The year 2021 is ending exactly the same way it began: with everyone breathing a sigh of relief that it’s over and hoping that 2022 will be much different. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but relying on the status quo to lift everyone out of the status quo isn’t exactly a winning strategy.

As we all rang in the last new year nearly 365 days ago, all attention was focused on the fact that the prior 10 months had been dominated by worldwide lockdowns and restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The vaccines were meant to be game changers on which governments could rely instead of lockdowns in 2021. Two doses were all each of us needed for a return to normal, they said

While the roll-out was occurring, country after country in the so-called democratic western world hitched a digital identity pass to their vaccination plans. The initial rationale was that those who had the jab wouldn’t spread the virus to others, so digital identity controls could be used to reassure everyone inside a particular venue. Leftists particularly jumped aboard the idea since they apparently love safe spaces.

Except that the safe spaces ultimately leaked as infections broke out inside of them.

So, the narrative shifted to the jab at least preventing serious illness if you do catch COVID in your safe space surrounded by other true believers. Except that everyone seemed to forget that even without the jab, an overwhelming majority of people never got super sick from COVID. There were, however, also some people who didn’t feel so good after taking the jab. Anyone who had such an adverse reaction was promptly denounced as an “anti-vaxxer” — musician Eric Clapton being a prime example when he gladly took the jab but then fell ill and demanded answers.

Except that with the full complicity of government, anyone demanding answers or questioning risk factors so they can weigh personal pros and cons and open a debate with others who may have similar experiences to share, has been marginalized. Attempts to even open a debate have resulted in those deviating from the official narrative being censored across social media platforms and publicly vilified.

The only proof that any thinking person should need of the true effectiveness of government strategies and micro-management is that we’re in exactly the same boat at the end of 2021 as we were at the end of 2020. And now the government-issued QR codes for travel and access to everyday venues under the guise of public health are taking on a life of their own.

In 2022, we’re going to find out if their existence is truly meant to be a time-limited public health measure — or if our governments have leveraged the opportunity to roll out a system that is destined to persist beyond any pressing health-related concerns.

In any case, those who are best off in society as we head into the next year are those who are the most independent — fiscally, geographically, and professionally. Governments have forged ahead with jab mandates that ensure QR code passes for all, even as arguments in favor of their effectiveness grow increasingly questionable. Those who are least effected are those who have managed to reduce their exposure to any such obligations.

Meanwhile, no doubt Afghans who relied on government — both their own and America’s — wish they hadn’t, when President Joe Biden finally did what should have been done years ago and withdrew militarily from the country after 20 years of war. American audiences were also shocked when the end-result of two decades of investment resulted in depressing images of Taliban fighters celebrating as they took over abandoned U.S. military bases in the country. Again, anyone who trusted the longstanding conventional Washington narrative that everything was under control was sorely disappointed.

And at the end of this year, a British high court ordered that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange could be extradited to the U.S. after the Biden administration persisted in seeking his transfer to an American prison. This, despite Yahoo News publishing evidence in September of a CIA plot to kidnap and assassinate him. Although Assange did little that was much different from other media outlets in publishing secrets provided to him by a Pentagon source — much in the same way that former military analyst Daniel Ellsberg provided Pentagon Papers secrets which were published by the New York Times — he faces serious legal jeopardy. All this was occurring as Biden himself hosted a “Summit for Democracy” to defend democratic values, including specifically freedom of the press. Assange’s treatment doesn’t bode well for any bona-fide truth-tellers or free-speech practitioners who may have been relying perhaps a bit too much on the U.S. government to come to their rescue — unless of course they sing Uncle Sam’s tune.

If there’s anything that we should have learned this year, it’s that your own welfare in 2022 depends on you — and all of us — reducing our dependence on those who serve us platitudes about looking out for our best interests.