Former Libertarian Party VP Candidate and mayor of Bellflower, California Art Olivier discusses his brand-new article “The Coronavirus Transformation Ritual.” In it he writes:

“Masks are quite often required during a ritual to help create a new identity. From ‘Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, Volume 11, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, 2004, Ritual, Masks, And Sacrifices’, ‘Ritual is intimately connected with the mask, either in the wearing that hides the true face, or in the adoption of a public face. The mask makes the disengagement from ordinary time and the connection to the ancient and repetitive, which is the heart of ritual, psychologically acceptable. Together, ritual and mask facilitate the apprehension of identity and its connections with paradox by placing the mystery of change outside of life’s ordinary reasonableness into the domain of magic and power. This change and transformation is enacted by the sacrifice of the ritual.’”