Those in charge of the levers of power in our world today have the ability to make decisions that affect a lot of people. Shedding light on some of the factors that influence those decisions in light of various disasters and catastrophic events is particularly relevant to collapse.
The idea of Elite Panic seems to be a particularly insightful concept: that the elite are panicked that we are going to panic. And are more panicked about that than whatever it is that causing us to panic in the first place! This perspective helps us to understand some of the key decisions made during general panic-inducing societal events, and helps us who are collapse aware to make better decisions for ourselves.
The avian flu situation is evolving daily now. Farmers and ranchers are starting to show “bird flu-like symptoms,” but they aren’t getting tested. Nobody is forcing them, either. The USDA is inspecting ground beef, but only in states with outbreaks in dairy cows, and only because other countries started rejecting our beef. As one epidemiologist told Scientific American, “We don’t have a good sense of the spread because testing is voluntary and certainly not being done in a systematic way.”
Avian flu has been spreading for months in cattle, and none of our government institutions can tell us anything except, “Don’t panic.”
It’s pathetic.
According to STAT News: “The United States even has some H5 vaccine in a stockpile that it believes would offer protection against the version of the H5N1 virus infecting dairy cattle, though there would not be nearly enough doses for the entire country.” Yes, they believe it would.
They don’t know?
I mean, it’s their job to know. We pay these people a third of our money, and that money is specifically meant for them to know these kinds of things and prepare for them. Instead, what do we get?
“Don’t panic.”
Bird flu was spreading all last year, working its way up the mammalian food chain. Our politicians were too busy worrying about TikTok and Chinese weather balloons. They completely dropped the ball on this one.
We’re told that bird flu isn’t spreading among humans “at this time,” but it “could” at some point in the future. Well, it’s been jumping to every other mammal, including a dolphin.
Even a story in U.S. News has to admit that “no studies have ever been done on the effects of pasteurization on bird flu virus in milk.” They say, “Experts believe pasteurization… should kill the virus.”
Ah. They believe it should kill the virus.
Don’t panic, though.
Look around. Nobody is panicking. Do you see anyone panicking? I see a lot of people confused, upset, and a little angry. They’re not angry about the bird flu. They’re angry at bureaucratic incompetence. But I don’t see anyone screaming in terror at the sight of milk.
Do you?
Nobody has panicked since 2022. Everyone has been living the fantasy of normal. I think politicians and corporate media flunkies really mean this: Don’t get angry at them. Don’t criticize them.
Don’t hold them accountable. Don’t demand they get their act together and do more than perform testing theater.
That’s what they mean by “don’t panic.”
Just wait until bird flu starts transmitting between people. Don’t demand clean air. Don’t demand better ventilation or air purifiers. Don’t demand free masks. (By the way, they’re not really free. You paid for them with your tax money. That’s what your tax money should be spent on.)
Think back to 2021, if you can.
The administration that presided over the baby formula disaster, the government that failed to regulate or even inspect the production facilities, the officials who let bacteria kill 9 infants before lifting a finger, is now telling you it’s totally safe to drink milk with viral fragments of bird flu. They say it based on the assumption that these dairy corporations, who didn’t know bird flu was spreading in their cattle, are going to do pasteurization right a hundred percent of the time. They say it with pride. They roll their eyes at the slightest expression of concern. They call everything they don’t want to hear “panic.”
Do you trust these people?
I don’t.
Every western country from the U.S. and Canada to Britain is “way behind the virus.” That’s what scientists are saying. They tell us to calm down and don’t panic, when they don’t even know what’s going on. They don’t have the slightest clue what will happen next.
There’s one thing you can always count on. When government officials roll out their corporate media machinery to tell everyone “don’t panic,” that’s exactly what they’re doing in private.
It’s called elite panic.
The term elite panic refers to the counterproductive actions that government officials and the super rich commit out of fear that the general public will overreact to a disaster. Instead of keeping us informed, they lie. They suppress information. They stifle dissent and debate.
They try to control everything.
They fail.
As James Meigs writes, “Disaster literature bulges with examples…in which officials suppressed information, or passed along misinformation, out of concern over an unruly populace.” I think Meigs is referring to the WHO and the CDC’s continued assertion that washing your hands can prevent the spread of an airborne virus, something they’re doing right now. He goes on to state that “Elite panic frequently brings out another unsavory quirk on the part of some authorities: a tendency to believe the worst about their own citizens.”
You can look at nuclear meltdowns, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, and pandemics. Almost every single time, government authorities rush out to calm down the population. They censor accurate information. They put most of their emphasis on protecting the assets of the rich. They care most about anticipating and quelling riots. Maybe you remember Britain’s Covid hearings, when it came out that authorities “planned” for Covid by ordering tons and tons of bodybags, not tons and tons of N95 masks.
They let people die for property and profits.
