For No Good Reason

I am currently reading Naomi Wolf’s wonderful new book Facing the Beast: Courage, Faith and Resistance in a New Dark Age and she has repeatedly said this and that was done (like mandated masks, social distancing, business closures, forcing vaccination, etc) all “for no reason at all.” You and I and Naomi know this is true, “no good reason,” but the sheep do not. “No reason??!!” they bleat. “The whole world was going to die! Isn’t that reason enough??”

It does seem that most sheep-types believe there is a line that is a delineation between what can be done with some in order to save the many. I have written about this often, and my opinion, based on what I believe to be human morals (and not just “morals” but basic, innate, human decency), we never, as a culture, should force or coerce people to sacrifice their life or health for the benefit of others.

Not that people will not voluntarily sacrifice for others—that they do all of the time. But when an authoritarian power insists that people take serious risks in order to curtail an unseen and predicted disaster, heads should be scratched. In the sake of public health, very often it is pointed out to the masses that this or that action must be taken by the multitudes in order to ensure the health of the multitudes—it is the decent thing to do, and hey, it saves you too, albeit at a great cost. This is all part of government’s job, isn’t it? These days it is difficult to tell. Besides, what happens if the horror they are predicting never happens? Or was never going to happen in the first place?