This isn't about control. It is about arrogance.
I know I am in the minority on this, but I continue to believe I am right.
The prevailing thought on the right is that pandemic controls are about progressives wanting to control us. I think people who think this are wrong.
It was never about control. It was and remains about arrogance.
It was arrogant to think a virus, once released into the wild, could be controlled.
It was arrogance to think unelected bureaucrats and elected politicians could contain Americans in their houses in perpetuity.
It was arrogance to think, once widely spread, we could still get to COVID Zero.
It was arrogance to think the science would cure all.
It was arrogance to think the vaccines would be a panacea.
It remains arrogant to think we can do anything to stop what is coming and inevitable.
Our leaders and public health officials promised us COVID Zero. They promised us a way out of the viral path. They could not deliver. They lack the humility to admit they were wrong.
Their controls on us are because they lack the humility to admit they failed. They lack the humility to admit they oversold and underdelivered. They lack the humility to admit they failed to balance the economic well-being of people with the public health well-being of people.
They simply lack humility and in that arrogance and lack of humility made mistakes, errors in judgment, and bad policies that have perpetuated a pandemic longer than they should.
In their arrogance, they looked down on the rest of us. They demanded we embrace their low tolerance for risk and that we behave like them.
They never wanted to and do not want to control us for the sake of control. That’s easy, cheap thinking. You can all tell yourselves that and pat yourselves on the back for some profound insight shared by cranks on the internet. You are also wrong in the assessment and, in so doing, failing to diagnose the real problem.
The real problem is the arrogance of our unelected bureaucracy. The way forward should be their embrace of humility and, if not, their forced embrace of humility.
The path forward is for Dr. Fauci, the President, and others, to admit we will never get to COVID Zero and must return to normal, each of us using our own risk assessments to move forward.
In short, the sooner the elite acknowledge they cannot control us to conform in a way to eradicate the virus, the sooner we can control the virus. Their control of us has never been about a desire to control us, but a desire to cover up their lack of control of a microbe. Science is their god and their god has failed them.
I agree with you most of the time, and enjoy your insights, but when a party has as its mantra "Never let a good crisis go to waste," you can't dismiss the lust for power and control. It's there.
Your point is well made. There is a lot of pride and arrogance at play. There are, however, those that do seek for control who are happy to exploit the arrogance for their own ends. It’s not either, or, but rather and.