By Geo Ivansky

When we hear the tired refrain “people are stupid”, we have to ask “Compared to what?” As people, we build flying machines, we read DNA, and we call sound that reflects universal mathematical truth “music”, and listen to it for enjoyment. Against such precedents, it is also plain that people can behave in rather disappointing ways. When such aberrant acts appear in individuals, they can often be understood in terms of stress factors. When they appear on a large scale in society, they can often be understood in terms of Mass Hysteria.

Clinical psychologist Mattias Desmet provides an insightful framework for interpreting such movements in his description of Mass Formation. He recognizes factors such as lack of social contact and a lack of sense of purpose, coupled with an abundance of free floating anxiety and discontent as conditions that provide the optimal environment for the emergence of this phenomenon. Mass Formation satisfies the voids and lessens the severity of these deleterious conditions, and is characterized by zealous embrace of a New Society, strict loyalty to its edicts and tenets, and fierce rejection of challenges to its legitimacy.

Those who have experienced or studied Cult behavior will find this familiar, and the likeness of the “Covid Safe” to a Cult is clear.

Regarding Covid, it is very characteristic of the Sane to question just what has happened to everyone around us. That a surprisingly small number of people appear to be doing so publicly only serves to reinforce the urgency of the situation, and may add to an already heightened state of social isolation and discontent. This in turn urges us to a decision and a division. We can join the Mass Formation for the relief it provides or carry the burden of witnessing something senseless while feeling powerless to change it.

The decision to decline pressure to join the Mass Formation incurs penalties (both legally and socially) and as a result carries the risk of inspiring resentment toward the people who have become complicit. In order to avoid this pitfall and effectively communicate with those experiencing the paranoid delusions of Covid Mass Hysteria, our conversations should be informed by knowledge of two Key factors:

1. The adverse conditions which have made people vulnerable to deception.
2. The likely reactions and behaviors of people exposed to such conditions.

When dealing with people subject to paranoid Mass Hysteria, it is important to recognize the importance held by their participation in it. Since the New Society comprises the solution to the problems of isolation, meaninglessness, anxiety and discontent, they will not take the decision to forfeit such relief lightly.

Inconsistent and illogical messaging from the media has conditioned people to feel confused and powerless. As a result, one of the needs satisfied by the Mass Formation is Identification with the solutions offered by Authorities, and with it a tendency to accept them despite their flaws. Indeed, the more senseless the situation appears, the more closely held the edicts of the Authorities will be. And the more senseless a behavior appears, the better it serves as a symbol of Cult membership. When the ride is bumpy, we tend to hold on tighter and take greater comfort in the idea that “we are all in it together”.

When battling the abuse of information that supports Covid Mass Hysteria, we are battling a foe that is oblivious to logic and falsification. Since its very fabric is one of ever changing nonsense, attempts to untangle it that are based on evidence, logic, or counterexample tend to be less effective. There have been a number of credible data points that stood in such relief to the media narrative surrounding Covid, it seemed as if the delusion should unravel when they were brought to light. These “headshot” cases, such as the invalidity of PCR as a disease test or the ineffective and unconscionable use of experimental Gene Therapy as a mandatory “vaccine”, are drawn from data that is recognized as high integrity, such as the inventors of the technologies in question, the New York Times, and government statistics. Each of these and several other revelations should have been enough on their own to make it abundantly clear that a deception on the scale of the entire “crisis” itself was afoot. Far beyond merely inconvenient blemishes to the narrative, these things very neatly and surely answered the question of whether panic is justified with a resounding “No”. And yet, in an amazing testament to the power Mass Formation psychology, they seemed to have no effect on the delusions of the Faithful.

Clearly facts alone will not suffice. While quality data should form the backdrop of our mental environment and inform our communication, when trying to speak with people experiencing Mass Hysteria, we can expect only rejection or hostility if we bring it to bear as the driving force, or explicit topic of conversation.

Instead, a more effective approach emphasizes the example shown by living a parallel reality where Mass Hysteria is not present.

By demonstrating the existence of a life not subject to the deficits and excesses that gave rise to it in the first place, we simply neutralize the need for the solution provided by the Mass Formation. This also leaves the benevolent intention of our efforts untarnished by tones of accusation and rejection, allowing the operative gestures of invitation and acceptance to remain in focus. By showcasing a positive, fear free attitude, and acting in the most natural ways permitted by the law, we remind others that they are free to do the same.

While the Covid situation has divided people, only one side is responsible for that division. The people behaving Sanely and the people experiencing Paranoia are not actually two “sides” at all. They are not competing theories, rival products, or quarrelsome siblings. The people experiencing Covid Mass Hysteria are foremost, People. They have suffered adverse conditions in their lives that have made them vulnerable to deceit. By likening people behaving Sanely to active purveyors of an alternative agenda for questioning the Mass Hysteria, the media and its followers are associating the lack of an imposed condition with the presence of an innate quality. For example, regions and institutions that are choosing not to force people to wear masks are described as having “banned” such mandates. The media has managed to frame allowing normal behavior as a forceful imposition.

We can counter this manipulation by refusing to adopt the tactics that are projected upon us. In the example we set by living a parallel reality, we can demonstrate that:

1. We are not worried
2. We are not holding onto something
3. Anyone is invited to be as we are, if they so choose

In trying to maintain the Hysteria, the media will do anything in its power to demonize normality. People who are not compliant with the Hysteria are described in terms precisely opposite to the characteristics listed above. We are described as “paranoid” conspiracy theorists, we are labeled “hesitant”, and we are depicted as exclusive and hostile “warriors”. Fortunately, our parallel reality will outlive this smear campaign, as it is composed of natural behaviors that are easier to maintain than lies. Parody and satire have always been effective forms of expression in periods of hostility toward free speech, and a generalized attitude of Ridicule toward the authorities propagating foolish ideas and behaviors provides a good way to draw attention toward the parallel reality, and its advantages in morality and logic.

Although the social and political trends being deployed under the Covid pretense seem dark and foreboding, we need to remember that by allowing fear to be a motivating factor for us, we are subject to manipulation.

Recall that following the terror attacks of September 11, some were afraid of terrorists and others were afraid of their own governments. That fear was a common denominator in both “sides” limited the discourse, as each side contributed equally to the surveillance and security based solutions that followed – solutions that, as the fruition of legislation that had been penned long before the attacks, were likely the deeper objective all along.

It is only from a position that provides comfort and safety from the onslaught of either a virus or a tyrannical anti-virus response, that a light, comical attitude can be summoned. Thankfully, reality affords us just such a position, as the virus is clearly not something worthy of our panic, and the swindlers who are threatening us with it are not worthy of our attention.

This is the Stay Sane approach. Beginning with respect for people who have been deceived, understanding what made them vulnerable to the empty promises of the New Society, taking into account their likely behaviors and reactions, and offering them a way out that is at once passive enough to be inviting, and honest enough to be dismissive of the madness in its parallel existence.

Originally published at staysane.substack.com