I Would Like To Take This Day To Honor A Masterpiece

How my favorite movie foreshadowed the start and end of the current era

As you begin to study the universe we live within, an inevitable process occurs, the more you learn the less you realize you actually know. This for example is why I frequently preface statements with “I believe” or “I suspect” as many of the frameworks I have to use to navigate reality have an inherent degree of uncertainty behind them I feel compelled to disclose. Likewise, I’ve had so many things I was certain of that I later learned were false it’s made me quite reluctant to ever hold a rigid mindset towards any topic (whereas conversely, it’s always frustrating to deal with people who have an absolute conviction in a false idea that the mass media or their medical education fed to them).

At the same time however, every once in a while, I come across something I just feel in my bones is true, and to the best of my knowledge, none of those recognitions has ever later shown itself to be false. For example, at the end of 2019, I had clear flash of exactly would happen over the next three years (which to a large degree was informed from having seen the same playbook that was used for COVID-19 be enacted numerous times in the past). In turn, there were numerous times where I told my colleagues what was going to happen and that they needed to prepare for it—but outside of close friends, I can only think of a single doctor who ever took what I said to heart.

Note: one conversation which particularly stuck with me from this time was when a colleague somehow found out I hadn’t rushed to get the vaccine like everyone else, at which point he confronted me and said “why are you so haughty as to believe you know more than all of your colleagues?”

For years, an iconic scene in a cult classic stuck with me, as it illustrated how hard it was for people to truly be certain of something deep within themselves regardless of how simple it was. In turn, I spent more time than I could count trying to come up with a way to truly answer the humorous question it posed (“what is your favorite color”) lest I ever end up in the same situation as these knights.

However, while I struggled with the color question for a while, I immediately recognized my favorite movie when I first saw it. In turn, this Substack started in February 2022, I decided if it lasted until November 5, I’d write a piece on that movie. In turn, each year when that date comes around, I make a point to write a piece on it—and remarkably, each year more striking real-world parallels to V for Vendetta emerge.

Note: I consider V for Vendetta (which revolves around the date November 5) to be a masterpiece and as such, I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who has not seen it. As such, I tried to structure this article to avoid spoiling too much of it.

Controlling Through Fear

I would like to begin by sharing the defining speech of the movie. From listening to it, the parallels to the last few years and the lessons within it should be obvious. If you only watch one video in here, please watch this one (it’s 3:57 long).

This speech once transcribed is as follows:

Good evening, London. Allow me first to apologize for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of the everyday routine, the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition. I enjoy them as much as any bloke. But in the spirit of commemoration - whereby those important events of the past, usually associated with someone's death or the end of some awful bloody struggle, are celebrated with a nice holiday - I thought we could mark this November the fifth, a day that is sadly no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat.

There are, of course, those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now orders are being shouted into telephones and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there?

Cruelty and injustice...intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance, coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those who are more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable. But again, truth be told...if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror.

I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War. Terror. Disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you and in your panic, you turned to the now High Chancellor Adam Sutler. He promised you order. He promised you peace. And all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent.

Last night, I sought to end that silence. Last night, I destroyed the Old Bailey to remind this country of what it has forgotten. More than four hundred years ago, a great citizen wished to embed the fifth of November forever in our memory. His hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice and freedom are more than words - they are perspectives. So if you've seen nothing, if the crimes of this government remain unknown to you, then I would suggest that you allow the fifth of November to pass unmarked. But if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek...then I ask you to stand beside me, one year from tonight, outside the gates of Parliament. And together, we shall give them a fifth of November that shall never, ever, be forgot!

Every totalitarian regime faces the same struggle—how can a small number of people get a large number of people (the general population) to comply with something which opposes their fundamental values.

One of the most effective strategies ever discovered was to do so through instilling immense fear throughout the population by making public examples of a few dissidents. To illustrate, consider what was done to many of the doctors who saved patient’s lives by using treatment protocols that differed from the official guidelines and how that made many other doctors not want to speak out against what was happening.

