12. No Mask, No Vax, No Job
Not that they fired me; I walked.
Throughout this 2 years-plus of madness, we here in the anti-Covidian resistance are always hungry for good news from somewhere, anywhere! I’ve noticed a tendency in some articles and comment sections to applaud Japan, land of civilized, peaceful people, for their saner response to the ‘pandemic’.
“The Japanese didn’t buy into this lockdown crap!”
Well, they sort of did. Not the heavy-handed, lock you up and kill your pets Shanghai system, or jackboots and quarantine camps of Australia, but still, enough restrictions to kill businesses, drive the suicide rate up, and create plenty of society-wide despair and madness. Or maybe that’s just me- it’s hard to get a good read on people when you can’t see their face.
“The vaccine isn’t mandatory in Japan.”
That is true. They were explicit about it being voluntary and God bless them for it. If I were back in my home town (Seattle), I’d have to get jabbed to go to work, and my kids would have to get jabbed to go to UW, my alma mater. (Now, so I hear, one of the most super-woke campuses in the country. What a loss for my kids.)
But ask yourself, why were the Japanese spared the iron rod of covid authoritarianism? My short answer: The PTSB (powers that shouldn’t be) knew they didn’t need it. When you have the government, celebrities, doctors, schools, and the still-trusted TV all in sync, you can get your desired behaviour out of the masses.
Throw in the discount ramen upon proof of booster, and you hardly need rules to get compliance.
And today, for all the freedom the Japanese were given to decide for themselves, it’s pretty good and jabbed up, and the masks, the masks! Still ubiquitous.
At work, a combination junior-senior high school, when I finally said “enough” and took off my mask for good, I was told to put it back on. But I didn’t. And I was pretty vocal with the students about the jab. A few months later, after repeatedly being told to shut up, and sick of the masking, I quit. I’m not proud of this; semi-employed now, it all feels more pathetic than heroic. And who knows whether I would have done the same if I had one of my previous, cushy jobs instead of the tough one I had last year. I hope so. It’s so sad to see kids behind the mask. Imagine being an elementary-school teacher and not seeing the face of that little cutie in the picture above, for two years running. In any case, I’m happy with my decision, as it will lead to better things, such as a new, “free school” as they call them here in Japan.
Here is my story in a 16 minute monologue, from my car. bonus: Japanese subtitles! Click the picture.
Japanese girl and robot photo by Andy Kelly on Unsplash. Thank you, Andy.
Thanx for this report on Japan. I respect and congratulate you for the strength and courage. Your kids should be proud of you. Was there in 2019 a few times and for the first time ever and tried getting back there March 20th 2020 just to get out of NY and hopefully get stuck there and not in Elmhurst, Queens, the epicenter of the epicenter of the Rona madness, right next to Corona, Queens, one of 2 NY nabes wit the highest cases (ironic).
Not sure when I can watch the vid as I am never alone as my wife is still working from home. You are and I are much closer than I realized. I refuse to wear the mask and am so under employed that homelessness is an all too real possibility. Quite the fall as the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020 had me earning the most I ever had in my life. As these are the lean months for teaching, I was expecting even greater earnings once the full schedule started back up. Indeed, my schedule was chock full of classes every week day from February. Then covid policy pulled the rug out from under me. I teach…taught at universities, so I did not need to teach masked myself or to masked students, so I thought, as we were all online. Not good but at least not a risk to health.
Then the covid related problems started, or those that existed but were made worse with covid and I too left a job in the middle of the semester. This one was a great paying gig. But I had many more. Those too would unravel. Refusal to follow mask recommendations caused hostile work environments in each place of employment that I was still working for.
Once my one remaining med school started back on campus for the 2023 school year, I was glad. Though something like normal was finally returning. Nope. Masking was required. Masking is still required, 2024/02/11. To the best of my knowledge, I have received not a single compliant in my 18 years at this school. But I have this just finished school year and it was for not wearing a mask in the classroom. It has now been 4 full years since I have seen all faces of my students. I have seen a handful this past school year, but most remained masked. Many wore masks for zoom lessons. Most had their cameras turned off for Zoom lessons. Whatever we were doing, teaching English was not it. Whatever students were doing learning was not it.
This past year back in the classroom was a disaster. Social distancing was to be observed and there were not enough classrooms for the classes in this “open order formation” for you military history buffs, for the rest, every other seat must remain vacant. My class met in a laboratory and often had to straddle various apparatus set up for use or have last minute room changes. Had more cases of absenteeism the first semester than I have in all of my previous 22 years teaching in Japan combined. Had two student out of a class of 7 fail. Never had more than one out of four classes fail in a single year and that was rare. Well, for this school it is rare. Not rare for the senmon gakko.
I think you did right to quit the asylum. But I agree it does not feel heroic, especially as the saving are exhausted.