I don’t usually just re-post content on my website. But a recent interview with Prof. Mattias Desmet explains so well the reasons why most of the world is going nuts over Covid, I felt it was best to simply re-post the entire interview. Thankfully, Kate Wand had already prepared an English-only version of the interview a day after it was first streamed, and that’s what I’m posting below. An interesting aside: This interview, streamed live on Friday 30 July on YouTube, was removed by YouTube in record time by the next day.
Prof. Desmet says there are 4 conditions that need to exist in a society for a mass psychosis to emerge: lack of social bonds, lack of sense making, free-floating anxiety and free-floating discontent. He goes on to explain why even highly intelligent and educated people are so susceptible to believing in a plainly absurd narrative and no amount of rational argument can convince them otherwise. Encouragingly, it also explains why some people (thought to be about 20% of the population) are immune against such nonsense. The interview left me with at least some hope: all totalitarian systems are inherently self-destructive – let’s hope that sets in sooner rather than later.