Note: one of the most striking illustrations of this principle occurred earlier this year where England imprisoned thousands of its citizens for simply questioning the current social policies online. These tactics in turn highlight why either free speech, or if that’s not feasible, anonymity, are so important (and what actually motivates the continual governmental attempts to eliminate online anonymity).

Another approach was simply to spread enough fear so that it takes on a life of its own and the citizens control each other. To quote Scott Atlas (who was a sane doctor Trump brought onto the White House’s insane Coronavirus Task Force):

As often happened, Fauci spoke up to support Dr. Birx’s concerns, saying people need to be warned even more strongly about the dangers of the virus spreading, about wearing masks and distancing. He claimed Americans didn’t think the virus was serious, and that was the reason cases spread. I was honestly surprised. I thought people were already panic-stricken. Normal life had virtually ceased to exist, even eliminating serious medical care or last visits with dying family. Meanwhile the media were on-message 24/7, instructing the public about masks and social distancing; there were signs and announcements demanding masks and diagrams about distancing e and diagrams about distancing everywhere; healthy young people were outside riding bicycles or driving their cars alone, wearing masks. Indeed, surveys showed that most adults perceived grossly exaggerated risks, particularly but not only younger people; and yes, a high percentage were obeying the edicts, distancing and wearing masks, according to virtually every published survey.

I challenged him to clarify his point, because I couldn’t believe my ears. “So you think people aren’t frightened enough?”

He [Fauci] said, “Yes, they need to be more afraid.”

To me, this was another moment of Kafkaesque absurdity. I replied, “I totally disagree. People are paralyzed with fear. Fear is one of the main problems at this point.” Inside, I was also shocked at his thought process, as such an influential face of the pandemic. Instilling fear in the public is absolutely counter to what a leader in public health should do. To me, it is frankly immoral, although I kept that to myself.”

Note: Fauci also fear-mongered for his own benefit throughout the AIDS crisis (which amongst other things created significant stigmatization towards the gay community as Fauci asserted without evidence that HIV might be transmitted without physical contact).

V for Vendetta, in turn, explores exactly how one can go about dismantling a vast apparatus of fear that has become so powerful, citizens are willing to surrender their fundamental rights (e.g., the danger of COVID was used to rescind the freedom of assembly, speech and bodily autonomy). It should be noted that is precisely the situation our founding fathers repeatedly warned us against. For example to quote Benjamin Franklin:

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

The mass formation hypothesis (which arose from the discipline of crowd psychology) argues that if enough people believe something, it can develop a life of its own and many people will begin to fanatically believe it (to the point good people will do evil things they rationalize are for the greater good), while the rest of the population will fully comply with those zealots because they fear the consequences of challenging them.

A key aspect of the theory is that it can only be broken if enough people take on the personal risk that speaking out against the crowd entails, as once this is done, it gives a signal to everyone else that it is safe to break from the mass formation. This in turn is why horrific systems can be in place for years if not decades, and then suddenly rapidly break apart once the right catalyst comes along.

One of the best historical examples of this was the Berlin Wall, a hated structure which separated East (communist) Germany from West Germany (which arose from agreements made at the end of World War 2). The wall was manned by guards authorized to use lethal force against anyone who attempted to cross it, and had remained unassailable for almost 40 years.

However, due to a series of events that had happened in the two preceding months, on November 9th, the government accidentally gave a message to the media that undermined the mass formation that had held the population in check:

After hearing the 9 November broadcast, East Germans began gathering at the Wall, at the six checkpoints between East and West Berlin, demanding that border guards immediately open the gates. The surprised and overwhelmed guards made many hectic telephone calls to their superiors about the problem. At first, they were ordered to find the "more aggressive" people gathered at the gates and stamp their passports with a special stamp that barred them from returning to East Germany—in effect, revoking their citizenship.

