In an attempt to save the capitalist mode of production from its self-inflicted Covid19 Pandemic, politicians, media and many others have grasped at the flimsy straw of vaccination to temporarily keep the system afloat. Despite capitalist inspired exploitation, global warming, extinction of key species and widespread pollution, vaccinations are intended to allow business as usual to return to national and global economic activity. In the advanced countries, the advocates of this narrow-minded self-interested vaccination policy have also seized upon the concepts of selfishness and shame to fling at those who object in various ways to this one-sided, privileged-nations strategy of – vaccinate here first!

Those who refuse – for whatever reason – to be vaccinated against Covid19 are being targeted and accused, by politicians, medical experts, media pundits (and their myopic followers) of selfishness and of putting others at risk. However, as I will demonstrate, they have chosen a form of attack on the un-vaccinated which will rebound upon themselves and expose their own intellectual and moral shortcomings. Not surprisingly, those who are most vocal and vitriolic in their condemnation of the un-vaccinated are invariably members of advanced capitalist countries.

Pro-capitalist intellectual and immoral shortcomings.

A. It is a fact that the advanced countries of Europe and the West have selfishly kept control of the vast majority of the available vaccine resources and the formula for its production. This means the rest of the global human family have little or none. The indigenous national elites have done this in order to double (or triple) vaccinate their own citizens so these already privileged persons can return to holidays and leisure activities. These activities are engaged in for no other reason than the selfish, self satisfaction of the holiday makers and those of the shareholders and owners of profitable, sports, leisure and holiday companies. During a continuing Pandemic, this is both immoral and selfish in my view. But then selfishness is right at the heart of capitalist ‘means’ of production and at the centre of the vaccination programme in Europe and the West. Isn’t it?

B. Whilst, anti-vaxers have been increasingly vilified this summer and autumn for not helping save the capitalist system from its own destructive activities, something incredibly selfish was actually taking place openly. Elite athletes traveled the globe in highly polluting forms of transport for the selfish reason of getting personal ‘gold’ medals/cash prizes and/or reaping vast amounts of personal wealth through prize money and commercial deals. And, vaccinated or not, many will have shed viral loads of Covid to those close by. Other, elite persons had organised trips into space using highly toxic materials and wealth-destroying energy sources to get there. The billionaire class were indulging themselves in the selfish ambitions of being the first non – professional space pioneers. No one complained about these levels of gross selfishness.

C. Leaving aside the question of how these elites gained control of such enormous surplus resources; how selfish is it not to use them for things other than their own personal whims? Particularly when many care home workers and residents along with other health care human beings are in existential crisis. And how many rich people have immorally and illegally dodged tax payments in off shore havens for absolutely selfish reasons? Not one of these jumped up space jockeys or elite sports people spared a thought for our low-paid essential workers or those made homeless or partner-less by the pandemic ‘their’ preferred economic system released and allowed to circulate. Moreover, not one well-paid commentator in the mainstream media – to my knowledge – pointed out these and many other selfish, self-centred actions and activities of the elites in business, finance, sport, entertainment, media, politics and government.

D. But during the summer and autumn the media did frequently repeat the hypocritical mantra against those not vaccinated as being the ones selfishly creating problems for those wanting to get back to ‘normal’. In fact ‘normal’ should be accurately designated as; resource squandering, pollution creating, ecology destroying and poverty creating – ‘business as usual’. I have used the term hypocritical because I strongly suspect that a large number of those desiring their own double vaccination and the forced imposition of it on others is actually driven by their own selfish desires. For many people I guess going on holiday, eating out, clubbing, spectating at concerts and sports events – all without the inconvenience of quarantining, masking, distancing or ensuring adequate ventilation – are the driving concerns of their counterproductive entitlement consciousness and frustration.

E. It seems obvious to me that such irate anti-vax opinions are based largely on emotions and superficially plausible narratives supplied by an elite desperate to point the blame away from themselves and at someone else. Whilst human emotions are inevitable, superficial analysis and sparse or absent evidence are not. That just indicates laziness, reliance on borrowed thinking, and convenient confirmation bias. But I found it interesting and revealing that the self-serving narrative of ‘saving capital’ through vaccination was being repeated by some on the ‘left’ who through unfiltered emotion and clouded intellectual capacity, could no longer see the wood for the trees. Here is just one example;

“If you have relatives, friends, co-workers, and the like who refuse for no good reason to get vaccinated, you should shun them. These people have already caused enough damage. Now, you can bet dollars to donuts, that when a variant is proven to be resistant to any vaccine we have, the anti-vaccine people will claim that this resistance proves they were right all along – despite the fact that they will largely have caused this to happen due to their selfish refusal to get vaccinated.”

This is part of an incredible example of tortured sectarian reasoning. Having immorally advocated the refusal of benefits, insurance, banning vaccination refuser’s from all social activities, arresting them, charging them, fining and jailing them, the above ‘left’ writer suggests these working class victims of the pandemic circumstances are the ones actually causing the damage. For this commentator, it is not the elite, whose system unearthed the virus, spread it along profit strewn just in time supply lines. From this ‘left’ view, it is not the elite who failed to contain it, failed to provide adequate personal protection, and were indifferent to the deaths of essential workers and the weak and vulnerable who caused our problems. Instead the anti-vaxers are targeted as the problem.

F. Yet the unmasked, complacent, double jabbed, careless revelers I have witnessed recently are probably infecting more people than masked, distancing and careful non – vaccinated citizens. If we sensibly ask just who are still putting other people in hospital with Covid 19, the answer is clear: It is those who are breathing Covid19 viral loads out – whether vaccinated or not – and are passing it on to other people.

Finally.

Furthermore according to the above emotionally charged, borrowed thinking ‘left’ analysis, (and many other such establishment opinions) it is not these elites and their system which should be arrested, charged or shunned, but those who have learned from direct and indirect experience not to trust government assurances, or who do not trust pharmaceutical companies eager for profit. Note that in the above left sectarian extract some anti-vaxers will be declared wrong even if they are proved right! How Orwellian is that? Furthermore, vaccination refusal for some says a lot about how untrustworthy governments have become. Many have decided to trust in an invisible God, rather than their visible representatives.

This phenomenon of the ‘left’ becoming authoritarian would be less important if it were not for the fact that the capitalist mode of production is once again in a general and multifaceted existential crisis. So in order to continue their rule, the elite need to divide any potential opposition. This type of left (sic) authoritarianism, is just what the capitalists need.

The last time such an existential crisis occurred (in the 1930’s) then many left-leaning shallow thinkers joined the National Socialist Party (the Nazis) of Germany or like Mussolini deserted the Italian Socialist Party and gravitated to authoritarian Fascism. Historical evidence indicates that so-called ‘socialist authoritarians’ can be every bit as dangerous to humanist based working people as right wing authoritarians. And as Kollibri terre Sonenblume recently wrote;

“Joining the narrow-minded crusade against the unvaccinated……is just water carrying for the capitalist ruling class that is oppressing us all. Don’t do it! (www.counterpunch.org/2021/09/17/blame-the-oligarchs-for-the-covid-crisis )

Roy Ratcliffe (September 2021)

Also see Jim Kavanagh against vaccination passports in the ‘Danger to Society’ at the following link [ http://www.thepolemicist.net/2021/09/danger-to-society-against-vaccine.html ] This is an important contribution to vaccine and vaccine passport issues and is supported by considerable research evidence. RR