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Government Suppression to Reshape America
I don’t know exactly when it happened, but there was a point between the national lockdown and the first wave of unemployment numbers when the COVID-19 pandemic stopped being about the virus and became about fundamentally reshaping America.
Policymakers have taken advantage of a time of vulnerability to offer safety in exchange for our individual liberty, all in the name of “public health.” Harnessing this pandemic-induced fear is the perfect opportunity to reshape American life and create a “new normal” in which the state is the final arbiter of truth and we the people must abide by their new rules.
Bureaucrats and the governing class see a citizenry captive at home, watching the news 24/7. In between sewing masks and waiting for Amazon packages, their eyes are bugged out on death-toll tickers prominently displayed alongside somber-faced reporters now warning of second-wave outbreaks. The #OpenAmerica rallies are colored as mobs of people who put their “selfish” desire to work and feeding their families ahead of the lives of their neighbors.
Our emotions are manipulated as already overstressed families are inundated with stories of infections and death rates, while the historically long lines at food banks are barely mentioned. Concealing information, including the distorted models used by government officials, is a useful tool to prevent people from making informed decisions about their own lives.
The buzz-phrase governors and unelected policymakers and advisors use to justify their actions are exercising an “abundance of caution.” It’s Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s defense against anyone questioning his stay-at-home policy. It sounds like he’s working to protect people, but it’s too vague to pin him on any of his specific policy decisions. I think he found it in A Pantywaist’s Guide to Governing.
Public service announcements are reminding us we shouldn’t let our guard down. The Corona Killer is right around the corner and it will take a united community to defeat this enemy at all costs. For the good of all! It strikes me as eerily close to the slogans delivered to the people of Oceania in George Orwell’s novel 1984.
People in New York City are encouraged to report anyone not abiding by the (police) state to the tattle-line. Even here in little Bloomington, MN, the city established a Park Response Team (PRT). People are encouraged to call the message line if they see “activity in your neighborhood park that you believe is not consistent with CDC guidelines for social distancing.” If offenders fail to comply, the PRT will contact the Bloomington Police Department. This warning was even prominently displayed at my neighborhood dog park.
City of San Clemente, CA, fills skate park with 37 tons of sand.
What’s even worse about leveraging fear to turn people against each other, is the political class who seize this opportunity to fundamentally change our way of life. We should be skeptical of anyone who implements policies for our own good. How can someone in Washington, DC, know what’s best for me in Minnesota, or Bob in Montana, or Greg in Arkansas? As the author and sociologist Frank Furedi explains in his book, Why Borders Matter, men and women in power will expand their power in order to ensure control.
They insist the only path to safety is to accept the mantra of TINA – There Is No Alternative. This shuts down any discussion or debate. Just like the kid who is expelled for eating his Pop-Tart in the shape of a gun, officials are instituting nonsensical “zero-tolerance” policies to counter any dissent. A skate park in San Clemente, CA, was filled with sand to prevent kids from using it against state orders. Anyone who dares question authority is deemed a pariah or heretic in the religion of science. We’ve seen this used for decades as it applies to climate change. Now we are seeing it in the escalating war on private- and home-schooling.
Skepticism is treated as a problem to be dealt with and is often met with an excuse to crack down on any dissent. This may work in places such as China or North Korea, where fear of the government keeps the people enslaved. It is our duty to voice skepticism in matters of government overreach. This is the lifeblood of our republic. We have to resist the imposition of a new normal: conformity by dehumanizing – in which human contact is a sin, masks are used to cover our emotions, and our social gatherings are a criminal act.
For enforcers, individualism is a fire that must be extinguished because it hinders the dogma “for the good of the community” and leads to an unaccountable state. Once a freedom is taken away, nothing short of revolution will be necessary to get it back. It’s been almost 20 years since 9/11. Does it really make us any safer to take our shoes off before boarding a flight at the airport? Yet we have accepted it as the new normal. Now imagine police drones making sure we all keep our requisite six-foot personal space zones.
