I began writing this post after California ‘crats shut down the Bay Area and Governor Jay Inslee of Washington state demanded that all restaurants in his state close their doors except for take-out and delivery.<\/p>\n
I also began the original version of this post with a fulmination about the insanity of specific measures (“You oldsters stay in your homes and don’t go out even to buy food.” In other words, “We don’t care if you starve for want of helpers to run errands for you; just don’t clutter up our hospitals or disrupt our attempts to make ourselves look like we’re ‘doing something.'”)<\/p>\n
Since that long-ago time, two entire days past, other governments have followed the insanity or threatened that they might. And I’ve realized most of my fulminations aren’t needed; you already know<\/em> how quickly we’ve entered the crazy times, and why<\/em> we have. <\/p>\n The measures these (mostly blue) governments have taken to Yes, Covid-19 (or the novel coronavirus or the WuFlu or whatever you want to call it) is to be taken seriously, particularly by the old and the immune-compromised. Absolutely. Wash those hands for 20 seconds while you sing “Happy birthday.” Don’t go on that cruise. Don’t breathe the same air as your neighbors. Don’t mingle in mobs even if your state or city government still “allows” you to.<\/p>\n But for Pete’s sake, we’re a long, long way from corpse-laden carts and “Bring out your dead!” And we would be even if we took none of those extreme (and highly politicized) measures.<\/p>\n —–<\/p>\n I will fulminate about only one or two things before getting to the main purpose of this post — which is once again about holding on to some freedom despite the worst efforts of the worst bastards on earth.<\/p>\n Speculate all you want about the motives behind this highly politicized, media-driven panic. Is it to destroy the Trumpian illusion of prosperity so Senile Joe will have a better chance in November? Is it to punish Trump’s base of small business owners, less-educated workers, and the lowest-level employees? Have an excuse for more corporate bailouts? Cure global warming by having everybody stay in their homes and do nothing? Create more government dependence on the part of We the Little People? Destroy the rural economy (which will,m in general, be harder hit for a longer time than the urban economy)? Distract from the fact that civil society is crumbling or that government is filled with incompetency? Have an excuse to bail out more cronies with more trillions? Is it simply to get more clicks for CNN and the New York Times<\/em>? More power for politicians of both wings of the great carrion bird?<\/p>\n Well, the latter is a given. Of course it’s that. Whatever else it is, it’s a colossal power grab that, like 9\/11, we won’t see the end of in our lifetimes.<\/p>\n Uber-prepper Daisy Luther, in a forthright, thoughtful, but off-target post<\/a> accused herself of normalcy bias for having such a hard time grokking that the Big Event we’ve all been prepping for has at last arrived. Not TEOTWAWKI, but the serious huddle-in-your-home-disruption-of-the-supply-chain-people-distrusting-people event where preps are extremely practical.<\/p>\n But she makes the error of thinking that the virus itself<\/em> is the event, when it’s not at all. The hard-to-grasp thing for any honest, practical, ethical person is that the real disaster is entirely caused by overreactive, never-let-a-crisis-go-to-waste politics and their enablers of the media.<\/p>\n How many times have you heard some commentator state, as if it were fact, that “the coronavirus is crashing the economy”? Talk about the power of propaganda! The coronavirus is no more crashing the economy (or putting a demand on our preps) than the totally forgotten swine flu pandemic of 2009 did or a marginally severe flu season does. (Of course, the world’s economy was already crashed when the swine flu hit, but that’s another story about government corruption.)<\/p>\n But when this is all over, the virus will have “caused” the disaster in millions of minds and government will claim to have “saved” us from the very horrible mess it created.<\/p>\n And we’ll have lots and lots of new programs and government powers, new kinds and degrees of dependency, a newly cowed and obedient population, and all the usual anti-freedoms that come of well-managed hysteria. Oh, and an economy that’s even farther down the road to the Big Crash.<\/p>\n And what’s with these now-popular proposals to mail all us Americans $1,000? Or $1,000 a month for the duration? Or (thanks, Andrew Yang) $1,000 a month forever? Or whatever it’s going to end up being?<\/p>\n Why don’t they make it a cool million, since it’s mere funny money, anyhow? How ’bout a billion each? Make us all “super-rich” for a few minutes before hyper-inflation turns our paper into … more paper? Why not? If they’re going to commit financial fraud while attempting to make us dependent and grateful, why not think big? <\/p>\n Where did they get that number? $1,000. How far exactly do these highly privileged, out-of-touch elitists imagine $1k will go these days, after they’ve taken our jobs, closed our businesses, crippled our communities, and rendered us unable to pay bills that for most of us amount to far, far more than an inflation-reduced thou? <\/p>\n Sure, if they’re handing it out, let’s take it. While it lasts. IF it’s ever offered. Their cronies have no problem taking lots, lots, lots more. This way, we can be cronies, too!