However, this still left thousands of people demanding to be let through "as Schabowski said we can." It soon became clear that no one among the East German authorities would take personal responsibility for issuing orders to use lethal force, so the vastly outnumbered soldiers had no way to hold back the huge crowd of East German citizens.

Note: those events are very similar to the ending scene of V for Vendetta—and I suspect may have been the inspiration for it.

Before long, the guards yielded to those wishing to cross, citizens with flowers gathered to greet them on the Western side, people began scaling the wall, and by the end of the day, citizens began dismantling the wall. Over the next few months, guards gradually gave up on trying to stop this or repair the wall, and half a year later, official demolitions of the wall began.

Mary Elise Sarotte in a 2009 Washington Post story characterized the series of events leading to the fall of the Wall as an accident, saying "One of the most momentous events of the past century was, in fact, an accident, a semicomical and bureaucratic mistake that owes as much to the Western media as to the tides of history."

Breaking Mass Formations

V’s strategy for breaking apart the dystopian system he lived within was to:

•Bypass the society’s censors in order to expose the population to a message that emotionally resonated with them, and more importantly to show them that they were not alone (something Substack has also been invaluable for over the last few years). The speech at the start of this article is remarkable, both in that it cuts to the heart of the fear that maintains each oppressive system and because it, in many ways, is just as true for our current era as it was for V’s fictional world

•Provide a safe way for the populace to show they agreed with his message through giving everyone a mask they could wear which simultaneously expressed the core message—that current government was unacceptable.
Note: I often think of V’s response to someone asking him who he was as I frequently receive similar inquiries.

•Create more and more triggers for the populace to see it was safe for them to begin speaking out (e.g., V continuing to act with impunity despite the government’s best efforts to silence him or repeatedly causing a frustrated and fearful government to make a bigger and bigger fool of itself). As more and more social proof emerged for V’s message, more and more people in turn began to be willing to take on the personal risk that speaking out against the system entailed.

This is critically important, because all the research on mass formations has found that their success or failure depends upon if a minority of the population is willing to challenge them and provide a signal to everyone else to do so as well (this in turn is why I have placed such a strong focus on highlighting and encouraging the psychological characteristics that caused individuals to break from a dysfunctional narrative). While many examples of this exist throughout history, one of the most iconic images comes from Nazi Germany:

Unfortunately, in most cases, people will not be that guy, because even if they disagree with what is occurring, they are terrified of the consequences of speaking out. This is highly problematic because as fewer and fewer people speak out, totalitarian leaders can tighten the range of acceptable discourse. As history has repeatedly shown, that censorship can rapidly increase (e.g., consider what’s happened over the last decade in the United States—particularly since 2020), and before long, create situations where things each citizen believed they had an unquestionable right to criticize can easily land them in jail or worse.
Note: this happening to my family in Nazi Germany is a large part of why I’ve invested so much of my time in speaking out against things that I feel are just not right.

As V’s campaign escalates, more and more people become comfortable speaking out against the injustices they see, until eventually a national talk show host decides to risk his career (and life) by speaking out against the regime:

Last year, I was reminded of that scene after a top producer who had been at Fox News for a decade decided to forfeit his career so he could speak out against the creeping totalitarianism he was witnessing in the United States.

This act of civil disobedience in turn was preceded by Biden giving a eerie speech where he demonized those who didn’t vote for him (something which would typically be unacceptable in an democratic republic), and did so in a manner which perfectly mirrored the dictator from V for Vendetta.

Note: Biden’s speech juxtaposed with the fictional dictator’s speech can be viewed here.

That speech from in turn was eerily similar to Biden’s 9-9-21 speech where he made numerous false claims about the COVID vaccines (which were known at the time to be false) which he then used to justify inciting hatred against the unvaccinated.

