptionally rich for a Marxist since she started the organization.[^vincent2021en]
While they claim Blacks are hunted in the streets by racist cops, the number of shot unarmed Blacks for 2019 was between 13-27 (depending on the database), and the numbers for Whites are higher.[^mccaffree2021li] Taking the crime and murder rate to the proportion of the US population these numbers are explained.
Though each shooting is tragic, it’s far from being a major problem, considering that the police conduct over 300 million checks each year.
The big elephant in the room, on the other hand, is regularly ignored by everybody: **93%** of Black murder victims are murdered by Blacks.[^sherman2013rw]
Murder is the leading cause of death for Black males between 15-34.[^qiu2014mo] The absence of a father in the home is one of the reasons for the high crime rate in Black communities. **72%** of Black children (in some cities more than 80%) are born out of wedlock.[^jacobson2013cp] The Father Absence Crisis is _the_ major problem of the Black Community.[^steward2013aa]
The riots and looting of 2020 and the defunding or abolishing of the police in cities in the USA resulted in massively increasing murder rates (Portland reported a 2,000% surge)[^faria2021qg] and destroyed communities for decades. As _Thomas Sowell_ noted, many black ghettos are still desolated decades after the race riots of the 60s.[^sowell2013aa]
Ironically, it’s mostly white progressives who want to abolish the police in Black neighborhoods, **81%** of Blacks want the same level or more of policing.[^gillespie2020dv]
Another worrying pseudo-reality is the denial of biological sex. Allowing the most radical activists to determine the discourse can lead to bad outcomes.
Women’s sports are in the progress of being eradicated by biological males competing with biological females and dwarfing their records everywhere. Trans MMA fighter _Fallon Fox_ broke recently the skull of a female opponent twice to win a match.[^emmons2020ln]
Aggressive male criminals can self-identify in California as female and are transferred to women’s prisons where they are put together with biological women.[^emmons2020en] Soon women’s shelters might be forced to take in biological males, that self-identify as female.[^desanctis2021db]
Gender dysphoria in Swedish teen girls is up 1,500 percent since 2008.[^dms2020ck] Teenage girls are insecure and prone to social peer pressure, which explains the sky-rocking numbers with whole groups of girls coming out as ”Trans” or “Non-Binary.” In some countries, it’s possible to use puberty blockers or even sex reassignment surgery without the consent of the parents. This results in irreversible damage that can’t be reversed should the child change their mind later.[^robbins2018sc][^jackson2020cv]
Radical activists try to compel speech and intimidate others to recognize the 70+ made-up gender pronouns, while it is perfectly possible to respect any transgender with the existing two pronouns.
The denial of objective truth shows itself in the invention of words like <q>birthing person</q> (mother), <q>chest feeding</q> (breastfeeding), or in statements like <q>men can menstruate and give birth</q> or <q>a trans-woman is a woman</q> which are objectively false.
Attacks on scientists of biology or evolution biology increased in the last few years. Multiple scientists retracted their papers out of fear of being canceled. _Naval Ravikant_ said in a recent interview: <q>Biology will suffer the most. Synthetic biology, for example, a lot of this will end up in China because you won’t be able to map facts and reality and actions together.</q>[^rogan2019ul]
The denial of objective truth will not only endanger women and children but drive all science of biology into foreign countries, resulting in a huge scientific knowledge drain.
### Stanza 5
> When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace. \
> They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease. \
> But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe, \
> And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “Stick to the Devil you know.”
The _Cambrian_ is a reference to the Welsh _Lloyd George_, prime minister during World War I. He negotiated the peace treaty in Versailles in 1919. The disarmament of the Germans was negotiated but at the same time the disarmament of the winners. The peace didn’t hold for long, and Germany rearmed in secrecy.
This stanza is a warning to believe nobody who promises lasting peace. A country needs to ensure it’s always able to defend its values and borders (if needed with violence) against aggressors, or it will cease to exist.