Rebecca Solnit writes about elite panic in her book, Paradise Built in Hell. As she explains, it was Rutgers professors Caron Chess and Lee Clarke who originally developed the term. As they told Sonit, “It’s the elites that we see panicking…about the possibility that we will panic. It’s a very paternalist orientation to governance. It’s how you might treat a child.”
We’re definitely being treated like children now.
You can feel the paternalistic condescension dripping off every mainstream news article about avian flu. Nobody knows when it could start spreading among humans. Nobody knows for sure if every carton of milk is going to be perfectly safe to drink for the foreseeable future.
And yet, they presume to know. They presume to tell us we’re safe. They presume that we’ll panic… and do what, exactly?
Stop buying milk? Stop buying beef?
Stop eating out and shopping?
That’s what they’re worried about.
It doesn’t take a genius to predict what will happen with a virus that’s “particularly good at shapeshifting and can even swap entire chunks of genetic material.” It’s easy to anticipate, especially now that avian flu has found its way into one of our biggest food sources. I mean, milk and cheese get used in a lot of products. There’s a lot of risk.
Solnit’s book provides several examples of how elites create “greater danger” by panicking about our reactions to bad news. In the end, far more people die. Far more destruction occurs. The public always finds out that their institutions were lying to them. And when they do, they don’t trust anything else those governments have to say. Can you blame them?
That’s exactly what happened with Covid. Our institutions lied to us over and over again. Changing presidents didn’t make much of a difference. We just got fed different lies. Now, they’re at least partially responsible for the spread of all these anti-vax, anti-mask conspiracy theories.
And they’re doing it again.
The elites are panicking. They don’t have the slightest idea what’s going on with avian flu. They can’t assure us of anything. Not really. The best they can offer is what we already know, that pasteurization probably kills most pathogens, as long as you don’t screw it up or cut corners.
We’ve seen how that goes…
Do you even really know what pasteurization is? I thought I did, but I looked it up to be sure. According to Cornell, pasteurization “is when milk has been heated to a minimum of 161F for at least 15 seconds or 145F for 30 minutes and packed in clean and sanitized conditions.” That sounds like something a greedy dairy corporation could screw up pretty easily. If the milk is heated at the wrong temperature, for not long enough, or not packaged in sanitized conditions, then guess what? It’s not really pasteurized.
Even if the label says so…
There’s pasteurized, and then there’s “ultra-pasteurized,” which means “the milk is heated to a minimum of 280F for a minimum of 2 seconds. This temperature and time combination is much more lethal to bacteria, killing virtually all of concern. Ultra-pasteurized milk is also packaged under near sterile conditions.” Have these dairy producers offered to ultra-pasteurize everyone’s milk, just to be extra sure they don’t accidentally kill anyone? If so, I haven’t heard that. All I’ve heard is “shut up and drink milk. It’s safe.”
That sounds like elite panic.
So, to recap:
Normal people aren’t panicking. The politicians are panicking. Their super donors are panicking. The dairy industry is panicking. The beef industry is panicking. They’re not panicking about avian flu. They’re not worried your cat is going to bring home bird flu. They’re not worried your kid is going to drink bird flu milk and die. They’re worried about money.
So, they’re going to lie as long as they can. They’re going to go through this charade of testing cattle, only in places where they absolutely have to. They’re going to pretend they don’t know that human transmission of bird flu is standing right around the corner, and it might’ve already started happening. They’re going to act like everything is fine, until so many people start getting sick and dying that they have to do something, and what they’ll do is mainly manage the panic they project onto us.
As disaster experts tell us, most ordinary people don’t panic during disasters. They pull together and help each other.
There’s a lot we can do that’s not panicking. We can demand ultra-pasteurization. We can pull back from dairy and beef. We can finally start cleaning the air. We can wear masks. We should’ve already been doing these things. Another looming pandemic just gives us yet another reason.
Another opportunity.
Let the elite panic all they want. Let them lose sleep over their stock portfolios. That’s their choice. It wouldn’t kill them financially to just do the right thing for once. Everyone would benefit.
So just remember…
The next time you read one of those stories that tells you “don’t panic,” while offering nothing of any assurance whatsoever…
They’re the ones panicking.
Not you. [OKDoomer]
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Your article was very good Manny, Love the site!! BUT (yes, here it comes) the passing comment about “masks” needs to be briefly addressed if you have a second. There’s aflurry of real studies trying to confirm the value of masks. But not to wear you out please check out another fine site called Principia Scientific International. See there the article entitled: “Masks Fail Their Latest Test”. (Type into search bar) I realize this is both controversial and tiring since we’ve all been down this rabbit hole and back out BUT please consider NOT recommending even in passing the wearing of masks. If you can smell perfume through it, or smoke viruses are WAAAYYY smaller particles than those. Thanks keep up the 99.8% great stuff. More on fire in Hawaii?