We have now lived in a society in which wearing a mask in response to the Wuhan COVID has been mandated and pervasive. It has been a unique and, what former President Barack Obama might call, a transformative experience for all of us living in the United States. It will be interesting to see what the masking has meant and done to us personally and communally.
Whatever the case, we have not masked in a vacuum. We had a cultural context of masking before the pervasive Wuhan COVID masking.
Remember at the beginning of The Incredibles when the masked “supers” opine on their secret identities? These supers–like so many other heroes of the fictional, if not mythical, crime-fighter genre–wear masks to hide, and thus protect, their secret identities, which are their true identities, to step into the role of crime fighter. They remove the masks to return to their regular lives. Their masks cover the area around their eyes, and there really is no other purpose for such a mask than to protect identity. Interestingly, in a reversal of the mask and true identity, Superman wears no mask, but dons eyeglasses to, however implausibly, hide his identity in the role of Clark Kent. Thus we might conclude that Superman is his true identity, and Clark Kent is the role he steps into to protect it. Generally, though, the crime-fighter eye mask serves no other purpose than to protect secret, true identities.
The Lone Ranger is another crime fighter who masks around his eyes to step into a role and protect his true identity, though it could be argued that the constant role becomes his identity over time. He masks to keep the outlaw Butch Cavendish from realizing that he is the lone Texas Ranger to survive the ambush that Cavendish and his men laid for them, in which the Lone Ranger’s brother and four other Texas Rangers were killed. And so masked, the Lone Ranger sets out to bring Cavendish and his men to justice, and continues his quest for justice beyond that one objective. He is often challenged for wearing a mask in that it is expected that masked men are outlaws.
That expectation indicates a context, a history of understanding that those who wear masks do so to protect their identities while committing crimes. Anonymity would thus provide the “darkness” Jesus said “men loved” “because their deeds were evil” (Jn 3:19).
In order to do that, the anonymity of the mask helps the outlaw dehumanize his victim, and in so doing, dehumanize himself.
And it is true that the outlaws in the Lone Ranger stories do wear masks, but theirs are significantly different from his. They do not mask around their eyes, but pull up their bandanas over their mouths and noses to protect their identities. Unlike the mask around the eyes, this type of mask does have a purpose other than that of hiding identity. I will refer to it as a practical purpose. This practical purpose of the bandana mask pulled up over the mouth and nose is to protect the wearer from breathing in the heavy dust stirred up in the arid West by dust storms, cattle drives, field plowing, grain threshing, etc. So the outlaws employ the mask outside its practical purpose to protect their identities while committing crimes.
And what of the effect of hiding identities, making them “secret” identities, providing anonymity? For the eye-masked crime fighter and the mouth-and-nose-masked outlaw the hiding of identities may allow them to protect those identities so that they can live normal lives in their secret, true identities, by hiding their participation in certain deeds, which can shield them from the consequences of that participation. But, of course, one’s deeds are good, the other’s evil, and that makes all the difference in the consequences. And since the consequences of the outlaw’s masked evil deeds include harming others, the anonymity of the mask is sought to save himself from the responsibility of causing that harm. In order to do that, the anonymity of the mask helps the outlaw dehumanize his victim, and in so doing, dehumanize himself. Masking and dehumanization, let’s keep that in mind.
These uses for masks have been part of our culture for generations now. Our culture has also included practical protective uses of masks by surgeons (whether effective or not), welders, insulators, athletes, people who work in the cold, and others. Masks are also worn in the theater and other realms of entertainment. They are also commonly worn by people at Halloween, Mardi Gras, Carnevale, or at costume parties to temporarily take on artificial identities, and possibly hide true identities. All of these uses of masks are protective, whether of health or identity. And all have something to do with identity and with anonymity, however incidental. They might hide identity, so wearers can project mystery or intrigue or do good, fun, evil, or mischievous deeds with varying degrees of anonymity. Or they might reveal at least part of one’s identity, even when used practically, by indicating one’s profession or avocation, while at the same time possibly creating some degree of anonymity by making it difficult to identify the individual.
I wonder how the COVID mask fits into our cultural experience of masks. Well, for starters, like all the masks considered, the COVID mask is supposed to be protective. That is key. Keep that in mind. We are going to have to come back to that.