Free Speech

One of the most important lessons many of us have learned from COVID-19 is the critical importance of free speech—after all, had mass censorship (which often dovetailed with professional repercussions for speaking out) not been enacted, it never would have been possible:

•For the people responsible for COVID-19 (e.g., Fauci and Hotez through their gain-of-function research) to have been allowed to take control of America’s response to the pandemic.

•For an unscientific, non-sensical, and incredibly destructive pandemic response (e.g., the mass lockdowns) to have been inflicted upon the Western World.

•For dangerous and unproven protocols (e.g., remdesivir) to be effectively mandated in hospitals across America.

•For safe and effective (but off-patent) COVID-19 therapies to have been effectively outlawed across America.

•For dangerous, unproven and ineffective vaccines to have been mandated upon the world despite a deluge of warnings against them.

This in turn caused many to realize that free speech threatens the entire Western power structure. Since our country has enshrined freedom of speech into the Constitution, we in turn have seen a variety of creative tactics used to undermine that right such as labeling dissenting narratives as “hate speech” or “harmful misinformation,” while simultaneously giving a pass to any false or hateful claims which support the existing narratives.

This is completely unacceptable, and my sincere hope is that the events of COVID-19 were such a strong shock to the citizenry that they will catalyze a return to liberty. To a degree, this appears to have happened as many topics that only a few years ago were completely unacceptable to discuss (e.g., antidepressants causing mass shootings or vaccines causing autism) are now entering the cultural discourse. In short, it appears that the anonymity the internet provides is effectively serving like the Guy Fawkes masks from V and providing a way for those who do not want to follow the societal insanity to safely do so and red-pill those around them.

Similarly, in a recent article, I stated my support for Musk’s endeavors. My primary reason for supporting Musk was his decision to buy Twitter and make it a functional free speech platform. Beyond the fact I believe this changed the course of history, I saw the changes it created happen in real time and I have no doubt it completely changed the cultural discourse by letting censored topics become widely discussed. Yesterday, he Musk a powerful interview with Joe Rogan that made a very strong case (the details of which I believe many are not aware of) that there’s been a global march towards censorship and that Musk’s actions with Twitter was one of, if not the primary thing that’s stopped it thusfar:

Additionally, at the very end (which essentially summarizes the key points of the interview), Musk concluded by saying his primary motivation was for all of this his children to being able to grow up on Mars—which while somewhat of an eccentric motivation, is much better than what typically drives the super-rich (a never ending desire for more money and power).

Note: another major point V for Vendetta made was that when the dictator rose to power, he cracked down on undesirable minorities (e.g., homosexuals), and then gradually increased the umbrella of who his secret police could target until everyone was living in fear. This is a common tactic used by totalitarian governments and why every person who has survived those regimes emphasizes that is it critical to have a society that does not persecute unpopular minorities. Currently, we are seeing a more obfuscated variant of it being utilized where the DEI mass formation has led to anyone deemed to be “intolerant” or “anti-science” to be publicly punished by the society. However, once you look past the surface, it is the exact same playbook (and hence why I feel it is so reprehensible Biden vocally encouraged the country to target the unvaccinated and incited the medical community to deny essential care the unvaccinated—which in some cases killed them).

A prelude to COVID-19

One of the most fascinating aspects of V for Vendetta was its foreshadowing of COVID-19. For instance in this (4:41) scene, the film explains how an engineered virus was produced and then deployed upon the population so that a fascist government could take power in order “to protect” the populace from the virus:

Since the pandemic started, we’ve seen more and more evidence that (in addition to grabbing power) many of the key players in the pandemic (e.g., Fauci, Hotez and Gates):

•Had the foreknowledge COVID-19 would happen.
•Were directly involved in the risky lab research that created the virus (e.g., by funding it).
•Were directly involved in producing questionable countermeasures for a SARS pandemic prior to 2020.
•Did everything they could to dismiss any links to the lab origin theory (which has now essentially been proven).
•Did everything they could to spread fear of the virus in the national media and censor anyone who threatened their narrative).
•Profited immensely from the pandemic.

