As IF Times

source: https://time.com/5804555/coronavirus-lockdown-uk/

Now that there is more clarity on the nature and source of the corona virus outbreak, some of the hysterical reactions have died down.  Not everyone of course; like most events these days, entire industries and even Facebook groups have sprung up specifically to continually promulgate the existential disaster which faces mankind…if not today, then certainly soon.   In fact, it’s quite daunting to consider the challenges we face from the simultaneous ravages of both warmer weather and a nasty flu.  It’s hard to know where to throw the tax money first.

While the global warming saga continues to squawk in the background like an annoying child, the recent corona virus outbreak is causing grief to the world at a level greatly more damaging than the bleating of the climate change nutters ever did.  Politicos at all levels decided that the only way to save the few at risk, was to sacrifice the many who weren’t.  I gave an analogy in an earlier piece about bulldozing neighborhoods because someone found a bedbug in their house and this is what we’ve seen on a global scale.

The unfolding global disaster resulting from the hysterical actions of ‘leaders’, is only beginning.  The obvious casualties of job losses, collapsing businesses, mental and social ramifications are evident.  What’s not as evident, but which will surely impact people for generations, are the follow on policies to be dreamt up by ‘leaders’ in order to ameliorate things in the future.  We know what that means; more stupid rules and laws. 

We are still suffering from useless protocols created in the aftermath of 9-11 at the airports by resignedly being searched, felt up and made to walk shoeless through scanning machines.  Who would have thought this could still be happening after almost 20 years?  Not one politician has thought it a good idea to re-visit this program.  An entire industry continues to exist which is frankly, security kabuki.  The frightening thing of course, is that people have not collectively pushed back against this invasion of personal freedoms…. to say nothing about the inconvenience.  This was the precedent for creating policies that sacrificed the many for the few.  The justification is always that tired canard, “well if it only saves one life…”, which is supposed to justify dumb on an industrial scale. 

In the present crisis, we will see the rise of what I’ll refer to as medical McCarthyism.  Everyone is suspected to be a petri dish of death, so the six foot separation protocol will work its way into modern life ( at least for a while, but probably longer than we think ).  In Ottawa recently, the policy makers there decided that having a beer in your own driveway should be discouraged because it can only lead to socializing.  People will be cajoled and pressured socially to accept all kinds of infringements on their personal activities, “for the safety of everyone”.   The Governor of Michigan has freely created edicts to her subjects on their movements, what they are allowed to buy and when, without clear authority in her mandate to do so.  So it’s not surprising that there are those are calling for an 18 month shutdown.  There are always those who want ultimate control over others. 

It’s not a big leap for people to be required to have proof of certification of vaccines in order to be allowed to circulate in society.  Since we are in the 21st century, instead of carrying a piece of paper,  maybe a chip can be implanted….voluntarily of course….at least at first.  Maybe it will become normal to see people standing in a spaced out conga line to go into a supermarket.  Maybe gloves and masks will be so common in everyday life that streets will resemble a society of surgeons and nurses on break. Maybe new squadrons of police officers will be charged with breaking up house parties of more than 6 people upon receiving tips from the snitch neighbors.   While there is never any shortage of people ready to impose new restrictions on people’s lives, the scary part is that the majority of people will acquiesce because they’ve been sold that it’s for their own good.   It’s like chickens urging each other to go with the Colonel. 

Western societies have moved further and further away from personal responsibility and fulfillment and have become increasingly dependent on governments and institutions to provide for their needs.  We’ve allowed experts and their “superior” knowledge to set policies.  The ceding of public policy directives to doctors will be as harmful as was ceding law writing to lawyers.  We’ll never be safe enough and there will always be a disaster lurking in the next series of sneezes.

Science fiction writers often portray the near future as being a dark dystopian and Orwellian world with big brother type controls on an oppressed populace.  Don’t look now, but the future is closer than you think.

source: https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/ezekiel-emanuel-on-finding-vaccine-for-coronavirus-130651498.html

If you didn’t know this man’s background and history, you may at least be inclined to regard his opinions seriously; after all, he is a doctor.  When you find out that Dr. Emanuel was the architect of the spectacularly ill conceived  Obamacare program, then all credibility disappears like a case lot of toilet paper at Costco.

He may actually believe he is acting in support of his hippocratic oath, but the narrowness of his vision and his past support of an impossibly unworkable health plan disqualifies him from ever having a voice in the field of public health care policy.  

He is in the camp of the doomsday set believing that while a vaccine to treat Covid 19 is still at least a year or so away, it’s possible that the US economy should be on full lockdown for 18 months to make sure the virus has genuinely been eradicated.   That he’s even proposing this as a course of action means that he himself may be in need of medical care, probably psychiatric help.  Unfortunately, he is not alone.  It’s now clear that there are numerous heretofore unimpeachable institutions including the WHO and the CDC, that have been wildly wrong in their assessment of the Covid 19 outbreak.  

The sinister consequence of this hysterical panic is not the unfortunate deaths from the outbreak, it’s more so in the tragedies that have been foisted upon an helpless and compliant public.  People can wear masks, they can wear gloves,  they can even wear space suits and they can certainly self sequester as a means of self preservation.  These are all things free people can do to mitigate their exposure.  

But what they can’t do is mitigate circumstances imposed upon them by over reaching government actions in shutting down all economic and social activity. We can’t even know all of the negative consequences of such actions, but I’m certain we’ll see them very shortly.   Suddenly, people are no longer free citizens, instead begging at the favor of the state for some of the most elementary aspects of human activity.  

There have emerged numerous stories of over zealous Barney Fife police action in stopping the activities of people according to the strict letter of newly made up hysterical edicts.  An Orwellian world has appeared overnight as people are scrutinized for not observing enough “social distancing”.  In one case, a man was ticketed for paddleboarding…by himself…in the ocean!  A woman was caught going for a drive….alone in her car; a father handcuffed for playing with his daughter; Overnight, the criminal population explodes!  People are encouraged to snitch on their neighbors for not adhering closely to the new edicts. In France, they’ve banned outdoor exercising!  These are not $25 dollar jaywalking tickets, these are $1000 fines with possible jail time!  By comparison, in some states you’d be fined less for burning down your neighbor’s house. 

The ceding of personal liberties is the true dark consequence of the panic and hysteria that has made most governments into authoritarian regimes.  You can just hear the slightly German accented gatekeeper asking for “your papers please” as you enter a public park.  Taking away civil freedoms is not just a slippery slope, it’s a Six Flags parks amusement ride once every aspect of people’s activities are scrutinized and restricted. 

People can be cajoled in the short term to stay in line for “the public good”, but I suspect only for so long.   I can’t imagine that people will continue so stand six feet apart,  not eat out at restaurants, not go to concerts and ball games, not go to church, nor have weddings, bar mitzvahs, stags, celebrations of life, birthday celebrations, nor farmers markets or just plain walks in the park with their dogs.  As a friend wryly observed, not only can you not smoke in bars, now you can’t even drink in one.

And I think that time is coming sooner than later.  Once people figure out that the alarmists have been allowed too much control over their lives, common sense will prevail and people will adjust and move life back to some kind of normal.  To deny the ability of people to socialize is as much folly as to worry about changing the weather.   People will deny the dystopian world that the alarmists would have us live.