It is obvious that the COVID mask is not like the crime fighter’s eye mask. The COVID mask does not cover just the area around the eyes but instead covers the mouth and nose area of the face. The COVID mask is also not used for the sole purpose of protecting one’s true identity. Though the COVID mask can hide identity, we are to believe it is worn for a practical purpose. Ah yes.
Are the wearers then to be compared to bandana-wearing outlaws who wear the mask over their mouth and nose not for its practical purpose but to hide their identity in committing crime?
The COVID mask was recommended, and then imposed, for the practical protective purpose of stopping the spread of Wuhan COVID. But, as was pointed out in “Unmasked Outlaw: Part One,” it is incapable of doing that, though it is capable of causing harm. See the following articles for just a sample of what the evidence reveals about masks: “Is a Mask That Covers the Mouth and Nose Free from Undesirable Side Effects in Everyday Use and Free of Potential Hazards?,” “Masks: The Science & Myths,” “McDonald: Masking Children is Child Abuse,” and the websites for America’s Frontline Doctors, and the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS). And remember Dr. Malone’s article “Mass Formation Psychosis.” And Steve Kirsch addresses the mask matter in his Substack newsletter:
So, the COVID mask is to be worn over the mouth and nose for a practical protective purpose of stopping the virus. But since the COVID mask is not capable of stopping the spread of the virus, the COVID mask is not being used for a practical purpose after all. Hmm, a mask that covers the mouth and nose not being used for its practical purpose: where have we considered that above? Aha! Are the champions of the COVID mask (the maskists) then to be compared to bandana-wearing outlaws who wear the mask over their mouth and nose not for its practical purpose but to hide their identity in committing crime?
Well, no . . . , because the maskists believe that they are wearing the masks to protect themselves and others from the virus . . . even though the masks do not protect them from the virus. OK, so they are wearing the COVID mask for a practical purpose that it is incapable of fulfilling. Because the maskists believe them capable of fulfilling it.
So, that erroneous belief in the efficacy of the COVID mask can explain why the maskists are so adamant about wearing them, and far worse, demanding that all of the rest of us wear them. The erroneous belief in the efficacy of the COVID mask leads to a demand that all be protected by the COVID mask from the Wuhan COVID so feared.
So feared. Fear. Fear is one of the great motivators for the demands for the COVID mask, justified or not. That fear is based in people’s experiences, perceptions, and philosophies of life. Many people have been seriously scared that they or their loved ones might catch the Wuhan COVID and possibly die or be permanently affected by it. And to some degree that fear is justified: some have died or been permanently affected. Still, over ninety-nine percent survive Wuhan COVID, and of those who do not, most have comorbidities. And many more people would likely have survived it had not the Faucists outlawed the most effective early treatments like hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and ivermectin (IVM) as detailed in The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
But I suspect that the majority of those who believe that the COVID mask protects them from the Wuhan COVID deep down inside have some sense or intuition that it cannot possibly do so, just due to the blatant irrationality of the case for its use.
So fear of the Wuhan COVID has played a big role in the demand for masking, but related to fear is faith: what people believe and what they believe in. In my own experience, I could almost take for granted the people I know who would have little fear of the virus and those who would have more, those who would oppose the mask and vaccine mandates and those who would support them. And I have been right as far as I know. In my experience, those who have a deep faith in God and in an eternal life beyond this temporal one, with some exceptions, have little or no fear of the virus, at least considerably less fear than those who do not believe in God and heaven and think this temporal phase of life is all they get. To distinguish we will call them the eternals and the temporals. And that belief in God involves belief in his protection. And it also involves trust in God, accepting that God might not always protect us in the way we might think we ought to be protected. And that trust is based in the acceptance that God has the divine, eternal perspective that places our lives into the whole eternal plan way beyond our capacity to even begin to understand.
That makes sense. It makes sense too that the eternals put less and the temporals put more faith in temporal experts. Accordingly the eternals have tended to be more skeptical of what temporal authorities have told them or imposed upon them than the temporals. And the eternals are more likely to trust their own experience over the advice of the experts whom they do not trust.
