AIER’s Jeff Tucker, formerly of the Mises Institute and pristine writer, has penned a great essay comparing society’s reaction to COVID-19 with the reaction to the 1960’s Hong Kong flu that killed over 100,000 U.S. citizens. It was at least as severe if not more so, than the present virus, and yet society did not shut down, and government did not assume total dictatorial power. Tucker points out that Woodstock occurred in the midst of that flu season. Life went on, more or less, in the face of that pandemic. People were careful, but they didn’t lose their minds the way many seem to be doing today.
Something in the way that this new virus is being sold has short-circuited our common sense. Is the propaganda just getting better? I’d say that is definitely a large part of it, combined with social media’s ability to amplify that propaganda. That might even be the whole explanation, that this is just a uniquely successful fear campaign waged for ratings and power, but one in which the fear grew out of control, taking on a life of its own completely independent of the latest propaganda or facts.
Risk is all around us. Death and injury happen could happen at any moment, and do. Just imagine if we had accurate, up-to-date statistics for every single risk we take as we move throughout our lives, beamed at us 24/7. It’s safe to say that it would affect us more than just a little. We’d lose our minds. We’d cower inside our homes, disinfecting constantly, and begging government to protect us. Exactly as we are behaving now in the face of COVID-19.
We can’t cower any longer. This virus is just one risk in a long line that we face every day. And as more evidence emerges that places this virus very low on that list, we must realize that we have to shake ourselves loose from the psychic paralysis that has frozen society. We have to go about our lives, and stop obsessing over risk. It’s an unavoidable fact of life.
There is, however, an enormous risk that poses an existential threat to our lives, the lives of our families, and our future. It’s the overreaction of government. Federal and state government have responded to the virus by unleashing Hell on Earth in the form of 30+ million unemployed, and a civilizational cataclysm the likes of which has never before been seen. Societal pressure cookers like this have existed before throughout history, and the results have always been grim. Dictators, genocides, and ruin lay on the other side. That’s a risk we can’t afford to ignore.
