Leftists and Social Bullies

So during this Kung Flu pandemic, the seriousness of which is, in my opinion, unproven, one of the things we need to keep in mind is the creeps who have popped up to boss the rest of us around.  Raleigh, North Carolina is not New York City, but we seem to have the same policies being imposed by the same types of people.

Kurt Schlichter today has an article at Townhall.com entitled Beware the Creeps Who Enjoy Their New Pandemic Power Spoiler alert: Schlichter thinks we will return to something approaching "normal" soon. He premises this belief on the fact that Americans will tolerate being essentially under house arrest for just so long:

The problem with people referring to this bizarre pandemic life limbo as “the new normal” is that there are people out there, both in and out of positions of responsibility, who are digging this opportunity to boss us around. And it is troubling to see that there are a number of prominent folks who are in no hurry to curtail their ability to boss us around. We need to note carefully who these people are and ensure that they never get a chance to control anything again.

...snip...

But the medical perspective is not the only perspective. There are other perspectives that need to be considered, like the economy and our liberty, and so we elect people to consider them. See, this is why we are not a technocracy. We are a republic. We normal citizens get the final say in our country’s priorities, and we may not decide that our priorities are exactly the same as Dr. Fauci’s. I, for one, am willing to accept some risk regarding the infection in order to avoid America degenerating into a Road Warrior scenario – unless I can be the Humungous, who really gets a bad rap for his innovative and focused leadership style.

Adults accept risk when balancing various interests. The idea that “It’s not worth one life” is childish and stupid. We have cars. Cars kill 30K people a year. We accept that risk. What’s the proper risk balancing for the Chinese coronavirus? Well, we as citizens need to figure that out. That process is called “politics.” That’s why whenever anyone tells you that “This is no time for politics,” they really mean they don’t want you to have any input into the decision. Without politics, you have a dictatorship, and that seems to be the unspoken theme of a growing number of elected officials and others.

What Schlichter is talking about above is what is commonly known as "trade offs." We make them all the time. Is that old refrigerator worth repairing or should you buy new? Of course, the issue of cars, which typically kill 30,000 people per year. Is it worth it to force people out of their cars to save lives? If not why not? People die while choking on food. So, to save just one life should everybody be prevented from eating?   That last of course is obviously not intended as a serious proposal but rather to show the silliness of the "save just one life" argument is.

So, having shown that even Leftist  and social bullies can, and do instinctively make judgements about the risks they are willing to accept, it may be time to stop with the "save on life" arguments and begin discussing factual risks and trade offs.  Is the total destruction of the economy worth the saving of the lives of the vulnerable? What about the loss of lives of those not vulnerable to the virus, but who will lose their income?  Because, every business is ultimately essential to those who own it and to the employees who work there.

In fact, as long as we have wandered into this territory, Michael Z. Williamson, over at the blog  The Sacred Cow Slaughterhouse explains the interrelationship of the entire economy in a post entitle Businesses That Will Fail. This blog shows that though you start with one a person my feel are "nonessential" that pretty soon you start to impact essential businesses and services. It is why the Communist idea of a Central Planning Committee to determine these things is a fool's errand. 

Please go read both articles today.  I pray that Schlichter's outlook is the more correct, and that we will soon enough return to normal.  It is not at all clear to me, though that we will ever get rid of  the social bullies and their endless message of constantly restricting what we do, where we go, what we eat, and a thousand other restrictions on our freedoms and liberties, because it is good for us, of course.