Similarly, though there is not a direct correlation between eternals and temporals and conservatives and liberals, conservatives and liberals (progressives, not classical liberals) also generally have different perspectives. Conservatives tend to recognize the fallen nature of man on earth and believe in natural law and unalienable rights and the importance of every human being, from conception to natural death, as an individual made in the image and likeness of God, and the perfectibility of human beings after death in heaven. And conservatives tend to put their faith in God and his laws and the inalienable rights with which he has endowed them. Liberals believe in the perfectibility of humanity, more as a society than as individuals, on earth, through a progression toward perfection, the understanding and realization of which evolve over time rather than being something fixed. Liberals tend to put their faith in an elite expert class of humans (of which they often think themselves a member), running government and institutions, and in their efforts and programs to perfect humanity. Consequently, conservatives prefer small government with personal freedom and responsibility, whereas liberals prefer bigger government and collectivism. Conservatives are skeptical of government, and liberals put faith in government. Conservatives detest, though liberals almost seem to take pride in, government leaders living outside and above, like the dictatorship of the proletariat, the lives they would ascribe to the masses.
And that great motivator fear has a place in all of this? There is good reason to believe that many of those in leadership know, like Dr. Fauci, that the masks are ineffective against the Wuhan COVID. There is just too much evidence, in photos and videos, of them going maskless, apparently without any sign of concern, in public situations in which they demand that others be masked. They do not believe that the virus is dangerous to themselves or others. Yet they exploit the fear of others, for what purpose? Control. And if they are willing to exploit fear for control, they are certainly capable of creating or stoking the fear they wish to exploit.
That is just plain evil.
Fear, exploitation, and control are great weapons in the arsenal of liberals or progressives. And control is also an object in itself. If your goal is the perfectibility of humanity on earth by an elite expert class, then control of those outside that class is essential. The hunger for and the seizing and the exercising of control over the citizens by the liberal Democratic leaders have been manifest, excessive, and all too often, illegal.
And since the COVID masks are ineffective, wearing them, and mandating everyone wear them, really fits into the liberal mindset. As Rush Limbaugh used to say of liberal action: results do not matter; all that matters are their intentions. He would point to Lyndon Johnson’s liberal War on Poverty and assert that after decades of the redistribution of trillions of dollars, the same percentage of people were still in poverty. The liberal response: so what, at least they cared and did something. With help like that, who needs problems? As President Ronald Reagan would say, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’” It does not matter that the “help” does absolutely nothing to correct the problem, but instead makes it even worse. What matters is that it shows that the liberal cares and is doing something about it, and perhaps even more important, everyone can see that he cares and is doing something about it. You know, the well-meaning person who just wants to help by doing things you do not need done, who you just wish would leave you alone. How well the useless COVID mask imposition fits into that.
They do so by losing themselves, behind the masks, within the justified crowd, the herd, the masses, the faceless mob from which untold evil has poured forth throughout human history: “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
And that brings us back to the bandana mask. I believe the COVID mask may be very like the bandana mask used by outlaws. Maskists employ a mask over their mouths and noses, like those worn by outlaws, outside its practical use to protect their identities while committing crimes and harming others within the anonymity that protects themselves from responsibility through dehumanization. Whoa, that’s quite a claim, quite an accusation. Yes it is; so let’s take a look.
The COVID mask better aligns with the bandana mask than the eye mask. It covers the mouth and nose. Covers mouth and nose: Check.
The COVID mask has a practical purpose. That practical purpose, again, is to keep the wearer from spreading large droplets when coughing or sneezing, though, again, its efficacy in doing so is questionable. But that is not the practical purpose for which many if not most wear the mask. They wear the COVID mask because they believe that the practical use of the mask is to keep them from breathing in the virus, as the bandana is worn to keep the wearer from breathing in dust. They also believe the mask can keep people from breathing out the virus beyond their masks. Practical purpose: Check.
