OPINION:
RULES FOR THEE, NOT FOR ME
By Trevor K. McNeil
Power Of Perception
Perception can be powerful. As Mark Twain said, give someone a reputation as “an early riser” and he can stay in bed until noon. Though, as with most things powerful, such perceptions can also be exceedingly dangerous. Like the “honest man” who turns out to be a con man or thief. Or the “quiet guy” who turns out to be a serial killer. Perceptions, especially unverified ones, make it very easy to deceive, particularly ourselves. Such is the case with American Isolationism.
Divided We Stand
The idea of American independence goes back to the beginning. Not only in terms of the country but with the individual states. At the time of founding, the United in United States was more wishful thinking on the part of the founders than expectation. The reality was less a nation than a loose collection of essentially independent British colonies, each with it’s own local government, and usually a militia group, the British being absentee landlords at best.
Bits And Pieces
It was exactly this lack of representation that gave the colonists the impetus to try to go it alone. A decision which looked fine on paper but in practice led to an intentionally decentralized federal government. The individual state having more power and freedom in and of themselves than any other collection of member states in history outside of the Roman Empire. An experiment in self-sufficiency which has led to perpetual jurisdictional squabbles and a civil war. A cluster of states deciding to take the ethos of the American Revolution to it’s logical conclusion.
Spinning
It is exactly this sort of intentional power vacuum, don’t even get me started on our bat-shit voting system, that has only served to amplify the issues attendant with the COVID-19 pandemic. There seems to be daily confusion about what should be done, and who should be doing it. Federal and state authorities, seem to be navigating uncharted waters without a compass. Medical experts also seem to be operating by their best guess theories. This novel Coronavirus being so new, no one seems able to decide who should be responsible for managing it. The hands up, hands off nonsense is only making things a hundred times more difficult. More bucks being passed than a Sunday drive through a deer sanctuary. Not to mention the spin coming constantly from Fox News and the Republican side of the aisle.
Stay Away
The tales of President Trump’s competence and leadership have been up until this time greatly exaggerated. His well-recorded and much repeated comments during the beginning of the outbreak about how COVID-19 wouldn’t dare come to America demonstrated he does not even understand what a virus is. Trump has imbued COVID-19 with the supremely human attributes of not only fear, but intentional aversion. I know the virus is new but it is surely going to make multiple mutations presenting new problems with each metamorphosis. This of course shouldn’t really come as a surprise. Empty attempts at intimidation being Trump’s go to method of problem solving, have failed, along with petty flattery and sleazy bribery. He has resorted to hawking dubious cures, such as hydroxychloroquine.
The Root of Some Bad Stuff
Back to perception for a moment, the world, has watched the “greatest country in the world” show itself to be a circus run by a squad of disobedient clowns. Perspective is often the basis of much of it, priorities also have a major part to play. Particularly in the dueling protesters. Some protesters demanding liberation. Other protesters demanding lock down. The current bedlam has flag waving, gun carrying mobs demanding removal of Governor Whitman. While in D. C. protesters symbolically laying body bags in front of the Trump hotel. All the while, Trump so secure in his television persona he has suggested, Americans inject or drink disinfectant, to kill the virus. Freedom ringing so loud it is drowning out all rationality. Trump, dancing bizarrely between imaginary cures. Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, however, wants to keep people safe any way possible and minimize the consequences of such preventative actions.
Oh, Brother
The same goes for his brother, CNN pundit Chris Cuomo, who has taken to broadcasting from home while on quarantine. With false screen backgrounds most commentators are filming their shows from home. Joe Biden is sending tweets from his basement. Comedy Central stars Trevor Noah and long-time network fixture Samantha Bee are also opting to do their shows from home. They have listened to the scientists and know how viruses work. Even more though, they understand that their wish to live as they did before the outbreak, a Utopian period sure to come to be known by the shorthand “B.O.” (Before Outbreak), does not take priority over the literal lives of vulnerable people.
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
Which is, sadly, more than can be said for president Trumpykins and equally upsetting and disturbing percentage of lower-level politicians, not to mention citizens, who want things to go back to how they were; because they say so, and reality should fit what they think, dammit. This condition is particularly notable in Red states south of the Mason-Dixon line, Georgia I’m looking at you. Rebel Pride still runs high and there is a general distaste for Yankee rules generally. Sherman’s March To The Sea, and his scorched-earth tactics employed during that military campaign, still being something of a sore spot.
Live Free Or Die
Americans in general tend to dislike rules. The very notion of “orders”, when not claimed to come directly from God (don’t think I’ve forgotten about those Evangelical wing-nuts) raising many a hackle in the Land of the Free. Even if those self-isolation orders literally are saving lives. Leading to suicidal protests by people who do not seem to realize that the old saying has changed from “live free or die” to “live free and die” and who seem to be operating on the same God complex as their demented leader. Apparently they are convinced that they can keep from dying by the power of wishful thinking. In fact, what can you say when the Lt. Governor of Texas claims it is okay for a lot of people to die just so we can open up the economy.
Kempian
Despite Donald Trump wagging his finger and telling him he shouldn’t do it, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has decided to open up such essential businesses as bowling alleys, massage spas, tattoo parlors, beauty shops and barber shops. Kemp is the fellow that only a week ago said he had not known that COVID-19 was contagious if you did not show symptoms. In Georgia, the protests are against the opening of these businesses, a direct contradiction to the liberate Michigan protests. One sign I saw declared “Stupidity Kills”. I can’t remember if it was a reference to Kemp, Trump, or the “open it up” movement. In this case, take your pick.
Very Clean
There are also the dumber than usual statement by local politicians, such as the mayor of Las Vegas wanting things to “open up”. Despite her taking no responsibility for making it happen and apparently being under the impression that the status of the city as an entertainment capital will save it from the spreading plague. Not least because Vegas is “very clean”. One can only assume she is speaking strictly in the sanitary sense. Which is also debatable. We are all in this together but, sadly, we don’t all seem to know that.
