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Reset or Renaissance

Life, Liberty, and the Quest for Enlightenment in a Post-Covid World

Paperback
May 2024
9781938685514
More details
  • Publisher
    Portal Books
  • Published
    21st May
  • ISBN 9781938685514
  • Language English
  • Pages 480 pp.
  • Size 7" x 10"
$35.00

Lest we Forget . . .

Reset or Renaissance offers a real-time chronicle of events unfolding during the heated core of the Covid pandemic: the latter half of 2021, shortly after the rollout of the Covid vaccines. The book is no dull factual affair, but an impassioned critical engagement, distinctly literary in style, that offers a broader and deeper understanding of the scientific, sociopolitical, and spiritual dimensions of the Covid moment.

Combining documentary poetics with rigorous analysis of the flood of Covid misinformation, this volume records one American citizen's concerted attempt to make intellectual and moral sense of a tumultuous time that shook the foundations of the world.  

The historic drama surrounding Covid continues to unfold. Daniel Polikoff aims to translate knowledge of the recent past into a vision of the future guided by truth rather than illusion, perspicacity rather than prejudice, and conscience rather than calumny.

“This is the book society has been waiting for—indeed, a masterpiece—and one that really needed to be written. The book provides a unique and invaluable flashback of the Covid pandemic. The author describes salient events in a manner that is both objective and deeply philosophical while providing profound historical and literary background. There is a reasonable chance that this book will succeed in bringing people back together rather than further polarizing them.  First and foremost, let’s hope the author’s wish may be fulfilled: that the insight provided will empower readers to consider which path they may now choose to take—one that leads towards a technocratic, undemocratic, dehumanizing future, or one that tends toward Social Beauty.”

— GEERT VANDEN BOSSCHE, PH.D, Former Senior Ebola Program Manager for GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization)

“Both a readable scientific treatise and a passionate appeal to reason, Daniel Polikoff has assembled a landmark narrative that will stand the test of time.”

— DICK RUSSELL, best-selling author of The Life and Ideas of James Hillman and The Real RFK Jr.

“Expertly guiding us through the substantial amount of scientific evidence, shifting guidelines, and online rhetoric, Daniel Polikoff skillfully weaves together a narrative tapestry depicting the events of the last four years. No matter where you may stand after giving this material open consideration, you will be more empowered to trust your own judgment. This is a rare and precious gift at a most interesting time in our history.”

— DR. MADHAVA SETTY, author of Woke: An Anesthesiologist’s View

C O N T E N T S:

Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction

PART I: THE OPENING SETUP
1. March Snow Storm
2. Setting the Scene for Covid-19: Early (Non-)Treatment
3. Some Pretty Bad Actors: Avenues of Pharmaceutical Influence
4. Deadening Dialogue: Science, Society, and (What?) Freedom of Speech
5. “Safe and Effective”—The Whole Truth, and Nothing But?
6. Newsbreak: A Federal Lawsuit and Data Analyst Jane Doe
7. Dissing Democracy: Power and Misinformation
8. Newsbreak: Holding the Line: Journalists against Covid Censorship
9. Lines of Force: Undermining the Commons
10. Newsbreak: A Journalistic Conflict of Interest? Reuters, Pfizer, and the TNI
11. The Tale of the Untold: Current (Adverse) Events
12. Action Alert: A Letter within a Letter
13. Two Roads

PART II: INCREASING F(R)ICTION
14. A Pandemic of the Unvaccinated?
15. A Colossal Blunder
16. The Ivermectin Angle
17. Newsbreak: “You Are Not a Horse”
18. The Emperor’s (Not-So-) New Clothes
19. The Right Way to Fight Viruses
20. ICU Interlude: In-hospital Mistreatment
21. Newsbreak: A Window on Pandemic Politics
22. Closing Argument: McCullough et al. versus the ACLU

PART III: INFLECTION POINT
23. The President versus We, the People
24. More Scary: In the Belly of the Healthcare Beast
25. The People’s Eyewitness: Deb Conrad and the VAERS Scandal
26. A Dirty, Not-So-Little Secret: America’s Impending Healthcare Crisis
27. Joining the Ranks

PART IV: ENDGAMES
28. Mountains of Power: From Rome to Slab City
29. Abbot of Unreason, Lord of Misrule
30. Losing Strategy
31. Biodynamics versus Vaccine-Distance

PART V: POST-MORTEM
32. Who Will Help Us?
Who Will Help Us?
33. The Matrix
34. Fantasy Football: Pitching the New Normal
35. The Crumbling Wall
36. The Real Anthony Fauci 

PART VI : POSTSCRIPT I
Covid World, August 2023

PART VI I : POSTSCRIPT II
The Kennedy Candidacy and the Anatomy of Pro-Vax Prejudice

PART VI I I : CODA
“Prague” (A Poem)

Notes
Index

Daniel J. Polikoff, PhD

Daniel Joseph Polikoff, PhD, is a poet, translator, and independent scholar. He received his PhD in Comparative Literature from Cornell University and his Diploma in Waldorf Education from Rudolf Steiner College. In addition to work in numerous literary journals and anthologies, he has published two collections of poetry (Dragon Ship and The Hands of Stars) as well as Parzival/Gawain: Two Plays, his edited translation of a dramatic version of the Grail legend. Dr. Polikoff has taught literature in Waldorf schools and shared his passion for Rilke in a wide variety of venues, including the Festival of Archetypal Psychology at Notre Dame (where the idea was born for his book In the Image of Orpheus); the San Francisco Jung Society; and seminars in literary circles. He has also taught at Sonoma State University, California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), and Pacifica Graduate Institute.