But the COVID mask cannot keep in or out the Wuhan COVID virus. That is the reality. There is a substantial portion of the population who accept and want to live by that reality. There are others who will never accept that reality due to irrational adherence to ideology, personality, the “home team,” their “comfort zone,” or possible physical, mental, or spiritual disability, or whatever. But I suspect that the majority of those who believe that the COVID mask protects them from the Wuhan COVID deep down inside have some sense or intuition that it cannot possibly do so, just due to the blatant irrationality of the case for its use. You must wear a mask to walk to your table in a crowded restaurant, but then you can take it off and eat for an hour with others and you are safe. Irrational. You must wear a mask to keep out the virus, but you can smell perfume or smoke or the trash through the mask. Irrational. You must wear a mask to stop the spread of Wuhan COVID, but the leaders who mandate you wear one are regularly photographed not wearing masks in situations in which they require you to wear them. Irrational. You do not wear the mask 24/7 but the times when you do wear it provide all the protection the world needs. Irrational. When the political authorities arbitrarily rescind mask mandates, it is safe for everyone to stop wearing them. Irrational. So even many, if not most, of the maskists who champion the wearing of the COVID mask have more than enough evidence to realize, as those who know the mask is useless do, that the mask is not being used for its practical purpose, like the bandana with the outlaws. Used outside its practical purpose: Check.
So the maskists hide and thereby protect their true identities, like the outlaws, by using a practical mask in an unpractical way to cover their mouths and noses. They also hide and protect their true identities by going along, behind the mask, with that which they know at some level to be irrational, untrue. In that dishonesty that protects their true identity, they use the mask to identify themselves as those who care and the unmasked as those who do not care. And that leads to perhaps the most insidious way in which they hide and protect their true identities. They do so by losing themselves, behind the masks, within the justified crowd, the herd, the masses, the faceless mob from which untold evil has poured forth throughout human history: “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Hide, protect true identities: Check.
And with their true identities protected within the mob, they commit “crimes.” Crimes! What crimes do the maskists commit? Well, the first crime is joining themselves to the big lie of all that the COVID mask represents. That involves lying to themselves, to others, and to God. By joining themselves to that big lie, they participate in forcing those who wish to live by the truth to participate in the lie that gives power to those in whom the maskists put their faith. And by bullying people into irrational unhealthy behavior, they rob others of honesty, mental health, physical health, reputation, freedom, interaction with others, schools and education, businesses and jobs and incomes, normal living that even includes getting sick, and on and on. Committing crimes: Check. Harming others: Check.
In this pervasive irrationality and dishonesty, the COVID mask has come to play different roles for different people. Here are some of those roles listed below.
And the mask of the self-righteous mob provides the anonymity that not only unleashes uncharacteristic viciousness but also tries to obscure the responsibility of the individual causing the harm, though it cannot make the harm any less consequential. Anonymity hiding responsibility: Check.
And that self-righteous anonymity of the maskist mob enables the shirking of responsibility by allowing the maskist to dehumanize his victims, and in so doing, dehumanize himself. All of it is dehumanizing. All of it robs the wearers of the masks and those who demand that they wear them of their humanity, even if all the rest of it were stripped away and all that were left were just the basic acts of erasing individuals and individuality behind the mask and in the mob. Yes, it is dehumanizing, as liberalism and progressivism always are in the end. Remember, totalitarian regimes like the Soviet Union, Communist China, or Nazi Germany do not necessarily need people to believe their lies; they succeed in an especially diabolical way if they can force people to go along with what they know is a lie. In that is achieved a singular affront to and temporary victory against God’s Truth, and the place of created and redeemed humanity within it. Dehumanization: Check.
In this pervasive irrationality and dishonesty, the COVID mask has come to play different roles for different people. Here are some of those roles listed below. And since anonymity and identity are connected to masks, I would encourage all to consider where anonymity and identity fit into each of these various roles. And, especially given that the COVID mask was never effective in preventing the spread of the virus, and that the “experts” knew that, and a lot else, to what degree do harm, responsibility, and dehumanization fit into the mandated, pervasive wearing of nose-and-mouth masks that do not fulfill the purpose for which they were mandated?
Roles of the Wuhan COVID mask:
Shield: Some people actually do believe masks of any description are effective and can stop the spread of Wuhan COVID. Whether this is based on propaganda from Faucists and their servile media and politicians, or obsessive-compulsive disorder, or mass formation psychosis, or misguided compassion, it may well be sincere.
