Wednesday, March 25, 2020

A lesson learned, or suspicion confirmed

We'll have time to sort all this out eventually, but one thing has become quite clear -- a lot of people are quite willing to become cheerleaders for the heavy hand of government if they have any fear at all. Mencken said it this way:

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.”

No, COVID-19 (or the Wuhan coronavirus, if you'd prefer) is not imaginary in the least. But there's no lack of people who are clamoring to be led to safety at the moment. Would that I had more confidence in those who are supposed to be doing the leading. And no, that's not a shot at Trump -- as always, the people you really need to watch are closer to home.

2 comments:

3john2 said...

Yesterday the Governor, by Executive Order, gave our rental tenants permission to not pay their rent when he banned evictions. Now, we weren't going to evict anyone, but we've been reaching out to our tenants to let us know how we can work with them if there is a problem. We'll still do that - but this "humanitarian" (or totalitarian) impulse doesn't really help.

Mr. D said...

Yes, Crankbait. I'm also thinking of my high school buddy who has a commercial trucking sales business back in Wisconsin -- Tony Evers essentially put him out of business, since he's not "essential." And my college friend who had to shutter her sports bar. They both are employers. Or were.