If you don’t, you will get conditions like France, where 226 people were killed by Islamic terrorists between 2011 and 2021.[^ap2020wm] The parallel societies grew so dangerous in the past years, that the police don't go anymore into some city districts. 20 retired generals and 1,000 soldiers warned in April 2021 in an open letter,[^bbcnews2021eu] followed by another warning, signed by 130,000 people, that a civil war might soon break out.[^bbcnews2021uf]
It is important to be able to defend oneself because <q>a harmless man is not a good man. A good man is a very, very dangerous man, who has that under voluntary control,</q> as _Jordan B. Peterson_ stated.
One can become worried about the security of Western values and way of life when reading that the US military ends gender-neutral fitness tests for soldiers to be more inclusive[^ffn2021ru] or starts implementing woke ideology[^nightingale2021ne] while Chinese soldiers train in harsh weather and the government works on programs genetically enhancing their soldiers.[^dilanian2020je] A recent joke goes like this: <q>When the Chinese soldiers invade, the US soldiers will ask them what their pronouns are.</q>
### Stanza 6
> On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life \
> (Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife) \
> Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith, \
> And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “The Wages of Sin is Death.”
The _Feminian Sandstones_ is a reference to the emancipation of women. The stanza is additionally a reference to relaxed sexual morality.
The results of the sexual revolution and women in the workforce are positive for the individual. But the plunging birthrates in Western countries are a serious threat to these countries. If the fertility rate falls below the replacement level, a population is unable to recover and will die out. Problems arise much earlier with an aging population because social security systems, health care, and retirement plans stop working.
The stable nuclear family is declining, with one-person households increasing dramatically. Senseless One-Night-Stands, pornography, and girls making their income as prostitutes on OnlyFans are a side effect of constantly lowered sexual morality. Finding a partner is reduced to dating apps, where people get “swiped” by their looks.
Children are hypersexualized and objectified in TV shows like “Cuties” or “AJ, and the Queens”, indoctrinated into the idea that sex is a “spectrum”, that women and men are biologically the same, and are exposed to porn long before they reach puberty.
The rate of STDs in the USA hit a record high for the 6th year in a row in 2019, with 2.5 million Americans having either chlamydia, gonorrhea, or syphilis infections. Less than 20 years ago, these infections were at a historic low or close to elimination.[^rt2021kd]
Secularism is on the rise and people search for meaning in substitute gods like money, fame, identity politics, or social justice.
As _Martin S. Spiller_ writes: <q>Without sexual morality, the traditional social contract based on trust between the sexes would vanish, and the people would eventually abandon marriage. Without marriage, the family, the most basic unit of any civilization, would wither and die.</q>[^spiller2000]
### Stanza 7
> In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all, \
> By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul; \
> But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy, \
> And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “If you don’t work you die.”
This stanza is a reference to lending money to pay off debt or handing out free money, which is the common way in many countries these days to deal with problems. This will not work for much longer, inflation (or even hyperinflation) will be the result. Rich people move their money into cryptocurrencies and other assets to prevent the devaluation of their assets.
As _Elon Musk_ put it in harsh words on _Joe Rogan’s_ Podcast: <q>Now let me just break it to you, the fools out there. If you don’t make stuff, there’s no stuff.</q>[^rogan1470]
Socialism is again high in favor in Western countries, particularly among the educated, bored, upper-middle-class that live every day a comfortable life through the means of capitalist production while at the same time rail against it.
They paint capitalism as the devil even though it cut extreme poverty (less than $1.90 per day) in half between 1990 and 2010.[^murphy2018ez][^mitchell2018qu][^rosling2015lc]
It seems we never learn from our past. More and more people want to destroy the current way of life. Everywhere, people talk about a restart of “how we live” or a “Great Reset.” These utopian ideas always end in bloodshed and millions of dead people because you can’t create a society on the drawing board. <q>Communism doesn’t know how</q>[^lindsay2021ut] which is why it fails each time. 100 million dead people should have been enough to learn that it won’t work, but it seems like it doesn’t.
### Stanza 8
> Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew, \
> And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true \
> That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four— \
> And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.
When an idea or dogma is failing, and it becomes obvious how bad it was, the liars either double down and try to keep the lie alive for as long as possible, or they disappear.
