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The Economics of Lockdown Panics
Economics alone cannot tell us if any cost is too much to “save one life.” But economic thinking can help us understand that preserving human life entails bearing costs. It requires resources and people with skills. We must provide ourselves with the means to bear those costs if we wish to continue to have the ability to preserve human life in the future.
The Vaccine Was “95% Effective” How?
The mis-translation of the message convinced the public that mass vaccination would stop the pandemic. And, it persuaded them to see the unvaccinated as a threat. Without this false belief, none of employment mandates, quarantine camps, vaccine passports to eat out or travel made any sense. If the vaccine did not stop transmission, then everyone was going to get exposed eventually, vaccinated or not. We might as well get on with it so we reach herd immunity sooner rather than later.
Unmask the Audiences Already!
People no longer have an emotional connection while speaking when wearing masks. And we can no longer understand each other’s speech. A venue full of masked people is a place lacking in humanity. It is an artificial world based on virtue-signaling and the elevation of appearance over reality, rather than actual human connection.
The Speakeasy World of Covid Lockdowns
In Speakeasy World, people were aware that they lived in a panopticon. But they realized that the one and only guard was probably checking TikTok on his mobile phone during working hours instead of surveilling prisoners. The prisoners made a calculated bet that the guard was not paying attention to their transgressions.
The Game Is Over and They Have Lost
The script has worn itself out. These tropes are now tired and ineffective. The fear pushers seem unaware that the message has lost its effect, but do not have anything else to offer. The tell is not that they publish articles like this. It is how much these pieces show that they don’t know that the game is over and they have lost.
Technocratic Dystopia Is Impossible
Grand utopias cannot be realized because, while imagination is unconstrained reality has limits. What is a dystopia other than the role of an NPC in someone else’s utopia? In this case, the utopia is the dream of psychotic elites who imagine that they can have the end products of mass cooperation without the open society that enables it. Much damage can be done in the attempt, but it is only a question of how far it can get before it cancels itself.
There Was No Exit Plan from “Slow the Spread”
During this time of insanity, some of us went about our lives as best we could and ignored the restrictions. The rest of the world is now coming to terms with the understanding that the “precautions” don’t do much. At best what is going to happen anyway, happens. If there is no off ramp then the change is either permanent or it will go on until failure is evident and people stop caring. Then they will go back to normal one by one.