REPUBLIC REBORN

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eMnMj0-148

What in gods name will history have to say about the first half of the year 2020? That the world went insane over a pathogen with a 0.2% mortality rate, and governments panicked, bringing their nations to the bring of total destruction in a vain attempt to stop the spread of a virus?

I predict that the mass panic of 2020 will spawn entirely new fields of study and research. New frontiers in cultural psychology, mass psychology, will appear, and treatises will be penned on every aspect, as scholars rake through the rubble in order to ascertain just what the hell happened.  Few people will care about the virus itself in the coming years; curious minds will want to understand the origin and transmission of such a destructive psychological contagion as engulfed the defenseless psyches of the year 2020.

Was it social media? Cable TV? There have been deadlier-than-average flu seasons in the past, but no mass hysteria.  Individually, I’d say that we are getting smarter as the years go on. But collectively, we appear to be devolving.

Now that lockdowns of entire economies are beginning to lift, there is a feeling that a war is coming to an end. But a war against what? The shameful truth is that it has been a war waged against ourselves. Our government panicked and began firing their weapons wildly, and we were all caught in the crossfire. The homeowner uses dynamite in a vain attempt to kill the fly, which buzzes, still alive, around the wreckage after the smoke clears.

But the fact that most people willingly accepted the abrupt shuttering of their social world with no debate at all, is the most disturbing aspect. The total lockdowns were swift, and unleashed a true Hell on Earth for 30 million Americans. It should not have happened so easily. Future generations must learn the right lessons from this low point in the history of our species. We are not nearly as evolved as we fancy ourselves to be.

Salon owners are forced to wait until May 15th to open, while other businesses have been allowed to open on May 1st.  They rightfully sued the mayor for the completely arbitrary orders.

Walmart is open. Grocery stores are open. Many others are open. If the virus is here, forcing the salons to remain closed will have zero effect on transmission.  The mayor evidently doesn’t comprehend the devastation that her orders have had on her community, and the lawsuit is well-deserved.

From The Hill:

“Apparently @GovWhitmer believes she is a duly elected dictator of a socialist country. The people of Michigan need to stand up to her. Open your businesses. Go to work. The police think she’s crazy too. They are not going to arrest 10,000,000 people for going to work.”

The bulls are on parade at the capitol of the banana republic formerly known as the state of California. The cops are decked out in gear suited for a totalitarian regime, and the optics are revealing. And who are they opposing? Moms, dads, families with their kids, thousands of Americans brandishing American flags and signs demanding their liberty back.

It’s like a scene straight from some Third World dictatorship, yet it’s happening in California.

This is another visceral example of who will be enforcing the orders of “the libs”: not the libs themselves, but the cops. It will always be a cop that shows up to enforce a quarantine, “social distancing”, or a prohibition on church-gathering or beach-going.

The greatest part, though, is the crowd of protesters. “Surfing is not a crime!” reads one sign. The spirit is one of a resurgent liberty movement, galvanized by the buffoons that have revealed themselves to be nothing more than petty, authoritarian buffoons who throw a fit when someone ignores their commandments.

Weird, petty, and counter to everything journalism should stand for. But then again, journalism professors aren’t actually journalists, and shouldn’t pretend to speak for such a vast, decentralized profession.

At this point it’s less about safety and more about who will blindly obey.