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The Anatomy of Power, the Soviet Impulse, & Social Pollution
Since the early days of last March, thorny negotiations have waged between the opposing demands of public health and economic preservation. What has this essential dilemma boiled down to? For many it has meant a clash between freedom and security.
This has always eternally been a tricky, imperfect relationship for democratic states to mediate. Most regrettably, the issue of our day turned out to be a global pandemic which contained a host of baked-in moral elements. Tidy pros-and-cons lists were not feasible; thus, messy and public virtue-sparring became commonplace.
This blistering moral energy that ensued both fiercely clawed at social cohesion and bolstered government in making historic demands of its citizenry. Protests erupted, vitriol sharpened, and governments pressed in.
“Rule culture” settled in as populations were slathered with a steady stream of shifting capricious dictates. Staggered waves of mandatory vaccinations soon followed, like colluding military units all converging towards a grand goal that would be unpalatable (that is, socially impossible) if conducted all-at-once. Are tremors of authoritarianism off the mark? No, I don’t think they are.
