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QOTD: Their Dream, Our Nightmare
My political opinions lean more and more to Anarchy (philosophically understood, meaning abolition of control not whiskered men with bombs) … The most improper job of any man … is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.
J. R. R. Tolkien, in a letter to his son Christopher Tolkien (29 November 1943)
While looking for a quote to describe the spiraling madness of the recent lockdowns, I noticed something interesting. The classical view of tyranny was the ruler unbound by laws and higher authority. (“Between a tyrant and a prince there is this single or chief difference, that the latter obeys the law and rules the people by its dictates, accounting himself as but their servant.” John of Salisbury in the 12th century) The noble king, worthy of obedience, serves God and obeys the law. The tyrant acknowledges no power above himself. We sometimes see this in the current crisis – witness Chicago’s mayor getting a haircut during the lockdown, or Gov. Beshear persecuting the Church and violating the constitution – but the problem here is something different.
While taking the train to visit family, I noticed the well-labeled, clearly-marked emergency brake handles. Next to each of them were signs indicating the legal liability for using them improperly. It is just as vital that the capability is there as it is vital that it should never be used lightly, for fear of the consequences. There are plenty of similar cases, including ejection seat handles, fire alarms, and the nuclear football. Similarly, we have some powers in our society that are labeled “IN CASE OF EMERGENCY BREAK GLASS”, and it is important to have them. If America was faced with an invasion, an ongoing actual natural catastrophe, or something else horrifying, we can temporarily engage the emergency measures, even though we know it will have its own risk and costs. That is how most people understand these powers, but not everyone.
What some people see here is not a disaster, but an opportunity. They sprinted to hit the big red button as soon as they had the opportunity. For these evil, horrible people, this epidemic nightmare is their dream come true.
It’s understandable, really. Everyone desires power of some sort. However, those who are not humble enough to know their own limitations are usually constrained by the knowledge that no one will tolerate this for long. Eventually, people will turn against their fantasy of absolute power brought to life. But these lockdown addicts apparently believe they can get away with it, or are having too fun getting their oppression on. They need to be reminded – if this use of power is not justified and directly related to the crisis, as our editor says, it undermines the very foundation of government.
Remember this on Election Day, if not sooner, and begin preparing tar, feathers, and a rail.
Published in Group Writing
I am fortunate that I do not work with any Karens, or lockdown fetishists. While I support lockdowns, it needs to lift as soon as it is practical and safe to do so, and it should be as un-restrictive as possible. Anything else needs to get smacked down, quick and hard.
I feel like telling them that we should issue every legally valid American citizen a firearm, and start smacking Antifa / hippie / SJW types with wooden paddles to stop coronavirus. Sure, it is unlikely to have an impact on the epidemic, but neither will closing parks, banning the sale of seeds, or busting surfers…
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This is why any executive who invokes emergency powers should be required to stand down at the next election and return to private life. We can honor them and give them their pensions, but it’s not healthy to have people in these positions who have had the experience of exercising arbitrary power. The habits cannot be unlearned.
Wooden paddles? Why go easy on them?
Louisville Sluggers embedded with nails . . .
Omega, Great Post.
The question is what can we do?
Trump has apparently punted on the issue for now. There are those that say that the Governors do not have the power to enforce these lockdowns. Tell that to those who have been ticketed or arrested. Here in LA we are encouraged to rat out our neighbor for noncompliance just like in the good ol’ Soviet Union.
The Left has a very sophisticated marketing approach to these lockdowns. They will say they are in the process of investigating how we can open up the economy but somehow never seem to achieve any serious improvement in the situation. That have set guidelines when a full opening will come but these guidelines are arguably unreachable so that full opening will always be a subjective decision by the Psycho Commie Dems when they are good and ready. Funny how that is. Anyone protesting is just going to get buried in the minutia of it all , juiced stats on how bad it is, and a mind numbing explanation of why this or that can’t be done. Meanwhile delays will mount and people’s lives will be ruined.
The guidelines for lifting the restrictions have goals like “low and adequate”. These have different meanings to different people and none is not realistic. Those that lift the restrictions are going to have to face the fact that the cases will continue and they will be blamed for them. Trump would be wise to let the governors do that.
Of course the numbers will and have gone down and there will be a lot of governors in line to take credit for saving lives. We will never know if that is true.
If anarchy leads to serious problems it can be corrected. In contrast centralized power just grows and so far, it doesn’t retreat. We too often act as if it’s just back and forth centered on some notion of freedom and adjustment. It’s not an accident that we were unique and it’s not an accident that the drift away from freedom accelerates. It has to do with size and centralization, nothing else.
I’ve come to the conclusion that there should be a rule that states the moment someone enters a political race voluntarily they are automatically disqualified from the race on the grounds that they want the job.