We live in an age of tyranny. The ugly visages of tyrants stare down upon us, Big Brother style, from all sides.
And yet we trust that, ultimately, tyrants will fail. Their demise is certain. Freedom will once again reign supreme.
In this first of two parts, I set the stage with a powerful, poetic indictment of our era of tyranny written by Margaret Anna Alice, one of my favorite Substack authors, who churns out Through the Looking Glass.
In Margaret’s dedication to the fallen physician, Dr. Jackie Stone (no relation), who was crushed by villains behind the COVID bioweapon attack, Margaret applies a verse sledgehammer to tyrants.
In part two, a follow-up article, I’ll build my case for the inevitable Futility of Tyranny,
When Tyranny Is in Vogue
Dedicated to Dr. Jackie Stone (1965–2024)
by Margaret Anna Alice
“If it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.”
—Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience
When tyranny is in vogue,
dissent is unfashionable.
You get hatcheted by propagandists,
accused by mockingheads,
savaged by kapos,
fact-choked by flunkies,
harassed by cyberbullies,
threatened by psychophants,
flagged by lobbyists,
disappeared by Big Tech,
cash-blocked by banksters,
sacked by employers,
gaslit by “experts,”
banished by tyrants,
rights-stripped by cruelites,
fleeced by billionaires,
delicensed by boards,
gagged by legislators,
barred by hospitals,
shrugged off by amnesty-demanders,
eyerolled by narrative-believers,
cut off by family,
rejected by friends,
divorced by spouses,
separated from children,
uninvited from gatherings,
expelled from society,
clubbed by clockwork oranges,
convicted in kangaroo court,
tossed into jail,
driven to suicide,
bashed upon death.
Governments pay
“comedians” to sneer at you,
screenwriters to caricature you,
influencers to make fun of you,
celebrities to vituperate you,
media to saturate you,
agencies to quarantine you.
Corporations pay
outlets to vilify you,
advertisers to stigmatize you,
universities to marginalize you,
global entities to delete you,
tear-downers to exhaust you,
governing bodies to unperson you.
Philanthropaths pay
$cientists to discredit you,
journals to sideline you,
carpetbaggers to enslave you,
organizations to surveil you,
institutions to invisibilize you,
nations to eradicate you.
But when tyranny becomes passé,
you will be the envy
of the conformists, the colluders,
the accomplices, the corrupt.
They will hide in the shadows behind you,
pretending they were with you all along,
acting like everything is fine now,
insisting you move on.
The nice, compliant people who
violated their values to
keep their jobs,
protect their assets,
avoid being called names,
get invited to parties,
travel, dine out,
be loved by those with terms and conditions
will wish they’d had your badass bravery,
crystalline conscience,
unsoiled integrity,
Apocaloptimistic joy,
wild-weather friends.
Those who sided with
power over truth,
lies over love,
illusions over reality,
rules over rights,
authority over intuition,
astroturf over grassroots,
vaxxiteers over truth-tellers,
pharma over people,
governments over liberty
will detest you.
Your very existence will condemn them.
You were supposed to be
sick,
wrong,
dead.
Instead, you are
healthy,
right,
vibrant.
Your heart will be pure and full
while theirs is foul and empty.
Your mind will be free and open
while theirs is tethered and clenched.
Your soul will be tranquil and light
while theirs is tortured and heavy.
Unless they discover their lost traits—
critical thinking,
courage,
empathy,
humility,
discernment,
humor,
wisdom—
and become
the next generation
of daring, despised, despicable dissidents
when tyranny is in vogue again.
Read the entire dedication at Through the Looking Glass.