<\/p>\n But this weak and dishonest attempt to buy themselves clear consciences should be seen for what it is.<\/p>\n —–<\/p>\n Still. So much of our job in these times (and throughout our lifetimes) is to make lemonade (freedom) out of lemons (tyrannical chicanery).<\/p>\n So here’s a few thoughts in that regard:<\/p>\n 1. If you’re isolated and can’t get out and do things you usually do … be productive. Get new projects going. Keep a diary. Learn to cook gourmet dishes (grocery stores are still open). Take up painting (you can order supplies online). Homeschool your kids. Learn a language. Possibilities are endless. Myself, I’m making the most gratifying progress of the last two years on my house projects, and not merely because it’s spring.<\/p>\n 2. Even if you’re being threatened with arrest for getting within six feet of anyone not a member of your household (where they will put you in jail where you can be much, much closer than six feet away from some really unwholesome sorts), you can still go for a walk, a run, a bike ride, or a drive and remind yourself just how beautiful the world can still be.<\/p>\n 3. Do something subversive. (We freedomistas can always find something subversive to do.) Online or in person (your neighbors can still hear you from six feet away), plant seeds of doubt. Cite the latest stats showing how even in Italy and China infection rates are plummeting and death rates have never been as bad as claimed.<\/p>\n 4. Go to the store and the next time you see toilet paper, hand sanitizer, or disinfectant wipes on the shelves … buy one. Just one, like a normal human being. Or buy a discreet two or three like a normal, unpanicked prepper. OR, since you already have a pantry full of paper goods, buy something that makes even more sense and seems even more useful to you by your standards, not the unthinking standards of an unthinking mob<\/em>.<\/p>\n 5. Do something subversive, part II. Memes online and Simon Jester<\/a> stickers in real-life places. Mock those who seek to turn an illness into an empire. Monkeywrench the credibility and conceit of a politician.is<\/p>\n 6. Meditate. Exercise. Read. Improve yourself. Read, in particular, classics of liberty. Remind yourself of what can be. <\/p>\n 7. Go online and take yourself (and\/or your kids) on a virtual tour of a museum.<\/p>\n 8. Review your preps and while patting yourself on the back for not having to wrestle panicked morons for rolls of toilet paper, make notes on what you need to replace or improve. Once the panic is over, take care of those things. Over at the Living Freedom Forums<\/a>, Silver has opened a discussion on preps and how you can help others so they won’t be caught in the panic next time (and alas, there will always be a next time).<\/p>\n 9. Do something subversive, part III. If you can do so without endangering the innocent, defy a ban. Openly or quietly. But remind tyrants and yourself that they have no legitimate power over you.<\/p>\n 10. Know that in the long run, no matter how much governments claim they “helped” us avoid contagion and death, they’ll continue to lose credibility. More and more people are waking up to their manipulations, their destruction of business, their ruination of money, their incessant lies, and the fact that we live in an oligarchy — government by and for the few — not a real democracy or republic. <\/p>\n Remember that people suddenly trusted government for a while after 9\/11 (and alas trusted government enough to stand by while the UNPatriot Act, secret courts, and a heightened surveillance state were thrust upon us), but beyond that trust lay only renewed suspicion and disgust with those who would use fear to become our masters.<\/p>\n —–<\/p>\n What are you personally doing to turn crisis lemons into freedom lemonade? What ideas do you have to share for others? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I began writing this post after California ‘crats shut down the Bay Area and Governor Jay Inslee of Washington state demanded that all restaurants in his state close their doors except for take-out and delivery. I also began the original version of this post with a fulmination about the insanity of specific measures (“You oldsters stay in your homes and don’t go out even to buy food.” In other words, “We don’t care if you starve for want of helpers to run errands for you; just don’t clutter up our hospitals or disrupt our attempts to make ourselves look like…<\/p>\ncrash the economy<\/strike> protect us against demons and witches<\/strike> Russkies<\/strike> ourselves<\/strike> sin<\/strike> climate disaster<\/strike> killer asteroid strikes<\/strike> acid rain<\/strike> barbarians at the gates<\/strike> global terrorism<\/strike> Covid-19 would be proportional if Black Plague or Ebola had gotten a foothold in this country. They’re outlandish for an illness that’s going to turn out to be nothing worse than a slightly more severe than normal flu (and maybe not even that).<\/p>\n