Op-Ed by Mike Zonta, BB editor

The root meaning of the word pandemic is “all the people.” But the history of that word pandemic leads us directly to its cousin word pandemonium, meaning “all demonic.”

Another term for pandemonium is “mob rule.” It’s democracy (rule of the people) but democracy of the worst sort.

It’s the demonization of each other on a mass scale.

So which came first? Our mutual demonization or the COVID-19 pandemic?

Jon Stewart jokes that “people owe a great debt of gratitude to science for helping ease the suffering of the pandemic, which was more than likely caused by science.”

So that’s the materialistic viewpoint. What is the ontological perspective? What is the perspective from the point of view of consciousness?

Well, consciousness comes first. That’s the point of view of ontology. That’s the point of view of consciousness.

So it was our mutual demonization of each other, in however that may have manifested, that came first.

Then came the pandemic.

And to get through the pandemic, we will need to get through our demonization of each other.