I don’t know if what the Swedes did was right or wrong, but I feel that this is the truth:
This forced government separation of people from engaging in perhaps the most treasured pursuit of happiness known to humans - that of the company of other humans - is every bit as corrosive and destructive to our well being as the loss (and the future loss) of income due to a damaged economy.
And the potential of future misery resulting from this forced separation of people is, to me, astonishingly huge. I think it has the potential to be, in the long run, just as destructive in the cultural sense as it will be in the financial sense if things go the wrong way.
As for the financial sense..
I am an optimistic person by nature, and hope for a V-shaped economic recovery, but I keep in mind that after the big crash of 1929, it took a few years for people to realize that things were going to be worse than they thought.
I pray that isn’t so.
But a society that has become increasingly fragmented and less physically participatory in a public sense, something that makes people avoid eye contact, shy away when someone violates a six foot distance rule, or worst of all, turn people against their neighbors because they did or didn’t wear a mask, is like throwing gasoline onto a cultural fire.
And then there are elements who are deliberately stirring up racial strife to open that gasoline valve even wider. One could be forgiven for thinking that this confluence of destructive and divisive elements was being fostered on purpose.
I don’t think I am alone in this anymore, but I get the feeling more frequently that I almost don’t even want to go out in public, because I can’t stand seeing the public display of stupidity.
Which is precisely a sentiment those fostering and feeding the unrest wish to propagate.
The whole grasping of power by some is disconcerting, to say the least.
You almost get the feeling they are next going to command: “All citizens will now have to walk on their hands for the last 3 seconds of every hour, ending in a one hand stand.”
It is almost as if you could hear them say “Okay, we can’t get them to do that. That’s a hard line. Let’s move it back a bit. But whatever it is that we make them do, the important thing is that the masks must be on while they do it. We must remember to think of it as an invisible dog collar for their free will.”
What a very well written and truthful post.
I’m of a similar mind as you in that I dread leaving home.
Luckily, masks aren’t required in my State. Yet.
The media are doing their best to incite as much panic as they can and I’m seeing more zombies wearing the damned masks.
I have been deeply depressed and I know the scamdemic and the riots and vandalism are largely responsible.
Great post.
Has anyone else noticed the nearly empty restaurants and bars? While they are allowed to be open, they’ve had to accommodate new rules on spacing and so much else. It isn’t back to “normal”, so people just aren’t going to them. Things that used to be fun aren’t fun anymore.