Beauteous Maximus: Volume Two, The Economy of Truth

By D. Michael Bertish

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic that began late in 2019, the author worked as a solo hairstylist in the front parlor of an old Victorian house in the Pacific Northwest. This work includes a collection of intimate fictionalized stories that were inspired by hundreds of conversations the author had with his customers about what it was lik

• Language: English
• Publisher: Empowered Whole Being Press
• Release date: Jan 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9798218125783

D. Michael Bertish

D. Michael Bertish is an award-winning author, accomplished fine artist and a professional performance artist. A professional production of his play about survivors of the Holocaust, Adroit Maneuvers, touched audiences in 2018. He lives in Washington State where he advocates for environmental protections and civil rights. He adores history, animals, and gardening.

Book preview

Chapters

Prologue

Cost

Mandates

Whoppers

Lockdown

Unwell

Ides

Beer

David

About the Author

Prologue

The final edits of this volume were completed in mid-November 2022 when the sixth COVID surge caused by the dominant BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants was waning. An additional subvariant, BA.2.75 (dubbed Centaurus) that originated in India, had also been detected in at least ten countries, including the US, Australia, Germany, the UK, and Canada. All three subvariants were the most contagious strains of the entire pandemic to that point. Though the subvariants could evade antibody protections from the vaccines as well as from prior COVID infection, vaccination and boosters were still the strongest protections against severe disease, hospitalization, and death. At the time, daily US cases still surpassed 103,000 and roughly 500 deaths. Many people wondered if yet another COVID surge would hit during the anticipated flu season of the fall and winter.

With the rise of the Omicron subvariants, some cities tried to implement mask mandates again, but the public’s patience with pandemic control measures had already expired. There was a general pandemic free-for-all attitude in the US. Both Pfizer and Moderna filed for emergency use authorization for their respective Omicron-specific boosters without having completed human trials. That was sure to raise the ire of the anti-vaxx brigade. Regardless, the Omicron boosters were authorized by the CDC on September 1, 2022. The US government discontinued the authorization of the original boosters earlier in the summer because they were ineffective against the latest Omicron subvariants. I received notice every few days that several of my clients who were fully vaccinated and boosted with the original formula had become infected. After 2 ½ years of pandemic life, only about 20% of the population kept up with COVID safety measures. I was among the compliant minority and had avoided infection.

At that same time, the CDC repealed restrictive measures that had been in place since the beginning of the pandemic. Focus shifted to living with the threat of the virus and the prevention of severe disease through treatment. Gone were recommendations for social distancing (staying six feet apart from each other), and quarantines for those who had been exposed but showed no signs of infection. Children who were exposed to COVID were no longer required to test regularly to stay in the classroom. CDC guidance maintained COVID testing recommendations for adults with symptoms and exposures, as well as quarantine for five days and masking for ten days for those who tested positive. But those were merely unenforced advisories. A survey from the Annenberg Public Policy Center showed more than half of all Americans were no longer masking indoors, even though 80% of all US counties still reported medium to high levels of COVID transmission. Regardless, nearly half of those surveyed said they had fully returned to their pre-pandemic routines. According to a study by Cedars Sinai Medical Center, over half of those infected with Omicron didn’t know it, which led to rapid viral spread in the community. Only 10% of those who were unaware they were infected had any symptoms, and they merely thought they had a common cold.

On July 23, 2022, two months after another global virus emerged, the World Health Organization declared monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern with more than 16,500 cases reported in 74 countries. Twelve days later, after the US count had more than doubled to 6,600 cases, the Biden administration declared monkeypox a public health emergency after California, New York and Illinois had already done so. By the time I finished writing this book in mid-September of 2022, monkeypox had spread to all 50 US states with more than 23,000 reported cases. There were more than 60,000 cases globally, but only 20 known deaths. When children were first identified with monkeypox in elementary schools in Georgia and California, the virus had already begun to evade immunity from the vaccine.