We can see this now regarding the Corona crisis. The crisis will not be remembered for its virus because the death rate is only around 0.13%.[^margolis2020aa] It will be remembered, because of how incompetent, corrupt, and authoritarian our political leaders, news media, the science community, and Big Tech reacted to the crisis.
I remember how everybody rallied around ventilators in the spring of 2020. Buying ventilators was the most important political topic for weeks. Sick people were put on ventilators early on. The image of ventilators was used as a tactic to intimidate people into social distancing and masking. A few doctors knew all along what is now known: Putting people on ventilators kills them in **50%** of the cases (regardless of their condition).[^thompson2020wr] There are much better methods without ventilators that result in a drastically reduced death rate for intensive care patients. But the specialists were silenced, censored, or removed from social media. A hundred thousand died needlessly of wrong medical care. Politicians moved sick elderly back into senior homes everywhere, where they infected each other and died.[^posteditorialboard2021kc] These were not COVID-19 deaths, but deaths caused by incompetent politicians.
Masks and lockdowns were presented as the one perfect solution to prevent infections, but the data after a year shows countries without mask mandates or lockdowns had similar death rates.[^mcmaken2020qu]
Drugs such as Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin were (and still are) rejected by large parts of the medical community, even though the doctors could see the results of their effectiveness in their patients. Ivermectin has proven itself highly effective in multiple meta-studies as a drug for prevention, treatment, and possibly even to treat Post-COVID or vaccine side effects.[^weinstein2021zr]
The further the time will progress, the more scandals around COVID-19 will come to light. Sharing the “right-wing” _Lab Leak Hypothesis_ one year ago could have gotten a person deplatformed, and now it’s a broadly accepted hypothesis. Big Tech and the media prevented this story from discussing. Now they retroactively stealth edit old articles, push forward all kinds of reasons why they got it _so_ wrong, and blame others.[^hlusa2021ag][^watson2021pa]
### Stanza 9
> As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man— \
> There are only four things certain since Social Progress began:— \
> That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire, \
> And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
This stanza is a depressing realization that humanity will not learn from its mistakes. We will repeat them again, and again, and again.
Bad ideas like Socialism, Communism, or Fascism are kept alive or revived. It’s 2021, and we have again concentration camps in China and the world pretends nothing happened because we don’t want to risk our business opportunities with China.
Racist, sexists, anti-scientific, anti-reason, postmodernist ideas like <q>Critical Theory</q> are pushed into the education system and companies and destroy these institutions[^nayna2019qz] unless brave people stand up against these toxic ideas.[^pachal2020gj][^monroe2021im]
People get segregated by race, and have to disavow their “whiteness” or acknowledge their “privilege.” People of color that doesn't subscribe to these ideas are labeled “race traitor”, “Uncle Tom”, “or not being authentically (race/sex/sexual orientation).”
Identity politics divide people into smaller and smaller sub-categories that fight each other. Discourse is shut down with compelled speech codes, trigger warnings, or safe spaces. People are bullied into compliance, harassed, doxed, or fired from their jobs for disagreeing.
And many progressives don’t understand the ideas behind these movements that look appealing. We won’t learn unless we burn our fingers again.
### Stanza 10
> And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins \
> When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins, \
> As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn, \
> The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
The last stanza is the 4th thing that is certain from the previous stanza. It is a closing loop to previous stanzas. The _brave new world_ is a reference to Shakespeare’s _The Tempest_, Act V. scene 1 line 183. The title for Huxley’s _Brave New World_ is derived from Shakespeare’s play. The utopian novel has numerous references to our times.
The conservative commentator _Michael Knowles_ was recently asked by _Chris Williamson_ on his podcast if we live currently more in _Brave New World_ or _1984_. He answered that we live 10% in _1984_ and 90% in _Brave New World_.[^williamson2021uf]
Reaching for Utopia (Greek “not a place”) always results in a Dystopia (Greek “bad place”). Utopian ideologies are **psychopathic** and arise from the inability to live in the reality.[^lindsay2020aa]
There will be no war, that ends all wars, no “Great Reset”, no restart without getting rid of millions of people that don’t subscribe to the idea. <q>All zero-point ideologies were devastating and always resulted in totalitarian systems or totalitarian thinking,</q> stated Prof. _Nobert Bolz_ in a recent podcast.[^muller-ullrich2021bu] He fears that the Western world is again in a situation where serious intellectuals are thinking about whether we could go back to zero, construct a new form of society and economy, a new human nature.
