It really took off. From Wuhan, China, to most of the world. Thanks a bunch, People’s Republic of China! People are fighting over toilet paper. Now every day is Black Friday, at least at grocery stores. Wonderful.
It gets better.
Now Governor Newsom of my home state of California has imposed a lockdown, as have governors of some other states. City mayors have done the same thing. Small businesses of all types and their employees will suffer, while big corporations such as Amazon, Target, Walmart, and FedEx will laugh their way to the bank.
I was greatly amused to read Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s lockdown order and find that marijuana dispensaries are exempt. In other words, I’m a criminal for wanting to get a haircut, and my barber is a criminal if she gives me one – she told me that if her shop remains open, it will be stripped of its business license. But hey, if I want to toke up, the government is on board with it – as if going to a marijuana dispensary is magically lower risk than getting a haircut, or buying groceries or gasoline. As a character in Kurt Schlichter’s hilarious dystopia parody People's Republic snarked, “Hey, they don’t ration booze or dope, at least not yet. You want to see a freaking revolution, tell people they can’t drink or smoke.”
Mayor Garcetti certainly knows which side his bread is buttered on.
Some cities and counties have closed their beaches, Los Angeles included. Spring breakers and other beach fans (like yours truly) “don’t seem to care about viruses,” whined Miami City Manager Jimmy Morales. Yay, municipal governments – keep people from doing something healthy such as getting exercise in fresh air and sunshine. Instead, make people go back to hotels, dorms, and homes – close quarters where the evil coronavirus, as well as other diseases, are much more likely to spread. If young people on spring break are getting the coronavirus, it has more to do with bad habits such as too much partying, too much booze, and not enough sleep – as if this is anything new for young people. The only way to keep young people (or the rest of us) from enjoying themselves is to resort to China’s brand of tyranny. Sadly, it seems that many public officials here in the United States regard the People’s Republic of China not as an existential threat to the United States, but rather as a role model. Gotta monitor and control those darn citizens – how dare they make their own decisions without some politican or bureaucrat telling them what to do!
Even more dishonest is the notion that the coronavirus can be spread through handling cash. In other words, use something that governments, advertisers, and others can use to spy on you – your credit card and various online systems. Going to a totally cashless society would also allow money-hungry governments to implement negative interest rates, which punish people for saving money. (This just happened – briefly – in the United States.) Oh yes, credit cards might spread coronavirus as well. Furthermore, cashless payment systems are computerized and vulnerable to cyberattack or just plain power failures. I guess none of this occurred to the anti-cash crowd. I’ll keep on using cash; I can always wash my hands!
Some good might come of the coronavirus madness: First, people who have suddenly been sent home to telecommute may not want to go back to the office. If you can work from home (and yes, we must all guard against the temptation to do house chores or goof off while working from home), why put up with the aggravation of a commute? To be fair, that isn’t possible for every job, but it is time for telecommuting to be taken much more seriously. Old-time managers who are used to having people in one location to boss around need to get with the program. Less traffic, less pollution from vehicles, lower demand and thus lower prices for gasoline – what’s not to like?
Secondly, now that people have stood in line and fought for a year’s supply of toilet paper, they may discover the virtues of being prepared for pandemics or other disasters before they happen so that there is no need for long lines and fights over toilet paper or other supplies. Folks, we’re all lucky if government does the heavy lifting such as law enforcement and national defense and maintaining infrastructure. The rest is up to us.
Last, it is time to encourage more manufacturing of medicines and masks, as well as other defense-critical items, here in the United States. President Trump recently invoked the 1950 Defense Production Act to make this happen. Well done, Mr. President. The lack of U.S. manufacturing of such items is dangerous. Suppose China decides to wait until the coronavirus gets worse in the United States and then embargoes medicines and masks? If that does happen, let us all hope that the advocates of outsourcing are the first to get sick.
The coronavirus is real. People have died of it. I do not deny its existence.
But it’s not the coronavirus which will bring us down. It’s the hysteria, fanned by politicians who want to use this opportunity to attack the U.S. Constitution – see here and here. The enemies of freedom are everywhere, like fleas and rats, and crises are when they are most likely to pop out of the woodwork. They respond to public hysteria by cracking down on freedom, or by pushing their pet agendas. Once freedom is lost, it is hard to regain.
This hysteria must stop. Really, it isn’t that bad. Take a look around:
The aircraft are still flying.
The lights are still on.
The water is still flowing.
The trucks are still rolling.
The Internet is still alive and well, so that we can telecommute, download funny videos, post our blogs, and proposition and slander each other. (The Internet has something for everybody!)
Our industrial infrastructure and our farms are still intact. The food and goods that we all need will still come through, even if it’s not as fast as we’re used to. (Waiting an extra day or two for an online order – horrors!!)
We are still a sovereign nation, unoccupied, unconquered, and unbowed.
And the key to defeating the coronavirus is in our hands. We do not need to wait for government to help us. Nor does clamping down on freedom of movement and freedom of association. We don’t need that kind of despotic “help”.
All we have to do is the same stuff that we do to prevent colds and regular influenza, aka the flu: Wash hands often, eat a healthy diet, get some exercise, sunshine, and fresh air, and get enough sleep. That will help a lot!
With apologies to Prime Minister Winston Churchill: “Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the American Empire and its Commonwealth last a thousand years, men will still say ‘This was their finest hour’.”
Frankly, I prefer the advice of that old British lion to that of the doomsters in politics and in lamestream media and social media alike.
We will get through this!