If we don’t take action to hold our government accountable to the people, we risk losing our liberties. Mission creep is a term often used to describe a gradual or incremental expansion of (usually military) an end goal beyond its initial point of action. It’s commonly used to describe military missions or campaigns, but it’s applicable to civilian endeavors. Take the March of Dimes. The organization was originally founded in 1938 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to combat polio. Fortunately for children worldwide, the efforts to find a cure were successful. Unfortunately for the organization, it would mean disbandment and those involved would be out of a job. The solution? Pivot the goal and take on a broader mission. Eighty-two years later, the organization has become bloated from a large bureaucracy, and its convoluted mission resulted in a Charity Navigator rating of two stars out of four. (Charity Navigator quantifies the effectiveness of charities, taking into account financial accountability and transparency.) Sound familiar? It’s startling to go from initial reports that we must comply with the lockdown to “flatten the curve” to now justifying extending the lockdown to prevent just one death.
How long will we endure this lockdown for “our own good” before we accept it as just part of American life? I’m not willing to find out, because when if we wake up and find ourselves slaves to bureaucratic whims held up by fear-mongering politicians and their media accomplices, it will be too late.
Published in General
It happened around the same time that “flatten the curve” stopped being a meme as new statistics suggested that the much-vaunted exponential growth was quickly becoming much less exponential.
As usual, well said. But I suspect reports of the long term death of our civil liberties are, at best, premature, and more than likely wrong.
I don’t think it’s going to happen all at once, but I do think this is the biggest government grab in recent history- the idea we have to stay in our house? Government workers, paid by the taxpayers, prohibited from being in parks funded by taxpayer money? If we just go along with this now, what happens when the next WHO certified pandemic strikes?
I have my doubts, but I hope you’re right.
My wife pointed out to me last night how this is creating a sharp divide on the right. (The left seems to be unified under the “OBEY YOUR GOVERNMENT MASTERS” banner. At least, I’ve not seen any sudden explosions of liberty on the left. Please share if you have.) However, on the right I seem to be seeing people who I formerly believed were very pro-liberty suddenly declaring their own fealty to whatever the tyrannical bureaucrats order. For me this is mostly among extended family members’ posts on Facebook. My family is pretty strongly conservative, so seeing Virus Fearmongering among them is a little alarming.
But fear is a very useful tool when wielded by our rulers.
Most surprising to me is that my wife noticed this divide. For her it was on the local homeschool forum where some were announcing their intent to join a protest rally at the capitol, and others were saying “Please don’t do that! You’re going into a Coronavirus Hot Zone and bringing it back here!” If you want to find a group that’s most devoted to personal liberty, homeschoolers are an easy bet. So she was surprised by the strong divisions on the forum.
I hope that you are correct but when I see the arrogance reflected in the awful face of the Michigan governor and the fact that city officials in some U.S. cities are using Red Chinese-style technology to monitor their citizens, I don’t think we can blow that off. Add in DiBlasio’s edict to New Yorkers to rat out fellow citizens; something that is reminiscent of East Germany and Cuba; well, that should concern us. So far, folks in the heartland haven’t had to worry about that but with so much of our population in cities (which are controlled mainly by Democrats), I think it bears watching. In the case of those ubiquitous cameras, do you really think that they’ll be turned off after the COVID-19 threat has eased?
I do too. To explain further, I think that one can be concerned about present events, but not necessarily draw the conclusion that they’re the camel’s nose. My trust is in “the people,” who I don’t think will roll over easily–something we’re already finding out.
That’s is very interesting- and surprising to me, too. I meant to include an aside for my * and it referred to the Harvard conference condemning private, religious, and homeschooling. Its almost as if this has brought about an awakening of what public schools are really doing to our kids and they counter it by doubling down on their absolute necessity. It’s largely govt indoctrination. But homeschooling puts kids out of govt reach. I hope the fear from parents isn’t from state intimidation. Maybe it’s more evidence of the effectiveness of the fear campaign. I admit it’s pretty awful to see so many in masks & gloves and behaving like they’re paralyzed with fear. It has a very deep, cerebral effect.
