Media stations have been working overtime in pumping out endless stories covering the latest updates of the Coronavirus. Milking this story for everything that it's worth. No doubt for a number of mainstream news companies their recent views have likely skyrocketed, as people eagerly tune in to their nightly news stations to find out how much more afraid they should be. How many people are infected? How much further has it spread? Adjust fear accordingly. Or maybe there is no need to be afraid at all.
Will turning up the anxiety help to solve the problem?...
Within days people are panicking and face masks are selling out on the shelves, even though they arguably might not do much good in protecting the wearer from becoming ill. You can sense the general panic. And it is times like these that you recognize how eager people are to turn to centralized authority figures to sort the matter out.
Go ahead, feel free to use almost any means of violence necessary to get the job done, they collectively urge. We can worry later on about whether or not that potential overreach in power or security theater was worth the millions or not. If it was justified or not. It feels good for now.
Who cares if we are blowing things out of proportion, it's better to be safe than sorry. The Coronavirus is here and we need to shut down the market, lock all our doors, and wait for this storm to pass. Wait for government to solve the problem for us.
This is the same organization that fails at multiple endeavors. Just take a look at your local infrastructure and the current deteriorating conditions. Check the standard service experience at a myriad of government service providers in your community. Or just take a look at something basic like their budget. That one is just simple math after all, it shouldn't be a complete failure and yet it always is.
This group is our hope for tackling the cause.
Imagine having your freedom severely restricted and being indefinitely detained for an undetermined amount of time by that same organization. Even without evidence to support the action.
For "safety".
Is the current approach to such a problem the only option available? No. But we are not ready to consider an alternative, or we simply don't believe that any such alternative would be viable. Though we cannot prove that to be the case, so for now we stick with what we know. Coercion.
The endless media coverage of the fearful reality facing us, that is the Coronavirus, can easily have many clutching onto that appreciation for government. But unfortunately many of their actions are often times unjust and counter-productive, ineffective, and a big old waste of money.
No matter how much failure they deliver, the people are ready to sacrifice more liberty to fuel it further. After all, it's not like the government would ever abuse their authority for political or corrupt purposes of any sort right? The state can't bring itself to let any good opportunity go to waste.
Dare anyone say we just might be overreacting for even a moment.