Judging by the intrusiveness and reach of the political interventions we have seen over the past 18 months or so, one might infer that the job of public officials is not just to manage public crises, but to guarantee that citizens live flourishing and happy lives, and are protected from every conceivable evil, from “misinformation” to sickness, unemployment, and death.
I agree with your outlook on this thorny problem. Worrisome to see countries like France already extending emergency measures to as far as july next year -- on the basis of what? The easiest thing is to keep the emergency alive (and the sense of anxiety it generates) than to do the slow work of locally focused interventions.
A very well written and insightful piece, thank you. I have been horrified not only by the overarching social engineering that has taken place, but also by the alacrity with which it has spawned an entire army of adherents and acolytes. The moralising busybodies who are appointed health and safety officers, crisis managers, protocol police - all slavishly devoted to dreaming up more and more ridiculous ways to "protect" employees and the populace at large. Telling us where to sit, where to walk, spraying our hands outside every doorway, monitoring masks, wiping down every surface, scheduling us, spreading us out, separating us, berating us. Laminated signs, stickers, barriers, plexi-screens. The prefects and hall-monitors of yesteryear resuscitated to wreak their special brand of torture upon the renegades and recalcitrants. They are salivating over the prospect of mandates and the opportunity to prolong their petty powers. I suspect things aren't quite over yet but hope I'm wrong.
Brilliant. 🙌
I agree with your outlook on this thorny problem. Worrisome to see countries like France already extending emergency measures to as far as july next year -- on the basis of what? The easiest thing is to keep the emergency alive (and the sense of anxiety it generates) than to do the slow work of locally focused interventions.
A very well written and insightful piece, thank you. I have been horrified not only by the overarching social engineering that has taken place, but also by the alacrity with which it has spawned an entire army of adherents and acolytes. The moralising busybodies who are appointed health and safety officers, crisis managers, protocol police - all slavishly devoted to dreaming up more and more ridiculous ways to "protect" employees and the populace at large. Telling us where to sit, where to walk, spraying our hands outside every doorway, monitoring masks, wiping down every surface, scheduling us, spreading us out, separating us, berating us. Laminated signs, stickers, barriers, plexi-screens. The prefects and hall-monitors of yesteryear resuscitated to wreak their special brand of torture upon the renegades and recalcitrants. They are salivating over the prospect of mandates and the opportunity to prolong their petty powers. I suspect things aren't quite over yet but hope I'm wrong.