Note: I have provided numerous sources to substantiate the all of the above assertions throughout this Substack (the only exception being that I have not found proof Gates funded GoF research).

Despite these shocking parallels, I do not believe that V’s author had the foresight to predict COVID-19 (e.g., I have friends who have worked with the author of the graphic novel the film was based upon and they do not believe Alan Moore had any ties to the Deep State or its English equivalent). Rather, I believe Moore was using a rather common motif (theme).

In one of the most memorable examples, in 2009 the eccentric dictator of Libya utilized his once in a lifetime opportunity to speak before the UN to criticize numerous aspects of the organization which included argue against exactly what transpired a decade later with COVID-19.

There are a variety of conflicting opinions on the dictator himself as beyond being highly eccentric (which is why he would openly discuss topics like the above one), he was responsible for some highly positive and negative things within his own country. The only person I know who directly knew Gaddafi (they worked with him for decades) told that Gaddafi started out as an idealist who wanted to help Libya and then turned quite bitter after numerous people (unsuccessfully) tried to assassinate him.

Note: Shortly after this speech, Gaddafi was disposed of by a U.S. led military intervention initiated my the Clinton led State department. Many within the U.S. government (besides Hillary, who later bragged about it) questioned the wisdom of this policy (e.g., Obama considered it the worst mistake of his presidency as Libya remains decimated over a decade later), while outsiders such as Putin used it to justify their belief that the US could not remain the world’s sole superpower. Because of the controversy of this intervention, many potential motives were raised to explain it. After COVID-19 occurred, I always wondered if this speech played a pivotal role in the events which later took place.

Many others also echoed this motif after observing how the influenza “pandemics” were handled by the America government. Mike Adams for example, less than a year after Gaddafi’s speech made an over the top video satirizing the swine flu response which ended up perfectly predicting everything that happened over a decade later (which is summarized here).

At the same time, I should also note that the filmmakers who adapted V for Vendetta from a graphic novel to a motion picture have also made a variety of other monumentally impactful and prescient cinematic productions. This iconic scene from the Matrix for example speaks to their artistic mastery in the medium of expressive cinematography and utilizing multiple dimensions to convey their themes:

Note: years ago an associate told me that they were sent to a Chicago psychic by a friend, who in turn accurately predicted the life of my (previously skeptical) associate. They specifically recounted this story to me because both the psychic and their house was identical to that of the Oracle in The Matrix, so since the filmmaker’s grew up in Chicago, my associate often wondered if they too had visited her house.

Politics and Medicine

One of the key themes I’ve tried to lay out in this publication is that so many (incredibly impactful) medical policies are not a result of “the best scientific evidence” but rather business interests and politics. As such, you will frequently see absurd and harmful health policies which are backed up by simplistic arguments people angrily repeat ad-nauseam, and likewise that despite the two political parties claiming to be opposed to each other, they always seem to agree on those abhorrent policies.

For instance, almost every single justification for the COVID-19 vaccines was not supported by the existing scientific evidence, yet as each lie was proven to be false (e.g., people who were vaccinated continued to get COVID—often more frequently than the unvaccinated), rather than accept the vaccines were a scam, the goal posts were changed and half the country doubled-down on them.

However, while the political leadership and much of the electorate continued to support these failed products, what was remarkable was that a sizable portion of the electorate did not. This was something I’d previously never seen happen and took as a sign we are in a new populist era where horrible policies can no longer be implemented through mass-propaganda and a complicit politicians from both parties (which is how it’s been for most of my lifetime) and that a window had been created to begin changing the immense dysfunction our country is facing—particularly our addiction to war and a medical system that for decades has put profits before the American people.

For instance, in a recent article, I shared my personal opinions on who Trump was—which I admitted had a certain degree of uncertainty, as while what I’d heard was fairly consistent, those I heard it from were either a close friend who had a friend who knew Trump directly or were from an associate who knew Trump directly. That in turn required me to view the data I received with an inherent degree of uncertainty, as in both cases there were ample opportunity for an inaccurate perception of Trump’s character to be conveyed to me.

