Albert Einstein: „The problems that exist in the world cannot be solved by the level that created them.“
Thomas Bata: "Every human activity is always reflected in numbers in the end."
***
A fundamental question: The virus is constantly changing and is always one step ahead. Isn't it better to rely on the immune system, which is certainly better prepared to defend the body, than quickly produced and untested vaccines? Vaccination makes sense in the old where the IS is weakened, not in the young where it is at full strength. The damage done by various, opaque and confusing measures causes more material, health and psychological damage than the virus itself. Optimism strengthens the immune system. Fear-mongering and denial weaken it. Smiling is a higher level of intelligence, so let's smile. Smiles and optimism have much more power than vaccines and viruses. Smiling and humor is a kind of much needed courage today. J.Š.
***
Majorities tend to live at the expense of productive minorities through state redistribution. In a majority-rule democracy, therefore, there is a need for politically inviolable rights to freedom - Freedom has a long-term future. People do not want to turn into collectivized ants. People who seek freedom are often in the minority and form a vanguard that must persevere against the shifting coalitions of majorities hostile to freedom for the sake of all.
***
Commentary by Robert Nef in NZZ 10.10.2021
Those who wish to protect freedom from being abolished must be prepared to limit the principle of democracy without abolishing it. Is the principle of majority rule as a collective decision-making procedure permanently compatible with the idea of freedom? Anyone who observes the current reality of the welfare state from a strictly liberal perspective will quickly doubt its compatibility. However, it is part of the nature of many principles that they are not entirely compatible and that they force us to consider when applying them. If, for example, a majority of net recipients can continually outvote a minority of net payers, the effect is to infringe on their liberty and property. Those who wish to avoid this must be prepared to set such limits to the majority principle as will prevent the principle of liberty from being weakened.
Read more...