Concentrated mostly among gay men at the outset, monkeypox (a virus similar to smallpox, but less fatal), produced painful, blistering pustules. The strain from West Africa was transmitted through droplet respiratory particles, physical contact, and the exchange of bodily fluids, including saliva. Infection could also occur by touching items or surfaces shared by an infected individual. Cases were known to be transmitted in large public gatherings like outdoor concerts as well as places like children’s daycare centers. With the fall term fast approaching, colleges warned of further spread of monkeypox when students returned to campus. Health officials in Paris, France confirmed the first case of monkeypox in a family dog 12 days after its owners began to show symptoms. The US was set to appoint a monkeypox coordinator when the first case had already been confirmed in my county. Once again, the epicenter of infection was New York City with more than 1,000 confirmed cases when the US declared the health emergency. There were no mass vaccination campaigns being considered to immunize the public against monkeypox. As happened with AIDS, monkeypox was inaccurately dismissed as a gay plague, and the LGBTQ+ community was stigmatized once again. Some health workers refused to treat gay men who were symptomatic.

Despite the immediate threat, the US response to monkeypox was sluggish. Those who wanted a monkeypox vaccine often couldn’t find it, and those who needed treatment couldn’t locate the antiviral pills. US stockpiles for treatments were not being deployed efficiently. It seemed the lessons from the clumsy national response at the beginning of the COVID pandemic were already being forgotten. During the Spanish Flu pandemic that began in 1918, there were simultaneous outbreaks of smallpox. Though smallpox was eradicated in 1980, epidemiologists warned that monkeypox could mutate and become another deadly pandemic like smallpox.

Along with monkeypox, New York State health officials confirmed the first case of polio in nearly a decade in Rockland County, where there were a significant number of Orthodox Jews who did not vaccinate. Tests conducted by the CDC detected polio virus in wastewater samples taken from five counties in New York State – Rockland County, Orange County, Sullivan County, Nassau County, and New York City. The collected poliovirus samples were shown to be genetically linked, meaning the virus was expanding further into the community. With that news, the Governor of New York declared a state disaster emergency. There was also an outbreak in London, and another among Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem, but it was brought under control. Wastewater samples taken from Israel and Great Britain were compared to those in New York State, and all samples were found to be genetically linked. According to the New York State Health Commissioner, For every one case of paralytic polio identified, hundreds more may be undetected. Seventy-five percent of those infected with polio had no symptoms.

In the summer of 2022, the CDC ranked my county in Washington State as high risk for COVID once again. There were at least ten times the number of reported daily COVID cases in the US in July 2022 than in July 2021 at the onset of the Delta surge. It was impossible to have an accurate case count because home-test results weren’t generally reported to health officials. I knew hundreds of people who’d been infected. By mid-July 2022, the reported global count was more than 562.2 million cases, and more than 6.3 million deaths. At least one out of every six COVID deaths were reported in the US. Because the majority of cases went unreported, health officials believed the actual counts were at least three to four times the reported figures.

Simultaneously, economies around the world suffered the highest rate of inflation in 40 years. International tensions were at a peak with war and the threat of more wars. Various autocratic governments rattled the global psyche with the menace of possible nuclear attacks. Natural disasters were proliferating. Supply chains were failing. National and international politics grew ever more dysfunctional and unstable. A lot of people wondered if the sun would rise in the morning. Planning for the future seemed impossible. Ours was a completely reactive existence, and our reflexes were weakening. One of the phrases I heard from the styling chair most often was, Will this ever be over? People were generally dismayed, disillusioned, demoralized, and depressed. The answers to our many crises seemed unrecognizable.

Once the mask and isolation mandates fell, Americans traveled all around the world without concern for viral spread. Many of my clients who traveled then returned in an infected state. In full denial of the inherent risks, countless people gathered at large weddings that had been previously postponed because of COVID. Those weddings became hot zones of infection.

When it all began, the public abided by strict isolation and containment practices to thwart COVID clusters. By the time this volume went to press, infection was seen by many as a fact of life. Fortunately, many of my clients were grateful for and respected my continued use of COVID safety protocols in the salon. When infected, they knew to stay away until the danger passed. When they returned for salon services, I heard all the grim details of their suffering. The longer the scourge went on, the less shocking pandemic stories seemed to be to those who shared them. The public’s memory didn’t last a season as many people were infected multiple times. The habitual violence that accompanied the COVID years seemed normal as well. With each public tragedy, society’s sense of helplessness increased. Another oft repeated phrase heard from my styling chair was, There’s nothing I can do about any of it.

