Make yourselves sheep, and the wolves will eat you - Benjamin Franklin

Boston University

Iris Kimber

I raised a specific and simple question (post on vaccine hesitancy) to the University (not targeting an individual) as an Alum and Iris Kimber your response is self-evident of the intellectual depth it carries. I am a Mechanical Engineer (graduated Cum Laude) from Boston University itself and it would be safe to say I know a thing or two about critical thinking. In fact, it is the critical thinking that has led me to raise this question. So, I am asking again Boston University to help me understand how and why is this considered a Behavioral Problem? Who made that assessment? And until that could be justified, why is it being shoved down people’s minds under the guise of "Science"? And I would like a Scientific, Professional, Logical answer to my query. LinkedIn is the only social media platform I use, and I am only posting this since I am deeply troubled and saddened by how Academic Institutions and Corporations (topic for another time) across US are meddling and ultimately threatening the very foundations of this country we call #America. I am asking this of BU simply because I care and because Boston University has played a vital role in making me who I am today - I have had a memorable and invaluable experience in my undergraduate program there, which shaped a teenage boy into the man I am today. I do feel Pride – as of now – in being associated with this great institution and would like for that to not turn into Shame.

BU has had an almost 2 centuries of admirable legacy. It’s produced humans the likes of Martin Luther King Jr, and helped the society in numerous ways; you can even say we have telecommunication today because of this institution. And I (unlike the silent majority unfortunately in every scenario, in every era, evident throughout History) cannot simply sit back silently and witness what is going to be (if not recognized and corrected for) the death of that great legacy. Boston University should not turn into a News Agency or a corrupt American Corporation (there’s many, at least ideologically) the likes of #Google et all who are infringing on #American’s #Freedom and starting to take on the role of #Authoritarian regimes. It is a Sacred Academic Institution, and it should remain that – that’s what this university deserves. If the university does feel the need to share its opinion on matters as such, they would be better justified and welcomed from its Philosophy department rather than the Psychology department. The later field is not mature/competent enough – at least yet – to be allowed and/or to be used for influencing Human Thought and Behavior at the scale it is being used/trying to be used for – that is simply Immoral. Neuroscience and Psychology folks should focus and dedicate their lives on/to their fields and try solving the infinite mysteries of their field – we are all, I am for sure, always waiting to find out more about how our brain works. But don’t pretend we know really anything about the Mind, the Being, and therefore, don't use Science as your ideological weapon. I have witnessed firsthand (unlike the researchers who spend most of their time locked away in labs, isolated from the real world that most humans inhabit) the effects of this ideological poisoning in Corporate America – I have had the opportunity to get to work with various Corporations in the US. Academic Institutions are supposed to produce humans to take on the reigns of society, shoulder the burden and move it towards betterment, not eat it from within like termites or complain endlessly.

I sincerely hope there’s enough of the adults with the Wisdom and Courage (needed desperately in society in our times) left at Boston University as well.

Finally, my 2 cents Iris Kimber on the Covid Vaccine topic – and in a tone that you prefer seemingly – all I would like to say to you and specifically to all the Arrogant/Na?ve/Ignorant/Entitled/Complaining/Self-proclaiming Scientific Minded folks out there is that Covid was perhaps the gentlest smack of reality in our faces. We didn't cause it. Unless maybe we can find out more about the Lab in China? But... Remember people were being censored by Social Media Companies to even discuss that. Surprise? Maybe not… depends on your level of “wokeness” I guess. And now it’s a leading theory for Covid’s origin. Nonetheless, it happened, like it happens in life and has happened to people of all the times before us. Watching and observing you all react and continuing to react to it these past 18+ months, let me tell you what I think… If/when the proverbial “shit” really hits the fan (Thought exercise: Imagine what might happen – hopefully it doesn’t – if we are not able to fix the Climate Crisis and it ends up punching us in our faces, or an asteroid hits us, a global famine, global fresh water crisis (very likely and expected by many)), you would, and let me put it in the Scientific lingo that turns you on, “go Extinct”. Society has already done enough, from trillions of dollars in relief payments, to lockdowns, social distancing, putting masks on, to developing and distributing numerous vaccines in record times. Now, there’s enough vaccines out there (plenty of them at least in this richest country on the planet – still the most complaining one) so anyone who feels vulnerable, unsafe and wants to, should go and get themselves the shots. If it still freaks you out, put on a Mask, put on a Spacesuit if you will, bunker down in your basements, we don’t care. Do whatever you gotta do to feel safe. But don’t tell others what to do anymore. Shoulder your own burden now. Suck It Up & Shut Up. Don’t yell at others, dictate how they should live their lives and resort to shaming them if they don’t comply. Don’t think you have everyone fooled with your veil of #Compassion; many can still smell the stench of #Authoritarianism that’s hidden underneath it.

At least in #America, one would have thought we would be free - physically at the very least, I would argue fewer remain free psychologically. No one has the right to force anyone else (physically or psychologically) to get a Covid Vaccine if they don't feel comfortable getting it. And there are plenty of reasons why one might not be comfortable getting it; break through cases; gain of function research - who in their right mind ever signed for it to go through?; mysteries about the lab in China and all those associated with it; absence of long-term data; the speed with which the current vaccines have been produced are a few of them. To their credit (the truly compassionate ones), yes, getting the Covid Vaccine does lower the risk of hospitalization due to severe illness and is something everyone should consider before they make their decision. But, that does not mean it's not a personal choice anymore. Or that you demonize or force people to get the Vaccine. Ultimately, getting the shots is a decision everyone needs to make for themselves. And live with the consequences of that decision - whatever they might be. It's called being an adult. Hopefully the wiser heads would prevail. If not, you don't need to venture too far back into history and can find out for yourselves where these roads - that we seem to be taking - lead to. God help you all.