Governments might like to boast about “going hard and early” in defiance of the plain facts, but the truth is that they dithered for too long once the fact of the Wuhan virus became known – and then panicked and brought the boot-heel down. Which might play well to the peanut gallery of the legacy media, born authority-worshippers that they are, but doesn’t exactly inspire a cooperative community spirit.
As even police in Australia have acknowledged, over-zealous enforcement of arbitrary, oppressive new rules (of dubious constitutional standing) invites public backlash.
Governments who treat their citizens like malcontent children who need to be scolded into obedience rather than adults capable of being persuaded by reason, soon get citizens’ backs up. While the legacy media celebrated Italians singing from their balconies in the early days of that country’s lockdown, the “communal spirit” soon turned ugly as Italians faced the grim economic and psychological reality of being imprisoned in their own homes. Riots soon broke out, especially in the south of the country, which resented being punished for the incompetence and folly of the north.
Around the world, other citizens are beginning to feel much the same way.
The global health crisis is taking a nasty political turn with tensions worsening between governments locked down to keep the coronavirus at bay and people yearning to restart stalled economies and forestall fears of a depression.
Protesters worrying about their livelihoods and bucking infringements on their freedom have taken to the streets in some places. A few countries are acting to ease restrictions, but most of the world remains unified in insisting it’s much too early to take more aggressive steps.
In the United States, there is clear evidence of the mounting pressure.
In Michigan, where the Democrat governor banned stores from selling gardening equipment and seeds, but marijuana sales were allowed to continue, protesters in cars gridlocked the state capitol. Like Italians, Americans in states barely touched by the virus are furious at being punished for the failures of New York, the single biggest virus hotspot in the US. As happened in Northern Italy, the Empire State’s governor not only refused to act early on the virus but as recently as just a few weeks ago was openly exhorting New Yorkers to go to theatres, restaurants and Chinatown (to prove they weren’t ‘racist’, naturally).
Around the world, healthy people to whom the virus poses almost no risk are chafing at being forced to abide by sledgehammer, universal lockdowns which are destroying jobs and businesses, crippling economies and threatening a mental health crisis. Celebrities staging self-aggrandising ‘virtual concerts’ from the luxury of their palatial mansions are doing little to quell rising anger.
Some governments are realising that the social and economic cost of locking up millions of healthy people, rather than isolating and supporting the people who are vulnerable, may be worse than the impact of the virus itself. The IMF estimates that the impact of the Wuhan virus will be thirty times that of the Global Financial Crisis.
Restrictions have begun to ease in some places, including Germany, which is still enforcing social distancing rules but on Monday intended to begin allowing some small stores, like those selling furniture and baby goods, to reopen.
Authorities in Spain, which had some of Europe’s strictest restrictions and a virus death toll only exceeded by the U.S. and Italy, said children will be allowed to leave their homes beginning April 27. Albania planned to let its mining and oil industries reopen Monday, along with hundreds of businesses including small retailers, food and fish factories, farmers and fishing boats[…]
Still, many governments are resisting pressures to abruptly relax lockdowns.
Because too many governments have become monstrous bureaucracies crippled by inertia and dedicated to little more than maintaining their own power. If they handle the re-opening of their countries as badly as they handled shutting them down – dithering and refusing to act, then reacting to the consequences of their own incompetence with iron-heeled repression, things could get very ugly.
Meanwhile, the plague dragon which unleashed this monster on the world is raring to profit from its own legacy of destruction.
Fears are mounting among major powers that Chinese President Xi Jinping may attempt to bolster his influence in the global arena, as the country’s economy could be the only one to soon get back on its feet amid the coronavirus pandemic.
No doubt some governments will actually welcome China’s bid for hegemony. Idiots are useful to tyrants, like that.
If you enjoyed this BFD article please consider sharing it with your friends.