I sent a text to confirm an upcoming haircut appointment with an elementary school teacher that I’d known for 12 years. I was surprised that he confirmed his haircut from the opposite side of the country while sitting in row D of a Broadway theater in Manhattan. He was there with his wife and their two young children to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. It was their family summer vacation. In a forwarded selfie, he smiled widely inside the theater beside his 7-year-old son. No one in the audience, including the elementary school teacher and his family, was wearing a mask. The production cast members were constantly being swapped out due to infection. The elementary school teacher led his family all over the boroughs of New York City. They rode the subways, ate at restaurants, traveled to the Statue of Liberty by ferry, and attended Fourth of July celebrations at Coney Island where vast crowds of people were jammed together – all while COVID’s 6th wave surged throughout the metro area.

It was just crazy! the elementary school teacher said. You could smell marijuana all over New York, any time of day. None of his family wore masks anywhere they went. When I asked him if he was nervous about being among the infected throngs, he replied, No! We are so done with COVID! He had the strange rumble in his throat that sounded like a brewing chest cold. He said he tested negative, but home-test kits were known to be unreliable with a 15-20% margin of error. Weeks later during a subsequent haircut appointment, he admitted that his entire family was infected with COVID when they returned from New York City, but he didn’t tell me at the time. He was contagious when I saw him for his haircut just a few days after his trip. Luckily, I didn’t catch it from him while I trimmed around his ears. Once again, masks and diligent sanitation proved to be effective preventative measures against infection. Though I did not chide him for putting me at risk, he came to future appointments triple masked.

Another client decided to go on an Alaskan cruise. He was morbidly obese with severe asthma and a chronic heart condition. He returned from the cruise infected with COVID, but his partner did not test positive. Justifying the risk he took, he said, emphatically, COVID is so infectious now, it’s inevitable that everyone will get it. So why stay home? Even with his health complications, he experienced only mild symptoms due to being fully vaccinated and boosted. But I noticed him move slower than usual while complaining of widespread pain and difficulty breathing. He said he felt like he might have a heart attack from the stress of his job.

The obese man explained that, according to what he read, COVID transmission occurred relative to the science of blood transfusions. ‘A’ blood types like mine (the most numerous in the world) were more susceptible to COVID. Type ‘O’ was the least susceptible. Type ‘O’ were universal donors and could, supposedly, infect just about anyone. And it was unlikely a type ‘A’ could infect a type ‘O.’ The obese man was an ‘AB’ and his partner was an ‘O’. I suppose the transfusion metaphor was intended to explain how he managed not to infect his partner. The obese man was kind enough to stay home for ten days until he tested negative three times in a row.

I received a text from a lady client in her late 70s who I’d known for 16 years: Just letting you know that my husband has COVID. I don’t have symptoms yet but can’t get him to isolate or wear a mask. I stay away and wear a mask myself, but that’s the best I can do. Shall we cancel for Thursday and try again when we know I’ve either been sick and recovered or it’s clear I have escaped this round?

It was hard to believe that a man would refuse to protect his vulnerable wife from COVID. It was equally astonishing that she resigned herself to infection rather than staying elsewhere until the danger from her mulish husband had passed. Sorry to hear this news, I texted back to her. Yes, will need to cancel for Thursday. My heart goes out to you. What a difficult spot to be in. I could not understand why she questioned if she should cancel her appointment under those circumstances.

Not to worry, she wrote back, "And this too shall pass."

Another client randomly texted a meme to my cellphone that relieved me of my confusion about questionable human behavior in times of adversity. The meme included the image of a tintype from the late 1800’s of a poker-faced woman in a corseted lace dress. The White woman also had a wild and voluminous afro that looked as if it had been blown about by a hurricane. The caption read: You can’t control everything. Your hair was put on your head to remind you of that.