The pandemic or climate crisis offers convenient reasons to justify authoritarian or totalitarian ideas for “the greater good.” The German _Supreme Court_ hinted that massive personal restrictions might be justified to reach the climate goals.[^escritt2021ap]
A recent survey asked how many Germans would be willing to pay every month to stop climate change. If I remember correctly, the number was below €20 per month. Even risking disillusioning large numbers of my readers, every German (including children and senior citizens) would have to pay between **€300** and **€600** net every month **for the next 30 years** to reach the climate goals of the Paris Agreement.[^unger2021pf] This would reduce Germany’s global CO₂ emissions from **2%** to **1%**, which is as many savings as China generates _additionally_ each year.[^unger2021pf] It will not only destroy the country’s competitiveness, and make the energy supply unreliable, but have no measurable effect. Neither will stop eating meat. But if the self-righteous voters demand measures from the politicians, that will be what we are given.
Be prepared to have fewer (or no) flights in the future, lose your car, and be restricted in your movement and freedoms. If you think the COVID-19 restrictions were bad, you have no clue what is coming.
All these endeavors ignore human nature, reason, personal liberty, and self-determination. To achieve a reset one would have to suppress, intimidate, incarcerate, reeducate, or even kill millions of people. I don’t think any sane person would like to live in a totalitarian, digitalized surveillance state like China is currently building. We have to call out and shame people that push for these ideas before it is too late.
Reality will **always** win, _eventually_. But to what price? A lie doesn’t become true because everybody wants it to be true. _The Gods of the Copybook Headings_ can’t be ignored, without paying a high price.
[^levinson2011kv]: William A. Levinson (2011): [The Revenge of the Gods of the Copybook Headings](https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2011/08/the_revenge_of_the_gods_of_the_copybook_headings.html)
[^peterson2017yx]: Jordan B. Peterson (2017): [2017 Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief (University of Toronto)](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL22J3VaeABQAT-0aSPq-OKOpQlHyR4k5h)
[^curnoe2017dn]: Darren Curnoe (2017): [Was agriculture the greatest blunder in human history?](https://theconversation.com/was-agriculture-the-greatest-blunder-in-human-history-85898)
[^lindsay2020aa]: James Lindsay (2020): [Psychopathy and the Origins of Totalitarianism](https://newdiscourses.com/2020/12/psychopathy-origins-totalitarianism/)
[^emmons2020ln]: Libby Emmons (2020): [Biological male who broke a woman’s skull named “bravest athlete in history”](https://thepostmillennial.com/biological-male-who-broke-a-womans-skull-named-bravest-athlete-in-history/)
[^spiller2000]: Martin S. Spiller (2000): [Joseph Rudyard Kipling](http://www.northofseveycorners.com/write/copybook_heading2.htm)
[^emmons2020en]: Libby Emmons (2020): [Gov. Newsom signs bill allowing male inmates who identify as ‘women’ to be housed in women’s prisons in California](https://thepostmillennial.com/gov-newsom-signs-bill-allow-male-inmates-womens-prisons-california/)
[^desanctis2021db]: Alexandra Desanctis (2021): [The Washington Post ‘Reports’ on Biden Policy to Let Men into Women’s Shelters](https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-washington-post-reports-on-biden-policy-to-let-men-into-womens-shelters/)
