Mass Formation — Yuri Landman
(an 90 page excerpt of my forthcoming graphic novel ‘ Dissident in ‘20–’21)
In 2020-2021 I traveled through Europe, struggling to survive as an artist. During my trips I met many of my friends that are either artists themselves or connected to universities and I noticed some remarkable things.
In The Netherlands there are quiet some prominent University professors in the field of philosophy, psychology and sociology that spoke out against the measurements in an early stage. I got particularly struck by the warning messages of Ira Helsloot, Ad Verbrugge, René ten Bos, Marli Huijer, Damien Denys and most specific Mattias Desmet.
When I explained their ideas I noticed that for most of my friends this information was totally new, but once I told them often a big ‘aha!’ appeared and we quickly agreed. I was surprised no other big thinkers outside NL and BE had brought up what Desmet had noticed. It looks like this the Dutch/Belgian movement is more outspoken than elsewhere.
In late 2021 Desmet’s message finally got picked up after he did some English interviews on YouTube. Eric Clapton mentioned him and the thing exploded after Robert Malone cited him on the Joe Rogan show and it quickly went wrong with incredible strange censorships, framing and big misunderstandings of Desmet’s nuanced and erudite polite warnings. It looks like it made the media fighting back against even stronger, instead of taking a serious look at what is actually said by Desmet.
His first interview with Verbrugge and Marlies Dekkers I regard as the best of all his talks, since Verbrugge adds his insight to the conversation. You can find it with English subtitles on YouTube.
I am currently working on a new graphic novel (300 pages, so still a lot of work to do). But since now is the momentum about the Mass Formation theory, and it still is a pretty unclear phenomenon for most people, I decided to give you a pre-publication of the 90 pages in which I explain it to my sidekick in the comic.
The other 200+ pages are a Rock ‘n Roll comic relief story about my travel journey in Europe during the pandemic. I expect that I can finish it in the end of ’24. The book will be published in Dutch. In case I cannot find an English publisher I will also publish a small run in English by myself (I did this earlier with my graphic novel ‘1991’ that came out last year.) In case you are a publisher, don’t hesitate to approach me. I hope you will enjoy these chapters that give a good view of what the book is about.
I expect some readers will be offended by certain details or words. It is important to understand that I do not claim to have the objective truth. The text is a representation of my (rather strong and pretty alternative) opinion about the moral panic that took place in ‘20-’21. It is totally fine if you have a different position. Respect should be reciprocal in tensed times. I hope we can uphold that level of civilisation.
*Post Scriptum March 2nd 2023:
I made these chapters in 2021. After Desmet became increasingly controversial in the past few monthts I started reading Sighele, Le Bon, Freud, Canetti, Baschwitz and found some aspects in Desmets view that are not mine anymore. I will add an extra chapter to explain how my opinion differs a bit. This hardly affects the story you can read below. The main bulk is still supporting my view. My issues with Desmets view concern his vision on hypnosis, his exaggerated view on contemporary Totalitarianism, the influence of the Enlightment and his strange view on science. This stands mostly next to the information you will find in the comic.
Best, Yuri Landman
Tijdens het lezen viel me ineens op: ik ken dit decor! Pagina 204 t/m 206. Heerenveen. Herenwal en Fok. De pannenkoekenboot van Bil Spekpannenkoek. Die naam hadden we natuurlijk zelf bedacht.
Fantastisch!