From the time my hair salon was allowed to reopen in June 2020 after three months of COVID lockdown, until mid-September of 2022, I completed 4,559 salon services. I was blessed to be able to work masked face to masked face with all those clients without experiencing any symptoms of COVID disease. I was fully vaccinated and boosted twice, and ready to take a third booster designed to target the Omicron variant. I had blood tests done to determine that I was COVID-negative, and my bloodstream was awash with COVID antibodies. The blood tests showed the vaccines worked well for me. The only way to avoid COVID was the continual use of masks and social isolation. For that reason, I was always masked anywhere in public. I only went to the grocery store once a week, the post office to pick up my mail, my doctor’s office twice monthly for asthma injections, the pharmacy, and the warehouse for my salon supplies. I did not go to restaurants, public events, or socialize with anyone. The only people I saw were the clients in my styling chair five days per week, and that was more than enough togetherness for me.

The end of the Spanish Flu pandemic in the early 1920s was another reactionary period in American history. The Spanish Flu infected an estimated 500 million people worldwide, about one-third of the global population at the time. There were approximately 50 – 100 million deaths worldwide, including 675,000 in the US. There was no vaccine or treatment available for the Spanish Flu. Another 40 million were killed in in World War I, 70 – 85 million killed in World War II, and 300 million died of smallpox outbreaks through the first half of the 20th century. The world was drowning in grief. Comparatively, at the time of this writing, there were more than 602 million COVID cases reported globally. Because of effective vaccines, there were far fewer deaths from COVID. However, there were more COVID infections and deaths reported in the US than anywhere else the world; more than 94.3 million cases, and more than 1.04 million deaths – numbers that fully eclipsed what happened during the Spanish Flu. Epidemiologists believed the true COVID figures were severely underreported, and they estimated the actual numbers to have been three to four times higher than what was recorded.

When Spanish Flu quarantines ended and masks were angrily flung aside, the working middle class demanded normalcy. This mindset resulted in the election of consecutive conservative Republican Presidents: Calvin Coolidge, Warren G. Harding, and Herbert Hoover. The so-called demand for normalcy brought 5 million Americans into the resurging ranks of the Ku Klux Klan. Dressed in their white hoods and capes, the White supremacists marched in parades by the thousands. They took over state houses and passed legislation. Tens of thousands of them gathered to witness cross burnings. Various state political delegations embraced and supported Klan violence.

Combined with conservative leadership, White supremacy in the 1920s brought anti-immigration policies, eugenics laws, and religious fundamentalism. Intending to keep America White, anti-immigration laws were enthusiastically described as the bulwark against alien blood. Anti-immigration laws prevented Asians from leasing land. Sanctioned by the US Supreme Court in 1927 under Buck v. Bell, eugenics laws condoned forced sterilization of mostly poor, Black women and emboldened Jim Crow era segregation. US Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote that forced sterilization of the unfit or intellectually disabled for the protection and health of the state did not violate the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution. Forced sterilization was allowed in Oregon until the early 1980s.

The swift rise of White Conservatism in the roaring 1920s ended that decade with the Great Depression, the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world. The Great Depression spanned the globe and lasted ten long years. The racist ideologies and economic pressures seen in the 1920s seemed to be repeating again in the 2020s.

A YouTube video, entitled "Cycles of Time" with Gregg Braden was posted in January 2017, three years before the COVID pandemic began. Mr. Braden, an acclaimed author, scientist, and international educator, had been honored as one of the top 100 of the world’s most spiritually influential people for each of the preceding 11 years. In his YouTube video, Braden explained that science recognized three distinct, measurable cycles of global changes in time, any one of which could singularly turn the world upside down: 1) the cycle of climate change, 2) the cycle of economic change, 3) the cycle of human conflict.

I began writing the trilogy Beauteous Maximus during COVID lockdown in March of 2020, long before I knew anything of Braden’s work. When a dear friend sent me a link to his YouTube video six months into the pandemic, I discovered how the events portrayed in my trilogy lent themselves easily to Braden’s analysis of the quantum mechanics of human nature. Therefore, in keeping with the themes of Braden’s three Cycles of Time, "Beauteous Maximus" is written in three corresponding volumes: 1) "The Climate of Truth, 2) The Economy of Truth, and 3) The Spirit of Truth."