[^dms2020ck]: Decision Magazine Staff (2020): [Gender Dysphoria Cases Rise 1,500% Among Teenage Girls in Sweden](https://decisionmagazine.com/gender-dysphoria-cases-rise-1500-among-teenage-girls-in-sweden/)
[^robbins2018sc]: Jane Robbins (2018): [Why Puberty Blockers Are A Clear Danger To Children’s Health](https://thefederalist.com/2018/12/14/puberty-blockers-clear-danger-childrens-health/)
[^jackson2020cv]: Mary Jackson (2020): [Study: Effects of puberty-blockers can last a lifetime](https://wng.org/roundups/study-effects-of-puberty-blockers-can-last-a-lifetime-1617220389)
[^elder2020aa]: Larry Elder (2020): [The Ferguson Lie](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkoGZIYvWm0)
[^kohls2020aa]: Christopher Patrick Kohls (2020): [The Secret Origins of Black Lives Matter](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq1m_PJtu5o)
[^vincent2021en]: Isabel Vincent (2021): [Marxist BLM leader buys $1.4 million home in ritzy LA enclave](https://nypost.com/2021/04/10/marxist-blm-leader-buys-1-4-million-home-in-ritzy-la-enclave/)
[^byrne2021pl]: Kerry J. Byrne (2021): [Breonna Taylor’s mom slams BLM chapter in Louisville as a ‘fraud’](https://nypost.com/2021/04/17/breonna-taylors-mom-slams-blm-louisville-as-a-fraud/)
[^mccaffree2021li]: Kevin McCaffree & Anondah Saide (2021): [How Informed are Americans about Race and Policing?](https://www.skeptic.com/research-center/reports/Research-Report-CUPES-007.pdf)
[^sherman2013rw]: Amy Sherman (2013): [In the 513 days between Trayvon dying, and today’s verdict, 11,106 African-Americans have been murdered by other African-Americans.](https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2013/jul/17/tweets/look-statistic-blacks-and-murder/)
[^qiu2014mo]: Linda Qiu (2014): [The No. 1 cause of death for African-American males 15-34 is murder](https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2014/aug/24/juan-williams/juan-williams-no-1-cause-death-african-americans-1/)
[^jacobson2013cp]: Louis Jacobson (2013): [More than 72 percent of children in the African-American community are born out of wedlock](https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2013/jul/29/don-lemon/cnns-don-lemon-says-more-72-percent-african-americ/)
[^steward2013aa]: Melissa Steward (2013): [The Father Absence Crisis in America](https://www.fatherhood.org/The-Father-Absence-Crisis-in-America)
[^faria2021qg]: Zachary Faria (2021): [Portland cut police funding and got a 2,000% surge in murders](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/portland-cut-police-funding-and-got-a-2-000-surge-in-murders)
[^sowell2013aa]: Thomas Sowell (2013): _Intellectuals and Race_, Basic Books, Pos. 1037
[^gillespie2020dv]: Nick Gillespie (2020): [81 Percent of Black Americans Want the Same Level, or More, of Police Presence: Gallup](https://reason.com/2020/08/06/81-percent-of-black-americans-want-the-same-level-or-more-of-police-presence-gallup/)
[^ap2020wm]: The Associated press (2020): [A timeline of extremist attacks in France in recent years](https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/timeline-extremist-attacks-france-recent-years-73904981)
[^bbcnews2021eu]: BBC News (2021): [Anger as ex-generals warn of 'deadly civil war' in France](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56899765).
[^bbcnews2021uf]: BBC News (2021): [French soldiers warn of civil war in new letter](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57055154).
