RUNNING THE GAUNTLET

• A captive runs the gauntlet between Shawnee warriors.

In days past, before the white European really fucked things up, native tribes in North America and other lands engaged in wars and general violence where prisoners were taken into slavery. Women were taken as breeding stock. In order to grade the quality or fitness of the slave and who takes possession of the best of, the captors forced prisoners to run the gauntlet. The gauntlet had a practical application but it was good for a few laughs after a hard day or fighting and pillaging.

The Jesuit Isaac Joques was subjected to this treatment while a prisoner of the Iroquois in 1641. He described the ordeal in a letter that appears in the book The Jesuit Martyrs of North America: “Before arriving (at the Iroquois Village) we met the young men of the country, in a line armed with sticks…”, and he and his fellow Frenchmen were made to walk slowly past them “for the sake of giving time to anyone who struck us.”

Jesuits turned out to be assholes throughout history so good on the Iroquois.

Before he became a hero of the American Revolution at the battle of Bennington, John Stark was captured by natives and forced to run a gauntlet. Knowing what was about to happen Stark stunned them by grabbing the weapon away from the first person about to strike him and proceeded to attack the warrior with it. The warriors and the chief were so surprised by this that they stopped the gauntlet and adopted him into their tribe. He was later ransomed along with Amos Eastman for $163 and returned home.

A very similar military punishment found in later armies was known as “running the gauntlet”. The condemned soldier was stripped to the waist and had to pass between a double row or alley of cudgeling or switching comrades. A subaltern walked in front of him with a blade to prevent him from running. The condemned might sometimes also be dragged through by a rope around the hands or prodded along by a pursuer. The condemned were often suspected of being less than manly.

It’s very clear that ‘the gauntlet’ was meant to intimidate, shame, or punish anyone that was deemed to be unworthy of respect or signaled out for ‘special treatment’ or segregation. These days populations are being subjected to a different type of gauntlet, one that is branded as a process to keep the masses safe, but the aftereffects of which are far more hurtful or harmful. To keep everyone ‘safe’, people wishing to enter any public place are now coerced or shamed into complying with mandates or measures that may or may not provide the intended protection.

Theses new measures or rituals may include, masking, shielding, temperature checks, the swabbing of nasal, oral or anal cavities, physical distancing, corralling, and isolation. Quite often the entrances are attended by uniformed, non English speaking ‘security’ guards who may or may not help facilitate the ritual.

Recent developments in the international management of a managed crisis require populations to provide proof of having received a medical procedure involving several injections of DNA altering material before they are allowed access to essential or non-essential services. The idea is to coerce more people into taking the procedure so that they might too participate in the new world order. There is now an additional cost to dining out, drinking in bars, eating in fast food restaurants, or attending sporting or theatrical events. There is a good chance that you will die from your excess. People are so desperate to go back to the unsustainable normal of uncontrollable consumerism they will gladly submit. The enslaved will gladly run the gauntlet even if they have the necessary credentials. Their virtue will ease the pain.

They will do anything.

They will do anything to anyone.

The only problem is that there is a significant population that cannot or will not give in to coercion. They may have medical restrictions or religious exemptions that prevent them from taking experimental medical interventions. This population must also attempt to run the gauntlet in degrees depending on how many hits they can stand or depending on how desperate they get to obtain the necessities of life.

Some may choose to not run the gauntlet and to not seek medical care just to avoid the pain and suffering of the gauntlet. Their chances are not good.

Some may need to develop a parallel society or economy among their number just to survive.

They will do anything to survive.

They will do anything to help each other.

‘The Gauntlet’ also used to be a relevant University of Calgary news publication that dealt with campus events, sports and politics. It was traditionally bound by Liberal values and counter culture but has, over the years, morphed into a toxic, and WOKE platform for all manner of depravity. They are now anti history, anti Democracy, pro injection, pro New World Order, pro Marxist, pro pedophile, pro death, pro genocide, pro abortion, pro CRT and oh so progressive. To be critical of The Gauntlet is to run a gauntlet peopled by screeching creatures wielding offense and virtue as their cudgels.