Scientists have determined the three powerful Cycles of Time that directly impact human development all repeat at regular, measurable, and predictable intervals. The cycles are measured in relation to the continual shift of Earth’s position in space-time, using the Sun as the fulcrum point for reference. Observed by indigenous tribes for centuries, the shift in the positions of the stars in the night sky were known indicators of the earthly cycles of change. The Earth’s movements include: 1) the precession – the Earth’s wobble on its axis; 2) the eccentricity – the Earth’s uneven, elliptical orbit around the Sun; 3) the obliquity – the oscillating degree of the Earth’s tilt. Each of these dynamics influence the strength of the magnetic exchange between the Earth, the Sun, the Moon, and the human form. The weaker the magnetic exchange between these bodies, the more humanity is prone to aggression and violence. This is a regular, identifiable pattern in space-time. Science has correlated the rise and fall of the greatest conflicts in human history with the repeated peaks and valleys of the long sine waves that define the Cycles of Time.

Braden described the year 2020 as the peak of a rare, massive convergence of the climate, economic, and human conflict cycles. The convergence resulted in the complete melding of Earth’s various cultures, religions, governments, economic platforms and ideologies. It meant the convergence brought an unprecedented amount of chaos with it. Chaos is the crucible of change. In a July 2021 television interview in London, Braden said, The better we know ourselves, the less we fear change in the world, the less we fear one another. He also said that in order to know ourselves, we needed to be honest, truthful, and factual. Truth, therefore, was the path to healing. This was an important idea, given that propaganda, deceit and paranoia are prominent in times of extreme chaos, as happened during the COVID years.

Braden explained how the transformative Cycles of Time always begin with a major seed event that could help humanity overcome the mistakes of the past. In 1958, quantum physicists from Princeton University referred to the seed event as a choice point in our personal and collective lives where the path of history splits in space-time based on the decisions we make. I see that split in space-time as a crossroads.

Physicists have produced mathematical theorems that define the parameters of the choice point, like the way Einstein penciled out his famous theory of relativity. Braden described the choice point as something that occurs that we have a strong emotional response to, that sets into motion a pattern of energy that will repeat on a rhythmic basis, again, and again, and again, until we recognize or possibly choose to change that pattern. Personally, I couldn’t think of anything that triggered a stronger emotional response within me (and within practically everyone else I knew) than the deluge of events that swept over us during the COVID years. However, physicists determined that individuals are usually unaware of the universal forces that make the choice point a life-altering event. Observing how people grew weary of pandemic restrictions, it appeared that COVID energy would repeat until humanity chose a different outcome.

Viktor Frankl (1905-1997) was an Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, philosopher and Holocaust survivor. He was the founder of a school of psychotherapy that described the search for the meaning of life as the primary motivating force for human development. His best-selling autobiography, Man’s Search for Meaning, was based on his experiences in Nazi concentration camps. He challenged that even if one was forced into a concentration camp and faced death, one could still make valued choices. Frankl wrote:

In between stimulus and response, there is a space; in that space lies our power to choose our response; in our response lies our growth and our freedom.

When I contemplated the existence of the seed event or choice point in my life, there wasn’t anything that I wanted more than for the pandemic to end and for global conflict to cease. I wanted peace. I was not alone in the perception that COVID was a collective imperative; it was a prime motivating factor that could change the world, hopefully for the better. On the macrocosmic scale, it appeared that COVID could unify social order as never before, so long as humanity did not succumb to the impetus of conflict that often accompanies the fear of change and mass annihilation. Braden referred to the convergence of the three Cycles of Time in 2020 as a crucial global choice point. He described the potential of this convergence to be the time when the end of hate begins. Remarkably, the chaos of a choice point can inspire humanity to embrace new and better ideas and behaviors, such as the desire to end war.

The Cycles of Time are unstoppable rhythms of existence. They are not the cause of human behavior, but more like a catalyst for evolution. How people respond to those rhythms determines the path history will take, either to repeat the lessons of the past or to progress with higher thought. I saw the choice point revealed in the instructions on just about every bottle of shampoo sold in America. Would humanity choose to lather, rinse, and repeat with the same old, possibly toxic combination of chemicals intended to strip natural oils from the hair like unwanted grease from an engine block? Or would humanity choose a safer, more holistic way to gently cleanse one’s hair with improved or reinvented products that are nontoxic, biodegradable, and hypoallergenic? To me, those were the kinds of questions that defined the health and longevity of economies. Truth is what offers the best value for the money and the most ethical use of resources. Truth is the strongest protection of the people’s wealth.