Litmus Test: In this role the mask serves to identify and separate those who will from those who will not comply with arbitrary infringements of their rights and liberties. Furthermore it serves to identify how far each individual will allow those infringements to progress. Such knowledge has long assisted totalitarians in discovering who would prove a useful tool in, or a threat to, their takeovers.
Virtue signal: This feeds the elitism so necessary to the woke-left sheep who flaunt their self-righteous compliance of a kind that has long served as stepping stone for and foundation of tyranny. “The ineffective mask I wear shows that I follow the demigod Fauci and am doing what is best for society, and if you do not do so also, you are the very scum of the earth and deserve whatever the Faucists can do to you, including ostracism; verbal and physical violence; forced injection of an experimental, ineffective, and potentially dangerous vaccine; and incarceration in a concentration camp. As for execution, I’m thinking about it.”
Badge: In this role the mask can promote petty tattler to dangerous informer, and we have fought wars, hot and cold, against regimes that do so. “This mask elevates me to the immediate tyranny I have long desired and deserved, empowering me to surveil my neighbors to identify any who do not obey the unreasoned dictate to wear one, and to accuse them, and to seek and enjoy their punishment.”
Leash: “Even at a distance, I can control other people by just a tug on this leash of accusation: ‘That person is not wearing a mask!’ By doing so, I can have them forced to wear the mask I want them to wear, have their freedom otherwise infringed, or have them removed from my presence, even arrested in some places.”
Cover: “They’re making us wear a mask. I can’t believe it. We can wear a mask all day and no one is going to question it. And from behind this mask I can say things I could not say without it, and do things too, like maybe join in hundreds of BLM and Antifa riots around the country and burn cars and buses and buildings and vandalize and loot and even kill people, and Democrats like Vice President Kamala Harris will even bail me out.”
Talisman: “This mask, however porous, bacteria-ridden, asphyxiating, or misapplied, gives me a supernatural protection against anything that could make me sick and against the unclean (especially of thought) who will not kowtow to Fauci and Big Pharma, corporate medicine, and their partners and minions in the government and media.”
Security blanket: “With this mask on, I know that I am comfy within my cocoon, warm and safe from all the assaults of daily life in a dangerous world.”
Nuisance: “I’ve got a life to live with real concerns like my wife and kids and aging parents. I am not political, not lookin’ for any trouble, have no idea what these clowns who want to dictate how we live are up to at present. I’ve been workin’ hard all day and just want to pick up my groceries and beer, and if I have to put this thing on my face–whether I get a new one out of the box or pull one off the floor of the car where it has been lyin’ for the past six months–I’ll do it, just to keep these yahoos off my back and out of my life. Hey honey, can you grab that mask off the console there, yeah, the one you were just wearin’ to run into the store; the pump won’t read my card, so I need it to go in and pay for the gas.”
Muzzle: “Wearing this mask, except possibly to prevent the spread of large droplets when I am sneezing or coughing, will do nothing to curtail the spread of the Wuhan COVID, and is unhealthy. So, the only reason someone would want me to wear this thing, whether it be national officials or the neighbors who walk into the street to pass me on the sidewalk, is to silence and control me. And that control includes stereotyping, branding, stigmatizing, ostracizing, and criminalizing. Furthermore, besides causing respiratory problems including disease, masks contribute to anxiety, arrested development, distrust, misunderstanding, paranoia, antisocial behavior, mental illness, ultimately to dehumanization: the great generator, employment, and achievement of tyrants.”
Apparently mask mandates are beginning to fall as more and more arrive at where many of us have been since the beginning and thereby pull the rug out from under Democrat Party tyranny. What secret identities will emerge and how much changed from what they were before the masks? How much damage has been done by those who have driven this madness to achieve their diabolical ends? How has the mask contributed to that damage in filling the various roles listed above? What will happen to those whose reaction to the masks, and the vaccines, have identified them as the muzzled? And as the truth becomes better known, how many will recognize how they were manipulated and learn from it so as to reject the manipulators next time around?
© 2022 P. A. Ritzer
Sign and Photo ©P. A. Ritzer 2022
Unmasked Outlaw, Part Two: The Context