If the Great Lockdown served to suspend society, the Great Lockout will become the proposed lifting of this suspension. Put another way, lockdowns were meant to push people out and away from a frozen society; lockouts will seek to thaw society and pull people back in. But this pull factor will come with conditions, and it is through these conditions that the Establishment will not only maintain its iron grip of control, but increase it.
At the present time it appears magical medical juice will be the linchpin that keeps the totalitarian wheel spinning. Yes, the world can be your oyster again, but only if you take the magical medical juice and adhere to all the complex and intrusive bureaucratic and surveillance mechanisms installed to support it. Do that you, and the Establishment will ensure you are "locked into" the System.
Don't want the magical medical juice? No problem, but refusal will guarantee you are "locked out" of the system. You can then proceed to live the isolated and solitary life of a clam.
Unfortunately, in the eleven months since I recorded my original speculations on the topic, the lockout policy has been implemented or is in the process of being implemented all over the world. And now it even has reached me.
Though nothing has been made official yet, it very much appears that both of my places of employment are quickly shifting toward no peck-no job lockout policies, which means I stand to lose both of my current positions if I refuse to comply with the peck.
Since I anticipated such developments well in advance, I was not blindsided by the prospect of being effectively locked out of both of my jobs. And since I understand that these lockout tactics are driven by the global totalitarian diktat of "none are safe until all are safe", under the guise of which all sorts of manipulation has been and will be employed to get people into "thinking, feeling, and ultimately doing" the peck, I have had plenty of time to mentally and spiritually prepare for the possibility of losing my current jobs. All of this has made it much easier to face the challenges confronting me.
At the same time, I would be dishonest if I said that these challenges were easy.
One thing that has helped me maintain perspective is my understanding that most of what we have experienced over the past nineteen months or so can be categorized under what I refer to as "demonic pressure."
Demonic pressure relies primarily on coercion, manipulation, and exploitation - the unholy trinity of sin and damnation. Coercion could be defined as having no choice or no acceptable choice. Manipulation involves steering, persuading, and influencing choice, while exploitation centers around making use of people's vulnerabilities to achieve certain demonic aims and objectives. The tactics driving the lockout employ all three segments of the unholy trinity.
Let's start with coercion. Most people in the world have bills to play and mouths to feed, which means they don't really have a choice or, at the very least, they don't really have an acceptable choice when they are confronted with the "peck or job" ultimatum. Now many would say such people should never had put themselves in situations in which they could be left choice-less. Although I am apt to agree in a general sense, I find judgments like that to be flippant and besides the point, mostly because they deflect from the pure malevolence of the situation itself.
Demonic manipulations tend to target emotions, reason, and values through outright deception, incessant pressuring, or the utilization of character weaknesses and emotional susceptibility. These can take many forms, but in lockout tactics they tend to concentrate around notions of fear - how will I live if I lose my job/career?; prudence - well, I have to keep working because I need to survive; and pride - I worked too hard and too long to give this up now over something like the peck.
Once again, I don't think being overly critical of those who give into such manipulations addresses any greater issue provided that those who do succumb to these manipulations understand that they have in fact been demonically-manipulated, acknowledge the reason(s) why, and repent the fact. Those who succumb to the manipulation but are utterly oblivious to or in willful denial of the demonic powers behind the pressure are another matter entirely.
Lastly, exploitation is the most insidious form of demonic pressure when it comes to the lockout because it employs an individual's vulnerabilities to achieve demonic ends. An arrogant and egotistical university professor or middle manager who identifies so deeply with his or her station in life that he or she finds it unthinkable to even consider giving up a career over something like the peck or, worse, convinces himself or herself that the peck is a good thing, is a prime target for demonic exploitation.
What makes the unholy trinity of coercion, manipulation, and exploitation interesting in connection to the lockout is that all three concepts relate directly to the value of freedom; more specifically, spiritual freedom. At the most basic level, freedom can be regarded as the independence of one's choices from external factors and the will of others. At the spiritual level, freedom is the alignment of one's independent choices with the independent choices of God.
The effects of demonic pressure are certainly tangible when it comes to the non-independent choices or "dependent" choices people are making when faced with lockout tactics, but the true goal of this demonic pressure is spiritual in nature - meaning that the spiritual implications of the choices themselves both imbue and supersede all material considerations and ramifications.
Those who succumb to the demonic pressure of the lockout should sincerely acknowledge their circumstances and repent knowing full well that such acknowledgement and repentance will keep them on the side of God and Creation regardless of the "choices" they made. In this sense, they may have lost the battle of independence of choice from external factors and the will of others, but they have not lost the war as long as their independent spiritual choices align with God and Creation.
Those who are able to resist the material implications of the lockout may still have some skin in the game when it comes to independent choice against external factors and the will of others, but they must ensure their spiritual choices remain aligned with God. A "free" individual who successfully resists the material pressure exuded by demons but loses his or her alignment with God in the process is in a far worse position than an individual who succumbs to material demonic pressure but keeps their spiritual orientation and alignment intact.
As of now, I remain among those who are able to resist on both fronts. The unholy trinity has no material sway over me in this regard. I can walk away from both of my jobs secure and comfortable in the knowledge that I can resist the material pressure for a while. Having said that, I know full well that employment is not the only material weapon the demons can wield in their lockout campaign.
Regardless of what may or may not come, the only thing that matters to me at this point is that I remain on the side of God and Creation.
In the meantime, the adventure continues. And what an adventure it is turning out to be!