The train wasn’t scheduled for another 20 minutes, so I had a chance to contemplate the official sign on the door of the huge elevator leading to the platform. It said that only four people are allowed in because we must all practice social distancing. There was a helpful map of the interior of the elevator with stick figures telling people exactly where to stand.
Yes, these stickers are still everywhere. I recall when they first went up, sometime in April 2020. They seemed oddly uniform and appeared even permanent. At the time I thought, oh, this is a huge error because within a few weeks, the error of the whole of this idiocy is going to be known by all. Sadly, my worst fears came true: it was designed to be a permanent feature of our lives.
Same with the strange arrows on the ground telling us which way to walk. They are still everywhere, stuck on the floor, an integral part of the linoleum. If you walk this way, you will infect people, which is why you have to walk that way, which is safe. As for masks, the mandates keep popping up in strange places and strange ways. My inbox fills with pleas for how people can fight this stuff.
The essential message of all these edicts: you are pathogenic, a carrier, poisonous, dangerous and so is everyone else. Every human person is a disease vector. While it’s fine you are out and about, you must always create a little isolation zone around you such that you have no contact with other human beings.
It’s so odd that no dystopian book or novel ever imagined a plot centred on such a stupid and evil concept. Not even in 1984 or The Hunger Games, or The Matrix or Equilibrium, or Brave New World or Anthem, was it ever imagined that a government would institute a rule that all people in public spaces must stand six feet away in all directions from any other person.
That some government would insist on this was too crazy for even the darkest imaginings of the most pessimistic prognosticator. That 200 governments in the world, at roughly the same time, would go there was unimaginable.
And yet here we are, years after the supposed emergency, and while governments are not enforcing it, for the most part, many are still pushing the practice as the ideal form of human engagement.
Except that we are not doing it. In this train station, no one paid any attention to any of the signage. The exhortations were entirely ignored, even by those who are still masked up (and, one presumes, boosted seven times).
When the moment arrived for people to get into the elevator, a crowd began to pour in, quickly beyond four, then eight, then 12. I stood there shoulder to shoulder with fully 25 other people in one elevator with a sign that demanded only four people get in at any one time.
I sort of wanted to ask the crowd if they saw the sign and what did they think. But that would have been absurd, because, actually, no one even cares. In any case, one guy asking a crowded elevator such a question would have raised suspicions that I was deep state or something.
It was never clear in any case who was enforcing this. Who issued the rule? What are the penalties for not complying? No one ever said. Sure, there was in the past usually some flunky bureaucrat or Karen who yelled at people and said do this and don’t do that. But those people seem long ago to have given up.
It’s not even a thing anymore. And yet the signs still exist. Probably they will stay forever.
There is an enormous disjunction that still persists between what we are told to do and what we actually do. It’s as if incredulity toward official diktat is now baked into our daily lives. My first thought is that it doesn’t make much sense at all, even from the point of view of those who aspire to control our lives, to issue commands to which no one listens or obeys. On the other hand, there might be some meta-rationale for this, as if to say, “We are nuts, you know we are nuts, we know you know we are nuts, but we are in charge and can continue to do this anyway.”
In other words, edicts to which no one complies serve a certain purpose. They are a visual reminder of who is in charge, what those people believe, and the presence of a Sword of Damocles hanging above the whole population: at any point, anyone can be snatched away from normal life, made a criminal, and be forced to pay a price.
The nuttier the edicts, the more effective the message.
Thus do we live in insane times. There seems to be a huge and widening gulf separating the rulers from the ruled, and this gulf pertains to values, aims, methods and even vision for the future. Whereas most of the population aspires to live a better life, we cannot shake the sense that someone out there who has more power than the rest of us aspires for us to be poorer, more miserable, more afraid, more dependent and more compliant.
After all, we are just barely shaking off the most grandiose experiment in universal human control in the historical record, the attempt to micromanage the whole of everyone belonging to the human race in the name of gaining control over the microbial kingdom. The effort petered out over time but how in the heck does anyone with ruling-class power expect to maintain any credibility after such a destructive experiment?