The loss of liberty over the years has been gradual. This situation has caused a sudden awakening, but I fear some have become quite used to the leashes they’ve put on us. Like zoo animals, we’ve been given an illusion of freedom, but we have been caged and tamed.
“Freedom is Slavery” after all.
These are dangerous ideas. You will need to be watched. And don’t think you can hide. You will be found.
“I fear some have become quite used to the leashes they’ve put on us. Like zoo animals, we’ve been given an illusion of freedom, but we have been caged and tamed.
“Freedom is Slavery” after all.”
Well said. Devastating, but well said. It reminds me of the old adage about putting cooking a frog by putting it in water, then gradually turning up the heat instead of trying to put it directly in a pot of boiling water…
It looks like those of us who want the lockdown to end are in the minority, and by a fairly significant margin. Many more Dems than Republicans want the lockdowns to continue with Independents in the middle. Part of that partisan divide can probably be attributed to the fact that large cities such NYC are heavily democrat; but, I think more it has to do with the different world view of the two groups. I also think part of the reason more people worry about the end of the lockdown is the hysterical and biased reporting of the media.
Yikes! The future is now! Btw, was that Governor Gretchen Whitmer flying in the middle?!
No question in my mind. We don’t watch any broadcast television at our house (Netflix/Prime only) so when I was stuck in a waiting room on Monday watching three hours of NBC, the subtext of everything from the news to commercials was “Stay inside! Be happy in your cage! Obey government edicts! Only crazy people want an end to the shutdown.” There were a few nods here and there to the damage to the economy, but the overwhelming message was DO NOT DISOBEY!
And the commercials. Oh, the commercials. Almost all of them featured sad people sadly peering out windows while sad music played underneath and a soothing voice intoned the message stay inside and stay safe. After awhile it just got creepy.
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I agree with you and also think this is an additional way in which the American divide is widening. It’s not that those who are wary of government overreach don’t care or believe in the seriousness of the virus, but we encounter many tragedies and diseases in life but we take responsibility for our actions persist without fear of public life. The media & politicians emphasize NYC to the extreme overlooking the fact that most places do not look remotely like it. For some reason MN policy makers thought it would travel like a snow storm, West to East, breathlessly evoking the doomsayer models that never materialized. It amazes me how much impact those NY/Italy/Spain stories resonated here, even though we are nothing like those places, in terms of demographics, population spread, mass transit, healthcare infrastructure, etc.
Does anyone else see the irony in saying, in effect, “Hey! These power hungry bureaucrats are trying to sneak in and steal your liberty, reshape your society, create an Orwellian nightmare future for you and your kids and grandkids – by manipulating your fears!”
“Protesting is not an essential activity”.
Yes, I see what you’re saying. But the Governors who swear to uphold the Constitution are fining & criminally charging pastors for holding Easter church services, arresting Dads in front of their kids for playing T-ball in the park, taking pictures of license plates of parishioners, and prohibiting people from buying seeds at Walmart.
Said without irony:
These power hungry bureaucrats are trying to sneak in and steal your liberty, reshape your society, create an Orwellian nightmare future for you and your kids and grandkids by manipulating your fears.
“Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction.It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again.” Ronald Reagan
There are going to be some instances of overreach during global pandemics, no doubt about it. It’s the nature of crises. But you know those examples are few and far between and the notion that the governor of Kentucky has some secret ambition to shut down parks and churches and impose some leftists dictatorship is just ridiculous. It’s ridiculous. That’s not to say whatever he proposes should go without criticism, but criticism is most effective when it is reasonable. If you claim he’s some kind of budding dictator, instead of just erring in good faith (which is patently the case, since there is a world wide pandemic crisis and a stack of 46,000 dead bodies built up in our own country in the past one month), you lose credibility, and it only helps him continue to make mistakes.
I’m all for the public keeping a wary eye on power, guarding liberty, etc…but I worry that if the people doing that blow their credibility – it harms the effort in the long run.