In contrast, I have long been a supporter of both Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr., as beyond agreeing with their actions throughout their political career, I have close friends who know each of them directly (in all cases sincerely vouching for their character), and in the instances where I’ve spoken to each of them, my impression of them matched what had been shared with me. In turn, the fact that they’ve been promised a prominent role in a future Trump administration and have risked the reputations they spent their entire careers creating to campaign for Trump weighs quite heavily to me—particularly since they are two of the most vocal champions for the political issues that are the most important to me (war and health).

This recent CNN exchange for example really blew me away as I had never in my lifetime expected to see a presidential administration overtly challenge vaccine safety on national television or endorse the link between vaccines and autism.

Note: similarly, recently on Joe Rogan, Trump’s VP, JD Vance, shared that he (along with other prominent politicians who wished to remain unnamed) had gotten COVID vaccine injuries and that he felt there were serious issues in the FDA and how pharmaceutical companies were allowed to buy out the media that needed to be changed. In contrast, numerous prominent Democrats developed vaccine injuries but nonetheless continued to push the vaccines.

Having worked in the vaccine safety field for years, and over and over seen the immense suffering these products create, I thus feel I have an obligation to inform the readers here that a once in a lifetime opportunity has been created to “Make America Healthy Again,” as for decades, it was something I never imagined could or would happen.

Note: in contrast, the Harris campaign made being up to date on the most recent booster a requirement for working there (despite the fact it’s now clear they both carry serious harms and make you more likely to get COVID). This to me indicates that the medical policies her administration enacts will be as bad or worse than Biden’s.

Conclusion

While there are many aspects of V for Vendetta I appreciate (including many I am not sharing here because they spoil the movie), the specific reason its my favorite movie is because one scene near the end describes how, more and more, I perceive reality.

“The problem is, he knows us better than we know ourselves. That's why I went to [redacted], last night.”

“But that's [not allowed]!”

“I had to see it. There wasn't much left. But when I was there it was strange. I suddenly had this feeling that everything was connected. It's like I could see the whole thing, one long chain of events that stretched all the way back before [redacted]. I felt like I could see everything that happened, and everything that is going to happen. It was like a perfect pattern, laid out in front of me. And I realized we're all part of it, and all trapped by it.”

“So do you know what's gonna happen?”

“No, it was a feeling. But I can guess.”

A key theme I’ve tried to emphasize throughout this publication is that societies follow cyclical patterns, and that as you become more and more aware of them, the past present and future begin to merge together. On one hand, since the darker (forgotten) elements of history have resurfaced, many things most previously considered unthinkable have happened. At the same time however, those actions provoked a rebound in the opposite direction, and created a window to fix a variety of problems I never thought could be improved.

While much more could be said about this, I’ll end it by noting I think it’s quite extraordinary the most consequential election election of our lifetimes is happening on November 5, so I took it as a sign I should publish this article today (the last time a presidential election overlapped with November 5 was in 1996).

Note: my preference is to not write about political subjects, as while politics is intrinsically intertwined with medicine, there’s so much of it out there already, my preference is to prioritize the Forgotten Sides of Medicine. Going forward, if a massive change does indeed happen in our government today, the “political focus” of this newsletter will shift to presenting the policies I believe could significantly improve the health of the United States (e.g., making it possible for doctors to prescribe safe and effective sleeping aids to patients who need them) and finding ways to put measures in place to help those who were devastated by the COVID-19 vaccine campaign.

Finally, I would like to conclude this article but citing one of my favorite lines from V:

Never forget that or that (at least at this moment) we have platforms like Twitter (𝕏) which make it possible to force the government to be accountable to the people.

To learn how other readers have benefitted from this publication and the community it has created, their feedback can be viewed here. Additionally, an index of all the articles published in the Forgotten Side of Medicine can be viewed here.