And yet there is a reason we have heard precious few concessions that it was all bogus and unworkable, and why there is still a dripping sound of papers telling us that the whole scheme worked pretty well and that people who say otherwise are disseminators of disinformation. There are still publishing opportunities out there to trash repurposed generics and praise the shots and boosters. The power is still with the crazy people, not with those who question them.
And the people who threw themselves into Covid controls as the greatest years of their lives are still at it. Hardly a day goes by when there is not a freshly written hit piece on the resistance and efforts to trash those with enough sagacity to see through all the baloney. Far from being rewarded, those who protested and opposed are still living under a cloud that comes with being an enemy of the state.
We all know that it is not just about these dumb stickers and these virus controls. There is more going on. Coincident with the pandemic restrictions came the triumph of woke ideology, the intense push for EVs, and wild ramp-up in weather paranoia with the discovery that climates change, a rampant gender dysphoria and denial of chromosomal reality, an unprecedented refugee flood that no one in power is willing to mitigate, a continued attack on gas including even stoves, and a host of other inane things that are driving rational people to the brink of despair.
We long ago gave up the hope that all of this is random and coincidental, any more than it so happened that nearly every government in the world decided to plaster social distancing signs everywhere at the same time. Something is going on, something malevolent. The battle of the future really is between them and us but who or what “them” is remains opaque and too many of “us” are still confused about what the alternative is to what is happening all around us.
Noncompliance is an essential start regardless. That crowded elevator, assembling spontaneously in open defiance to the blasting signage, is a sign that something in the human longing to be free to make our own decisions, still survives. There are cracks in the great edifice of control.
Jeffrey A. Tucker is Founder and President of the Brownstone Institute, where this article first appeared.
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Equilibrium does very briefly mention the “revolutionary precept of the hate crime”. Seemed strangely irrelevant at the time, not so much now.
I don’t think that is the driving force.
I think these prescriptions of insane behaviour are driven by people that have a pathological desire to control others, rule over them, exercise power in that way.
And I think in their minds they are constantly concocting things will make things “better’.
Better in their minds means more orderly, or more “equal” or more “logical”. But essentially it’s a rationalisation, an excuse, to get what they really want which is to exert power over others.
Bureaucracies are full of these people.
What the author observes therefore is the use of bureaucracy by people who want to control others.
It doesn’t need a plan or organisation. Left to themselves and allowed free reign, this is what you get.
If you see it appear all over at the same time it’s because these are motivated people who quickly adopt what they see working elsewhere.
A lot of it is power, or at least believing they have power, for the sake of power even when they know their commands don’t make any difference.
“Noncompliance is an essential start regardless.”
Interestingly I have some colleagues who are all rampant covidiots but lately they have started to develop some anti tendencies. And what has set them off?
The Horizon Post Office scandal which they have all surprisingly woken up to because it has been made in to a telebox drama. Now some anti-establishment mutterings are being voiced – ‘bloody government,’ British justice is a joke,’ ‘damned NHS’ etc.
Comments which are not normal for these “normies.”
Perhaps a slight awakening is occurring and perhaps the anti sentiments will widen in scope. Hope and all that.
I hope you’re right and that anti-government sentiments widen.
I work in Liverpool and my half a dozen work colleagues all hate the Conservatives with a passion. I get along with them all fine, despite our political differences. Things are either not discussed or we agree to disagree.
However, despite their hatred for the “evil tories”, when Hancock and Johnson told them to mask up, shove the swabs up their nose, isolate, track and trace and get jabbed and so on – they all complied ethusiastically and trusted them without question. I pointed out at the time (and still do) that they all must be closet Tories as they trust and obey whatever the tory politicians tell them to do – and that part of the reason for my non-compiance was that I wouldn’t trust any politician (of any party) as far as I could kick them. Their collective cognitive dissonance is quite stunning.