The German economist Karl Marx (1818-1883), author of The Communist Manifesto, held that societies develop solely through the conflict between the ruling and working classes. Marx postulated the system of Capitalism would simply collapse because it was seen as a an unreliable, volatile, crisis-prone economic model. Conservatives dismissed Marxist ideology as blatantly un-American, usually in reference to movements like Black Lives Matter that sought to address social and racial inequities.

Braden explained how economics is not just about money -- it is also about relationships and how humans work to share and manage Earth’s vital resources that sustain all life. The rhythm of economic cycles is seen to be the same for global economies as it is for small-scale economies within families. Braden acknowledged the work of Nikolai Kondratiev (1882-1938), a Russian economist who was the first to recognize the recurring 66-year cycle of economic change. In the 1930s, the Soviet Union commissioned Kondratiev, to prove (through mathematical analysis based on Marxist theory) that Capitalism would fail, and Communism would dominate the globe. Kondratiev traveled to England, Germany, Canada and the US to study their economies and formulate his analysis. He concluded that Capitalism developed newer and better technologies and experienced rapid economic growth that followed each successive economic crisis. Kondratiev noted those events recurred in Capitalist economies in a regular 12 to 15-year cycle.

Kondratiev saw that economic crisis repeated when society (in concert with the magnetic flux of the Earth, the Sun and the Moon) realized that outdated social constructs caused steep decline and financial instability, and would, therefore, need to be discarded and reworked for prosperity to increase. This sifting process caused the system of Capitalism to reimagine itself every 12 to 15 years to ensure survival. Kondratiev concluded that Capitalism was a sustainable and powerful economic model that would compete with Communist interests. That unfavorable conclusion prompted the Russian government to execute Kondratiev in 1938. However, history showed Kondratiev’s conclusions to be accurate when Capitalism’s system of free market enterprise became the dominant economic model throughout the world, and the US dollar became the leading currency for international trade. The free-market system became synonymous with the American brand of Democracy.

The Russians finally embraced Kondratiev’s theories and restored his academic reputation by translating his collective works into English upon the 100-year anniversary of his birth. Renewed interest in Kondratiev’s economic theories in the late 1970s brought about the English translation of his groundbreaking article, The Long Waves in Economic Life. That seminal work outlined the recurring 66-year economic cycle of change, broken down into four seasons. Two consecutive seasons (Spring and Summer) were shown to experience periods of economic boom followed by two seasons of economic contraction (Autumn and Winter). Known as the Kondratiev Waves, those economic seasons are thought to be driven primarily by social pressures like racism, terrorism, and religious or political intolerance. Accordingly, when social inequities are low and economic opportunities are abundant, technological advances are thought to generate prosperity, as idealized by the American Dream. Conversely, when wealth is not evenly distributed, but is held by select few elitists, it is thought that revolutions occur in rapid succession. The lack of wealth distribution was a primary catalyst for both World Wars I and II.

Citing the theory of Kondratiev Waves, the current 66-year economic cycle began anew in 2015 with the start of the Spring inflationary season. That period was marked by surges in the values of stocks and real estate, steady gains in employment numbers, and steep increases in the cost of goods and services. During that period, the US Federal Reserve increased interest rates to slow inflation. Major world events at that time also included Brexit, the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union after 47 years of membership. Roughly 52% of UK voters chose to withdraw from the European Union, compared to 48% who voted to remain. Those who voted to leave the union tended to have lower incomes, experienced higher unemployment rates, and were less educated. In other words, social inequity drove the choice for revolution. Similar revolutions occurred in Sri Lanka and Hong Kong where financial hardships under COVID lockdowns brought about violent demonstrations and the resignations of each country’s leader.

