This Corona-chan crisis has been an excellent experiment in determining just how much we are willing to imprison and fetter ourselves to avoid danger.
Our prolonged interval of peace and prosperity since the Second World War — our isolation from the hormesis of what, throughout history, have been regular calamities and stresses — has made us unaccustomed to hardship. We recoil from it, and will make almost any sacrifice to avoid it.
What this crisis offers, to those who seek it, is a route to the most perfect of all systems of social control: the maintenance of a chronic sense of peril amongst a timid people. It becomes unnecessary to impose stifling restrictions; all that’s needed is to create the climate of fear, and the people will subdue and confine themselves. Outliers and dissidents are then easily controlled by shaming — or, if necessary, by the action of the State, with the grateful acquiescence of the general mass of the people, guided by a compliant (and complicit) press.
The image for this — if I had artistic skill I would paint it — is a frightened man sitting in the corner of a jail-cell, wearing a face-mask. The door is open.
8 Comments
You’ve summed it up well.
Power is now so refined that it is hard to know or grasp what can be done against it. One might even hope that the State does something old-fashionedly crude that breaks the spell. It might even be that talk of magic spells and enchantments is the best way of grasping the nature of this weird situation we are in.
Chris Rea described it as “the perverted fear of violence” in his song ‘Road To Hell’. 30-odd years later, the lyrics sound like they were written yesterday. We might as well have been running in place all this time.
Perfectly stated. I do not wear a mask unless I have to go shopping at a grocery store or my local spirits emporium. Local ordinances, alas. But otherwise, NO WAY.
Deogolwulf,
I think it is not in vain to hope that the State might blunder by doing something excessively crude. Power is besotting, and rare indeed are those who have the wisdom not to drain that cup too deeply.
Tina,
“The perverted fear of violence.” That’s good.
George,
A suitable design for a facemask:
“rare indeed are those who have the wisdom not to drain that cup too deeply.”
Quite.
Apt.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/05/mask-vs-no-mask.php
I’d suggest though there’s a more suitable design for a facemask given these times – perhaps more appropriate rather than suitable:
(Headphones/Speakers Up)
https://itaintholywater.blogspot.com/2020/05/must-see-game-changing-face-mask.html
Sure am happy I live in Arkansas.