Thanks for that story. Incredible really.
cheers Hux. Thank goodness for old school “anything goes” workplace banter. They’re all great fun to work with – despite our political differences. We all take the piss – with people taking it on the chin and accepting back as good as they give.
I know this sounds pretentious – but the bonds that tie us are far stronger than any differences we may have. These days, in many groups, companies, towns and cities – the differences and traits that divide people seem much stronger than any bonds that might unite them. Such a shame.
That was one of the weirdest things about that whole time. People who wouldn’t vote Tory if they were the only party on the ballot paper, happily going along with something against which it was often the small c conservatives protesting. Things truly turned on their head.
I’d like to agree with that, and hopefully a slight awakening is indeed taking place; but of those in my personal directory, many seem capable of holding two contradictory views at the same time: yes, the Post Office scandal shows that the governing elite is corrupt, selfish, wicked – but of course the Covid ‘response’ reveals a governing elite that is ethically honest, objective, responsible and well-meaning. They hold these views simultaneously, regardless of ‘social status’: I know a lot of people from all walks of life – Left, Right, rich, poor, educated, uneducated (which, other than in one or two cases doesn’t mean unintelligent or uninformed). To take an example, D – Imperial College/Sciences/BA pilot – is maddened by the government’s part in the Post Office scandal but demonstrates no tendency whatsoever to question his deeply pro-EU, pro-vaccine, climate-alarmist position in the light of his new-found scepticism. He can hold two views at once, in other words; the philosophy of scepticism that assumes all human beings to be inclined to corruption, graft and deception, does not underpin his world view. On the contrary – he sees events concerning the Post Office as an exception that proves the rule. We get on because we don’t talk politics!
I’m surprised you don’t rectify it; I try to at any opportunity.
Bureaucratic opportunism. You never know, some academic might create a course on the theme of Bureaucratic psychology, or something like that – and make a profit from it.
Disagree in the strongest terms. The reason why so many sheep got into the lift is nothing to do with humans spiriting free will, and everything to do with sheep following other sheep who follow other sheep.
A story. A true one. About three months ago I found myself in a bar in Stafford with a few friends. It was quite late and there were lots of pissed people. Anyway, someone spilt a drink on the floor and a woman behind the bar came to mop up the spillage. A guy, surrounded by his mates, grabbed hold of the woman and made her dance with mop in hand. At first the bar lady found it mildly amusing, but that faint amusement soon turned into irritation, then distress, as this idiot refused to let her go. The place was packed and what did the mass of people do? They pointed and laughed. Pointed and laughed because other people pointed and laughed. I prized this idiot from the poor woman and suddenly everyone stopped laughing. It got a bit lively after that, but I know the lady I helped was grateful and it was the right thing to do regardless of cost. My point is this: the majority of people will do whatever the majority of people will do. Nothing to do with the romantic notion of the human spirit.
Well done. If this man wasn’t “surrounded by his mates”, he would likely have done nothing as there were no predictable sheep to entertain.
I’m inclined to agree with the sheep explanation for non-compliance. People are no longer actively telling people what to do, and so they don’t do it (having ceased to notice mere signs).
Case in point – we are told there is a lot of Covid about, and maybe even a new strain. And indeed, people say they’re staying away from gatherings because they have it (which means they were scared enought to pay for a test).
But does anybody think they ought to open windows in such gatherings, as the advice was just a couple of winters ago? In fact it’s advice that might well reduce virus load in aerosols, but because nobody on the news is interested any more, neither are they, even though they’re still unduly scared of the killer virus.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/in-praise-of-doubt/
A useful complementary article from TCW.
For whatever reason, my life – 72 now – has been marked by a strong streak of refusal to comply. From my teenage years. Speak the truth, stand firm in your beliefs, and it is amazing what apparently powerful forces will crumble before you. My faith helps hugely in that.
As what wonderful hymn to Muscular Christianity goes
“Fight the good fight with all thy might”
Or in my wife and I favourite toast as we click glasses
“Fuck ’em all”.