These casualties, essentially human shields that have been recklessly wasted in a domestic war against a virus, are sacrifices made in vain. It was a war of choice, not of necessity, and their tragedy is forgotten amid the wildly spinning coronavirus news cycle. Of course, the sprawling corporate chain stores are doing just fine, but we never really thought that Walmart would be forced to close with the rest of us.
One interesting aspect of all this, though, is that, as more people emerge from the paranoia-induced fugue state, they’re realizing that they were duped, and now demand to get back to their lives. As these more reasonable individuals see that it is safe to return to normal life, the remaining pool of lockdown loonies grow crazier by default. These holdouts will behave increasingly like a death cult, complete with prophets and their continuously revised Doomsday schedule. In the near future, the Lockdown Until the Second Coming crowd will be treated the same way that society treats all cults: disdain and mockery. But we should learn our lesson from this experience, and understand just how much damage that mass hysteria can accomplish when it infects the minds of those in power.