At the same time, the US Gross Domestic Product (the value of a country’s goods and services used to measure economic health) ground to a halt. China’s stock market plunged 7% in only 29 minutes, after which the government closed all trading for the day. In March 2022, with China’s support of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, China stocks plunged 72%, the biggest wipeout of shareholder wealth worldwide. Protests mounted in China when the government froze funds in several banks to prevent a run on cash withdrawals in the market downturn. Stocks and bonds continued to fall in tandem around the world at a pace not seen in decades. Analysts in the US forecast the potential for investors to lose 50% or more of the value of their investment portfolios and retirement accounts. Those types of wild economic fluctuations were typical of the chaos experienced during the cycles of Kondratiev Waves.

At the time of this writing, the world was about halfway through the inflation cycle and headed toward Kondratiev’s summer season of runaway inflation. Economic pressures would only get worse. It would be a time marked by soaring interest rates, substantial increases in debt, plateaued stock valuations, and excessive building. During the last runaway inflation season that happened in the 1960s and into the 1970s, simple savings accounts earned a whopping 16-18% in interest, compared to a US national average of only .06% in 2022. Also in the 1970s, hefty inflation, high unemployment, record high gas prices, and the shocking cost of the Vietnam War all resulted in weak economic growth in the US, which caused what was termed stagflation. The US stock market crashed under those pressures, which brought about a severe recession that lasted through 1975. All the same economic markers were poised to repeat the escalating economic stressors that began their 66-year cycle around the time I was born. The energies of the 1970s were coming around again. Kondratiev’s economic theory of seasonal waves was right on time again in the pandemic years of the 2020s.

In May 2022, Ben Bernanke, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, suggested the US could experience another period of stagflation caused by the COVID pandemic and the war in Ukraine. At the time of this writing, the US was seeing a replay of the 1970s economy with the highest fuel prices ever recorded in the spring and summer of 2022, along with the highest jumps in the costs of goods and services in more than 75 years at a staggering inflation rate of 9.1%. Failing supply chains and the economic backlash from the Russian invasion of Ukraine were considered the main catalysts of high inflation. Banks warned of a major recession while the number of COVD cases marched upward again in all 50 US states.

The US Government Accountability Office released a 37-page report that outlined how political interference during the Trump years altered, suppressed, and grossly misrepresented scientific findings about COVID and undermined impartiality during the pandemic. The CDC estimated that three out of four children had been infected, along with at least 60 to 75% of all Americans. Of the 14.2 million children infected with COVID through July 2022, nearly 30% of those who were hospitalized had long-lasting symptoms: fatigue, shortness of breath, cough, headache, body aches, fever, inflammation of major organs, inability to walk or exercise, and trouble concentrating at school. With the rise of the Omicron subvariants, the Biden Administration warned of another 100 million COVID cases by the fall/winter of 2022. Even fully vaccinated people were dying, which worried investors and caused the stock market to plunge.

Kondratiev’s seasons of inflation are followed by two consecutive seasons of deflation (fall and winter) when economies contract and investments lose their value. The last disinflation cycle that began in 2000, was dominated in the US by falling house prices and the collapse of the real estate market in 2008, massive numbers of defaults and foreclosures on mortgages, failures of large investment banks and corporations, huge bailouts by the Federal Reserve, the sudden loss of wealth, and the onset of the Great Recession. With the end of the disinflation phase that completed Kondratiev’s 66-year cycle in 2015, the world then entered a new season of inflation. None of the seasonal economic phases are good or bad – they are simply instruments that allow humanity to change the way it thinks and behaves. Knowing this helps to lessen fear in volatile times. The Wisdom of Truth allows us to observe these trends to protect ourselves from adverse impacts. Even with the extreme social, political, and economic volatility of the COVID era, I was able to maintain my business and lifestyle and sidestep severe financial hardship. Sticking with COVID safety protocols was a successful business model, especially at a time when there was a shortage of hairstylists.

It is impossible to be human and to be entirely self-contained. We cannot exist without help from others and without the support of nature and our role in it. To me, a working economy is defined by the presence of everyone else in or around our story. We are all, without question, in the soup together.

Epigenetics, a newly emerging field of science, studies how life experiences (the changes brought about by the cycles of climate, economics, and human conflict) can alter an individual’s biology. These biomarkers are not genetic mutations, but more like chemical adaptions, or tags, that attach to the genetic code of human DNA to alter how specific genes are expressed. I see these biomarkers as living proof of Darwin’s theory of evolution. To that end, I submit that the physiological and/or psychological stress caused by the COVID pandemic could trigger genetic changes that could be passed along to future generations.

