It Isn't Really About Vaccinations

What does the controversy about vaccination teach us about civilization, religion and politics, and the effectiveness of legalism as a way to order society? We share our own decisions about vaccination, share briefly our advice to others who want to be healthy and ethical, but ultimately focus on whether one can be a part of the system without obeying the mandates of the system. What about civilization leads to pandemics in the first place? Is there another way of conceiving society that might bypass the current jam we’re in as humans globally? It’s not about vaccinations, it’s about the price of civilization.

Stuff We Mention and Additional Resources

• You can learn more about pre-Columbian North America and the population catastrophe that followed see: Charles Mann, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus

• PETA and vegan concerns regarding vaccine ethics

• The Trolly: An Ethical Thought Experiment

• The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod on COVID-19 and Vaccination

• Rush, “Free Will”

• The debunked research connecting Autism and vaccines

• Tao Te Ching chapter 80

• Article XVI of the Augsburg Confession

• John Huss

• Luther on the violent suppression of violent peasant rebels

• Evangelical science denial

• Thomas Malthus

• Jeff’s Halloween Poem about Existential Dread