From the White-PillBox: Part 12 - Fauci edition 1
White Pills are usually found in cultural/political trends. But Anthony Fauci personally, though inadvertently, dispenses some potent ones. One of them undermines a classic Statist trick.
For the first 20 months or so of the COVID hysteria, Anthony Fauci has remained the undisputed and unassailable face of medical science. To the State and its handmaidens (corporate media, traditional academia, tech giants, and most large corporations), he was perceived as the focal point of truth and wisdom for dealing with COVID. It is not a stretch to compare his status to a religious guru with a worldwide cult following.
He was the personification of a COVID savior.
It is a classic State maneuver to personify an enemy, a savior, or both. This political strategy helps the State steer public attention. By associating a solution or threat with a specific person, the public falls into the good-guy / bad-guy trap: our savior can do no wrong; our evil enemy can do no right.
Fauci relishes his savior role. His claim to represent science is a perfect example of pure arrogance. He openly mocks and belittles contrary scientific perspectives. He chooses only the media outlets that interview him to his best advantage. He ignores both contrary data, as well as his own contradictions.
But the State and Fauci are operating in an environment unlike any before: a world of instantaneous communication and information sharing.
In the past, personifying a savior or personifying an enemy proved a successful strategy primarily because information moved slowly. The role of a personified enemy (such as Saddam Hussein), or a glorious savior (such as FDR), had staying power. It took decades before enough truth emerged to put them in a more realistic light.
Fauci has been riding a wave of world-wide veneration with the confidence of past political saviors. Unfortunately for him, the gimmick can no longer work.
Fauci White Pill dose 1 - the end of COVID
As of this writing, the COVID cracks are showing. The public is weary of the COVID experience. The uselessness of State measures is becoming ever more obvious.
But the best aspect of this White Pill is this: the end of the COVID hysteria is coming sooner than expected.
Consider: COVID was a global health concern. Couple this with the unprecedented and relentless fear-propaganda by the State and its handmaidens. Together this should have insured the hysteria last a good decade or so. Instead we can now see it will be short-lived. This relatively quick social course-correction (admittedly still in its early stages), would not have been possible pre-Internet.1
As the face of the COVID response, Fauci’s extreme overreaction and irrational style paradoxically will help hasten the end of the hysteria.
Fauci White Pill dose 2 - the end of savior Fauci
In time, the horrifying human costs of the State’s overreaction to COVID will emerge.
It is at that point, if not sooner, that Fauci will transform from the face of a savior to the personification of one of history’s worst butchers.
The State and its handmaidens may try to come to his defense. This will only delegitimize them further. But more likely they will try to disown and focus blame on him. This will fail. Yes, he should be vilified personally. But Fauci’s pandemic-era cheerleaders will be blamed as well. It will be too well-known that he was anointed by them; they will have a difficult time trying to propagandize themselves out of it.
Fauci White Pill dose 3 - the end of State saviors
With COVID remaining front and center on the public stage, expect the hysteria’s side effects to inevitably emerge. There will be little room for ambiguity in the following social lesson: during a global health scare, the world showed blind faith in the skill and integrity of the State and its chosen savior.
Their shattered faith will mean Fauci will achieve what no State-endorsed savior ever did: virtually eliminate the possibility of a future large scale public savior.
Fauci, and the political dynamic he was married to, will delegitimize the State’s future saviors. This White Pill will itself be a potent poison pill for the State.
Fauci edition 2 will find another White Pill/poison pill combo…stay tuned.
The war on terror following the 9/11 attacks provides a perfect recent counter example. The terrorist hysteria by the State was probably the last major State-endorsed panic before the Internet matured. Information moved slowly; news outlets were fewer and highly centralized. Not surprisingly it took years for contrary views to gain any traction. And the legacy of the panic remains to this day in the power of permanent State agencies such as DHS and TSA, not to mention the endless wars. But given the technology of today, it would be difficult to imagine the hysteria enjoying the same long-term staying power.