Gentleman’s Agreement
Atlanta, GA
December 13, 2021
Much as there’s a nonsensical perception that “unvaccinated” equals “infected” (and vice versa)…as if one can spread Covid even if he doesn’t have it…many people seem to think that if someone opposes vaccine mandates, that person must be unvaccinated – or is, at the very least, “anti-vaxx”.
People have been called hypocrites for denouncing mandates while being vaccinated themselves. That’s like saying that someone can oppose anti-Semitism only if he himself is Jewish.
Earlier this year, that analogy sparked a memory, and prompted an experiment.
My inspiration was the 1947 Best Picture winner, Gentleman’s Agreement. In the manner of many post-war “issue” films…and particularly those by Elia Kazan…the movie was somewhat starched, stilted, and preachy. But it could still evoke strong emotions and powerful thoughts. It starred Gregory Peck as Phil Green, a reporter who posed as a Jew to expose rampant, if sometimes subtle, anti-Semitism in the upper echelons of New York society.
As he divulged his false identity, Green learned the discrimination and exclusion people could experience on behalf of their ancestry or beliefs. Clubs, hotels, restaurants…even his fiancée…discarded him because of who they thought he was, or the creed to which he subscribed.
We like to think such overt exclusion is a remnant of a benighted past. But it’s not. Governments and their crony corporations traffic in it today. And not obliquely, but officially. As dictated policy. And they’re proud of it, at least till the winds shift and the separatist stench pervades their righteous cloaks.
Although often in the opposite direction of earlier years, considerations of race, sex, and “orientation” flow freely thru our enlightened enclaves. And now, a new category has been added.
Apparently, the “unvaccinated” anywhere threaten the “vaccinated” everywhere. Some organizations and entities explicitly deny access to those they consider toxic filth, or vile carriers of foul disease. They will allow “equal” access only to drugged citizens or medicated employees who show their forms, like granting a Jew permission to enter society if only he provides his Baptismal certificate.
In Austria and Germany (of all places), the “unvaccinated” are essentially prohibited from leaving their homes. Spray-painted windows call the clean to boycott dissident businesses. The upper crust, who spent much of the last year being served by those they now confine, stroll the Goldenes Quartier and cheer the exclusion of these poisonous peasants. That’s how their Nazi progenitors treated the Jews. At least for starters.
To stifle such obvious comparisons, advocates for these outrages disparage any attempt to compare them to their exclusionary antecedents in the 1930s.
Much like we weren’t supposed to compare Covid to other viral ailments, we’re now prohibited from equating mandatory masks, compulsory vaccines, house arrest, or quarantine camps (as in Australia) to yellow stars and forced segregation. That’s because the comparisons are too apt.
The analogy is obviously not to the Holocaust itself, which became possible only after yellow stars and exclusionary policies had effectively dehumanized the eventual victims. The current comparisons are to those preceding policies that anesthetized the population, and made the ultimate purge possible.
The Nazis created a “Gesundheitspass”, which translates to our language and time as “Health Passport”, that all citizens of the Reich were expected to carry. Why is that not a fair analogy to current requirements to prove health status to leave your house?
There’s no more scientific basis for considering our modern “unvaccinated” to be uniquely contagious disease vectors than there was to assume mid-century Jews were dirty vermin. But that is how many governments, large corporations, and even close friends are treating those who consider their personal health unsuited to a universal medical mandate.
I saw this caste system coming late last year, but didn’t start my experiment till it began taking shape in the middle of this one. By late July, the Covid “vaccines” had for several months been flowing into eager arms. Till then, the vaccines were voluntary, with some peer pressure but no compulsion.
But in August, the narrative suddenly shifted. Whether to receive the shots had evolved into a morality play. The virus was infecting those who thought they’d protected themselves from it.
Rather than question their shield when arrows pierced it, they castigated skeptics who refused to wear the armor. It suddenly wasn’t enough to take the shot to protect yourself. Echoing earlier idiocy used to impose mask mandates, those who refused an injection were allegedly endangering everyone else.
Till this summer, no one ever had the temerity to ask my “vaccination status” (regarding any disease), or about my medical condition at all. Such personal information was always (and correctly) considered private, and no one else’s business.
But this year that changed. Invitees to large gatherings started asking other potential attendees whether any of them weren’t vaccinated (after proudly proclaiming that they were). Leaving aside the ample evidence that these “vaccines” don’t prohibit spread, I was stunned that anyone would ask such an appalling question.
I wondered what would happen if I gave the “wrong” answer. So, on one occasion, I did. I was fascinated by the initial reaction, and the ensuing response.
First came the shock. After all, I’m an “educated” person with a scientific background and post-graduate degrees, who floats in the same social pond with the enlightened geese who disdain dissent.
Don’t I know that NPR, The New York Times, Dr. Fauci, and everyone at the office recommends these vaccines? Don’t I watch Colbert, trust Pfizer, and follow “the science”?
Then came the condescending insults. If I must attend an event, could I please keep my distance and wear a mask? When I ate, would I mind doing so at another table?
It was fascinating. The most tolerant, “progressive”, and sciency among us seemed most insistent that I be banned from their lunch counter. Soon, they started barring the door. Invitations dried up, eyes were averted, and emails went unanswered. All because people thought I hadn’t taken a drug to protect those of them who had. The paranoia and lack of critical thought was enlightening and bizarre.
As more people became aware of my “status”, the awkwardness intensified. Again, it was in many cases because of preconceived notions and prior assumptions. The people who keep reflexively following orders from bureaucratic “experts” who’ve repeatedly been wrong couldn’t fathom how someone so smart could be acting so dumb.
My experiment told me more than I wanted to know. I anticipated grief from strangers, mild acquaintances, and even my employer. But I expected the benefit of the doubt from those I’ve known (or thought I’d known) for years. I discovered how easily propaganda molds perspective, and how quickly people can turn.
My wife emigrated from the Soviet Union, where phrases like “the Greater Good” would’ve rung a bell. Only at that time it was the collective “People” that subjugated the individual person. Now, “We’re All In This Together”, and woe to those who aren’t.
At some point, even the “vaccinated” will be unvaccinated, and then they will know how it feels. And not just because so many boosters will be required that a monthly subscription will be necessary. But because the compliance cult will eventually find themselves on the “wrong” side of an issue the regime deems essential, and no one will be there to stand up for them. They might then reflect how they treated today’s dissidents, and regret they didn’t resist on their (and, ultimately, their own) behalf.
If nothing else, my little experiment taught me who my real friends are… or aren’t. Fortunately, I’ve found new ones in the fertile soil of silent resistance.
Phil Green explained to those who were suddenly excluding him that “I’m the same man I was yesterday. Same eyes, same nose, same suit.”
So am I. Too bad so many friends, acquaintances, and colleagues aren’t.
Or, regrettably, maybe they are.
JD
