You're Being Tested

And you failed.

“Two government doctors, not even epidemiologists” — Richard Hatchett and Carter Mecher, who worked for the Bush administration — “hatched the idea [of using government-enforced social distancing] and hoped to try it out on the next virus.” We are in effect, Tucker said, part of a grand social experiment."

'Bah, bah, bah' The Commentator, May 2020.

I'm too lazy to form into a book all the notes and information I've logged since this shut down.

I knew it was going to be clusterfuck of bad ideas and predictable unintended consequences. 

As I've already done, I may look to expand and my thoughts but I found to be one of the more enlightening articles in the press.

It's interesting to note it took 15 years after the Spanish flue ran its course before a vaccine was found. And it's important to note and perhaps remind people, a vaccine isn't a panacea even if it's found.

So it's best we go on with our lives like they did during past scares and pandemics.

But this time we went an extra step in traumatizing people in shutting down the economy. It will with almost certainty go down as one of the great over reactions.

And I've kept a list of names and articles should it come to be understood it was an ill-thought out plan. 

Beyond that, a friend mentioned to me how it finds it really weird how people have been practically begging the government to impose restrictions on them. He likened it to some kind of sadist-masochistic fetish. 'Restrict me!' 

Aside from the obvious fact the vast majority of people applauding the lockdown have contained to work and haven't felt one iota of all the menacing social unintended consequences unleashed. They're Nero playing the violin as Rome burns. They have positioned themselves as the compassionate class saving lives. All this behavior points to how highly pampered and weak we've really become.

Not a shred of independent thought with the information they've displayed. They just parrot, parrot, parrot. They just spit out whatever doctor du jour or medical bureaucrat with some kind of political agenda spews. And I will discuss a couple of them in another post.

It's all 'i WiLL nOT LiVe WIFouT DEY vaCksSHEEN. MAKe DEy VIwiff go BOoM!' 

And 'OMFG HOW STUPID ARE YOU!? TOO FAST! WE NEED COMMON SENSE OPENING UP MEASURES! WEAR MULTIPLE MASKS, STAND EIGHT FEET APART JUST IN CASE, DON'T LOOK AT EACH OTHR, WEAR A VISOR, KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN, CARRY PURELL, DON'T COUGH AND MAKE SURE YOU SNITCH! STUPID RIGHT-WING TRUMPISTAS WHO WANT TO WORK!'

What's been fascinating, moreover, is to watch them scream they 'follow the science' when in reality the experts have been wrong more often than not and not s shred or stick of evidence backs up all these draconian measures. 

It's climate change but for pandemics.

Bad models; bad policies.

Anyway.

Someone I know is prepping and preparing to resume his life as a hair stylist. A good man who follows the law, he's come to realize this is getting ridiculous. He's worried but no longer afraid.

This is what the government has done to people as they slowly wake up to the fact it's not an existential threat.

And the longer politicians play like putzes with their phases, the more likely the create black markets.

People aren't going to tolerate it and will just make arrangements. Think Speakeasys during Prohibition.

During the conversation he made an irreverent comment about it 'just being hair' (and yes I've noticed smug people cowering in their homes make nonsensical comments mocking people wanting hair cuts. You're so brave hiding in your house pretending to be Ann Frank and fooling yourself into thinking you're saving lives. You're one bad Government of Canada cliche ad) but that's when I interjected and said it's actually not.

Having nice hair is part of maintaining strong mental health. People want to feel and look good and it's been a couple of months since they've been properly groomed by a professional. 

I added, it's funny how the government - in utterly absurd arbitrary fashion - closed him down first decrying his profession to be non-essential (but those politicians on TV sure like to look good, eh?) - but suddenly people like him are getting swamped with phone calls. Now they're 'essential' all of a sudden.

There's no such thing as a non-essential/essential worker.

Judging by how people who continued to work through all this, I wonder just who is 'essential'.

I'm proud of people who took the time to begin to question the authorities and all the arbitrary and conflicting course of actions and plans. There are many irrational positions where narratives were flipped to the point of irrational confusion. Did you know that politicians are devising plans to save business and the economy? Even though the most obvious solution is to, you know, FUCKEN OPEN THE ECONOMY. And it won't cost a dime more! Alas, we have to pretend we're doing something to fix something we artificially indued.

In quietly engaging in responsible civil disobedience, you're not potentially killing people. 

You're exercising free will. 

At the very least, we may not have control on to what the fallout (one will be some sort of Great Pandemic Deal like the New Deal by FDR that arguably prolonged the Great Depression. I don't think people quite grasp how close to the imaginary line dividing prosperity and liberty and Venezuela we really came.) of this hysteria will be but we won't have contributed to it. We can take comfort in the fact we didn't succumb to the 'madness of crowds'.

Don't be sheep. 

Be free.

And by saying this, I don't mean go out and be a clown. Observe and respect the wishes and requests of others and even public officials. You can temporarily engage in kabuki theater safely if it means getting stores opened up. It's true we're not out of the woods but we don't need to stop our lives either.