So you believe some guidelines or limits should be put on certain people and how they fight what they see to be an unlawful power grab? Who gets to decide when, how and who can challenge the government in a way that, in your view, doesn’t damage their credibility?
Well, just a nitpick — a “concern about the US reopening too quickly” is not the same as opposing reopening businesses around the country. Since the news media has been alarming the populace and relaying the doomsday scenarios – about millions then hundreds of thousands of deaths, about hospitals (with dancing staff) that are war zones, with hospital ships and convention centers turned into makeshift hospitals but now not so much…etc., it’s no wonder that people are “worried”. When home foreclosures and evictions start to occur, when people default on loans, when people can’t get their old jobs back, then their worry may shift from the virus to worries about being homeless and destitute and living in a tent or shack somewhere.
And while I’m on this rant – it’s ludicrous that warehouse stores and supermarkets are permitted to stay open but for some reason your local dry cleaner, pastry shop, coffee shop, auto repair shop, craft store, fast food restaurant, barbershop / hair salon can’t conceivably open because they can’t institute and maintain social distancing protocols. Really? I would hazard a guess, that these smaller strip mall operations can achieve those protocols better than some of the larger warehouse stores or markets. Okay. There. I’m done.
I don’t believe any limits should be placed on any criticisms by anyone. I’m saying it’s not helpful to the cause of liberty/limited government to cry wolf when there is no wolf. People have every right to squander their credibility by being hyperbolic in their criticism, but it’s counterproductive.
The tools to monitor and regulate human beings for social distancing are already in place. It’s only a matter of whether elected officials or unseen bureaucrats use them or allow them to be used. In many cases, citizens won’t have a choice. These technologies will be used…just as your online behavior and your purchases are already being tracked for some time. Smartphone manufacturers have shown they have the ability to track your whereabouts…as do newer automobiles even down to the city block or street you’re on. Your Smart TV and Alexa and other in-home listening devices have the ability to listen in even when you’re not directly communicating with them. Facebook and other social media sites identify you by your political beliefs and if they find your remarks misaligned with an approved woke narrative, you will be censored or banned. It isn’t a matter of the Brave New World coming. In many respects, it’s already here.
Too many people out there (and I sometimes even get the vibe here) seem to be quite content with living out the movie “The lives of others“
Thank you for bringing this up. It’s hard to avoid in modern society, but I like to think those who value privacy and whatever scraps of civil liberty we allow each other to have will find a way around this. Even the Chinese people have used counter tech to avoid facial recognition cameras.
Good comment! I’m blessed to still have my job at a small pet store and we do a much better job at distancing than the very large, chain grocery store across the street. Most people come in wearing masks and there’s the occasional oddball custom costume, but I figure ‘whatever makes you feel better.’ What I don’t accept is this fear driven hysteria that causes people to treat workers like me as if I’m a plague-carrying rat. If we open everything up, no one is forced to go out. Stay home if you want and get your life delivered to your doorstep. But to force those adults who take personal responsibility for their lives to stay home, lose their jobs and livelihoods is unconscionable.
I’ve been surprised by the snitches. I suppose I shouldn’t have been but we’d all do well to recognize that there is a substantial proportion of your neighbors, townsfolk and fellow citizens perfectly willing to tattle on their fellow citizens. This before rewards or as plea bargain arrangements. It’s positively pre-Soviet. Wait till they let these ‘fine citizens’ share in the assets forfeitures of these law/social distancing breakers like police departments and drug money.
Another great article from Stocker. There should be more! I’m a recovering engineer and I’m always fascinated by the lack of interest in the data driving major decisions. So many problems with the numbers, they are completely meaningless. At this point we’ll have to wait a year or two to see if there was a meaningful increase in total deaths for the country for the year. I say no. And watching Sweden to see if there are bodies lining the streets…
It gnaws at me that Trump shut down the country and the right is silent about that. If Obama did this the Tea Party movement would have looked like a tea party.