In some cases, genetic mutations can be categorized as intergenerational traumas, phenomena that can even impact an unborn fetus for the rest of its life. For example, children born to Holocaust survivors were discovered to have epigenetic markers linked to higher stress hormones. This showed how survivors of the Holocaust passed genetic markers for PTSD to their offspring. In 1980, after 30 years of study, PTSD finally became a medically recognized condition that indicated how the impacts of traumatic events could span decades in a single lifetime. PTSD can disrupt hormones and the immune system and contribute to disease.

Near the end of the American Civil War in 1864, Confederate soldiers experienced horrible conditions in overcrowded prisoner of war camps. Prisoners were confined to a few square feet of space. Death rates among prisoners soared because of poor sanitation. Many of them died of scurvy or diarrhea. When they returned to society after the war, survivors experienced impaired health and shorter lifespans. The children and grandchildren later born to those surviving Confederate soldiers suffered mortality rates that were 11% higher than the rest of the population. The epigenetic markers that developed because of the experiences in the prisoner of war camps were shown to have been passed down through the male line in the affected Confederate families. Research showed that children born to parents who experienced war or famine were known to have higher levels of cholesterol and triglycerides, and suffered higher rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and schizophrenia.

Epigenetic markers can also be attributed to qualified case studies regarding organ transplant procedures. Post-operative recipients of organ transplants were known to switch to the organ donors’ lifestyle preferences without prior knowledge or exposure to the donor’s habits. There are documented cases where transplant recipients, who were dedicated vegetarians before surgery, suddenly craved beef after transplantation because the organ donor was a carnivore. Likewise, the transplant recipient could, without instruction or prior skill, suddenly converse in a foreign language as if the donor’s fluency in a foreign tongue was absorbed through the transplant process. Other cases show transplant recipients who could play a piano concerto having never rehearsed or known how to read or play music prior to transplant surgery -- the organ donor was an accomplished musician.

One amazing case study involved an eight-year-old girl who received the heart from a ten-year-old girl. The organ donor was murdered. After the successful heart transplant surgery, the recipient of the heart began to have frightening, recurring nightmares about the donor’s murder. Through these nightmares, the recipient of the heart recalled the identity of the murderer, how the murder occurred, and even what the perpetrator said to the victim as he was killing her. With the help of doctors and therapists, the eight-year-old girl conveyed clues of the crime to the police, who were then able to apprehend the killer. That case showed how the memory of a violent murder was literally stored within the genetic code of heart muscle cells.

The primary response to trauma is known as fight or flight syndrome. During a traumatic event, the autonomic nervous system triggers a burst of energy so the body can react to danger. The heart rate and blood pressure soars, breathing is labored, tremors can occur, and the pupils dilate. During this time, memory is affected, and the body may not recognize pain. In some cases, the fear center of the brain is so overwhelmed that the body freezes in a detached state where self-awareness and compassion are lost. However, in all that turmoil, an epigenetic record of the trauma is somehow recorded within the cells of the body.

Extreme paranoia can result when an individual is stuck in the autonomic fight or flight sequence. A trauma victim can become trapped in a feedback loop that replays the memory of the traumatic event. An estimated 70% of all adults in the US have experienced some form of trauma: dealing with serious illness, the death of a loved one, rape, war, breakups of close relationships, getting fired from a job. Even moving one’s household can be a traumatic event. PTSD occurs when the sufferer is unable to resolve the sense of trauma on their own. The treatment of PTSD includes therapies aimed to rebalance the victim’s brain chemistry and the subtle release of emotional stress that is held within the body.

In my work as a hairstylist, I realized that just about everyone I encountered was walking around with all kinds of psychological and physiological stress caused by the COVID pandemic. Many of my clients developed COVID-related PTSD. While sitting in my styling chair, they frequently relayed the story of their personal traumas as I worked on their hair. Longer sessions involving chemical treatments tended to be the most intense because there was more time for clients to delve into the intimate details, whether I