Like cornered, wounded animals, these places and institutions are lashing out at the public in a desperate attempt to maintain their control over the people. Some of the people have had enough, like the Canadian Freedom Convoy truckers, and legions of people around the world that have protested in recent weeks against vaccine mandates and vaccine passports.
Coronavirus Vaccine
LR Podcast, S2E20: Biden’s Authoritarian Speech
Wow! In one paragraph, Biden goes full authoritarian, shredding both the concept of Federalism and the separation of powers according to the Constitution. For a member of the party always screaming– “Democracy! Democracy! Democracy!” he doesn’t sound like he’s very into democracy here, does he?
Summer/Delta Variant numbers looked to have peaked.
If we see a divergence between cases (going up) and deaths (going down) than that could mean vaccination is doing good at preventing death, but not cases. It could also mean that the dominant variant is weaker, less deadly. This would follow a common pattern of attenuation that viruses go thorough.
LR Podcast, S2E16: The Lessons So Far, Pt 3
We must eventually choose between mask mandates, lockdowns, and other disruptive measures in perpetuity, or learn to live with COVID as we have myriad other potentially dangerous diseases.
LR Podcast S2E7: Collectivist Debt
Ayn Rand explains how leaders with a collectivist mindset can justify such lusty sums for pet projects and public largess even though we are experiencing record inflation partly due to previous enormous spending. It comes from altruism, paired with a neurotic lack of self-esteem in a leader or among lawmakers that fuels the need for ever more spending on “the public good”. It is based upon the need to feel good, rather than actually doing good.
Why I’m optimistic about the COVID crisis ending this year.
At that point, when everyone who wanted the vaccine has gotten one and someone in authority suggests that restrictions should remain in place, or that you should continue to wear a mask, the question we should all be prepared to ask them is: “Who would I be doing it for?”
LR Podcast #32: Who ‘topia? U-topia!
St. Thomas Moore had his Utopia, Marx and Engels had their Communist Manifesto. Though the latter is better known for the destructive nature of its implementation in this and the last century, it has a commonality with the other books mentioned: the necessity of authoritarianism. It is this need for an authoritarian form of government and a ruling class, either explicit as in the Republic or implicit as with Marx and Engels that binds most, if not all Utopian systems with each other.
Liberty Relearned 