[^ffn2021ru]: Natural News (2021): [US Army ends gender neutral fitness test because female soldiers keep failing… men and women are different after all](https://freedomfirstnetwork.com/2021/04/us-army-ends-gender-neutral-fitness-test-because-female-soldiers-keep-failing-men-and-women-are-different-after-all)
[^nightingale2021ne]: Hannah Nightingale (2021): [US Army shuts down YouTube comment section of ’woke‘ recruitment ad for the ’safety and well-being‘ of soldiers](https://thepostmillennial.com/us-army-shuts-down-youtube-comment-section-mocking-woke-recruitment-ad)
[^dilanian2020je]: Ken Dilanian (2020): [China has done human testing to create biologically enhanced super soldiers, says top U.S. official](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/china-has-done-human-testing-create-biologically-enhanced-super-soldiers-n1249914)
[^rt2021kd]: RT (2021): [America’s STD rate hits record high for 6th year in a row](https://www.rt.com/usa/521146-americas-std-rate-record-high/)
[^rogan1470]: Ellon Musk & Joe Rogan (2020): [The Joe Rogan Experience 1470 – Elon Musk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcYjXbSJBN8)
[^murphy2018ez]: Robert P. Murphy (2018): [Extreme Poverty Rates Plummet Under Capitalism](https://fee.org/articles/extreme-poverty-rates-plummet-under-capitalism/)
[^mitchell2018qu]: Daniel J. Mitchell (2018): [Welfare Spending Did Not Decrease Poverty, Capitalism Did](https://fee.org/articles/welfare-spending-did-not-decrease-poverty-capitalism-did/)
[^rosling2015lc]: Hans Rosling (2015): [‘How To End Poverty in 15 years’ Hans Rosling – BBC News](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JiYcV_mg6A)
[^lindsay2021ut]: James Lindsay (2021): [Communism Doesn’t Know How](https://newdiscourses.com/2021/04/communism-doesnt-know-how/)
[^margolis2020aa]: Matt Margolis (2020): [Did a WHO Official Admit that COVID-19 Has a Death Rate Similar to the Flu?](https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2020/10/06/did-a-who-official-admit-that-covid-19-has-a-death-rate-similar-to-the-flu-n1011349)
[^thompson2020wr]: Dennis Thompson (2020): [Are Ventilators Helping or Harming COVID-19 Patients?](https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20200415/ventilators-helping-or-harming-covid-19-patients)
[^posteditorialboard2021kc]: Post Editorial Board (2021): [New report details even bigger lies by Cuomo to cover up nursing home scandal](https://nypost.com/2021/05/02/even-bigger-lies-by-cuomo-to-cover-up-nursing-home-scandal/)
[^weinstein2021zr]: Bret Weinstein & Pierre Kory (2021): [COVID, Ivermectin, and the Crime of the Century: DarkHorse Podcast with Pierre Kory & Bret Weinstein](https://odysee.com/@BretWeinstein:f/COVID-Ivermectin-and-the-Crime-of-the-Century-DarkHorse-Podcast-with-Pierre-Kory-Bret-Weinstein:f?r=AG4TE1poAnUM1D7LnCupxjSNSjLfy141)
[^hlusa2021ag]: Headline USA (2021): [WaPo Stealth-Edits Report That Said Wuhan Lab Leak Theory was ‘Debunked’](https://headlineusa.com/wapo-stealth-edits-report-that-said-wuhan-lab-leak-theory-was-debunked/)
[^watson2021pa]: Paul Joseph Watson (2021): [Vox Stealth Edits March 2020 Article “Debunking” Lab Origin of COVID](https://summit.news/2021/05/24/vox-stealth-edits-march-2020-article-debunking-lab-origin-of-covid/)
[^nayna2019qz]: Mike Nayna (2019): [The Devils of Evergreen State College](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLHyNSlsz44_GceBMuwAyflt3lDWMEjTG)
[^pachal2020gj]: Pete Pachal (2020): [Coinbase Has Drawn a Line in the Sand for Its Activist Employees](https://www.coindesk.com/coinbase-has-drawn-a-line-in-the-sand-for-its-activist-employees)
[^monroe2021im]: Nick Monroe (2021): [REVEALED: Basecamp employees cried, threw tantrums after boss rejected woke culture](https://thepostmillennial.com/revealed-basecamp-employees-cried-threw-tantrums-after-boss-rejected-woke-culture)
[^williamson2021uf]: Chris Williamson & Michael Knowles (2021): [Michael Knowles – The Problem With Political Correctness | Modern Wisdom Podcast 331](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDbOMKNg9uw)
[^muller-ullrich2021bu]: Burkhard Müller-Ullrich, Nobert Bolz, and Cora Stephan (2021): [Indubio Folge 131: Das alte und das neue Normal](https://www.achgut.com/artikel/indubio_folge_131_das_alte_und_das_neue_normal)
[^escritt2021ap]: Thomas Escritt (2021): [Germany must tighten climate law to protect young people’s future, court rules](https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/germany-must-further-tighten-climate-change-law-top-court-rules-2021-04-29/)
[^unger2021pf]: Raymond Unger (2021): _Vom Verlust der Freiheit: Klimakrise, Migrationskrise, Coronakrise_, Europa Verlag.
But when investigated, the stories begin to crumble q
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Stefan Imhoff