We Are Creating the Need For Our Own “Big Brother”
Donald Trump’s “liberation” tweets of April 17, 2020 are irresponsible, and irredeemable. What happens from here we are doing to ourselves.
I posted this last night, from the heart:
Today, I was infuriated when I saw this:
Donald Trump’s manipulation to his supporters this morning is resolutely horrifying. He appears on television daily, discussing the slow and gradual re-opening of America’s economy … and then dogwhistles the above, via Twitter, to his most supportive voters.
He is exhibiting his populist side once again.
This is where we are now because, unfortunately, this is where we need to be:
It’s like something out of a science fiction film. Big Brother is indeed watching us, via drone.
For now. For tomorrow, who knows.
Clearly, not all of us are capable of monitoring ourselves, and there is not a single reason one can offer that is worth a trade-off in human lives.
Big Brother is watching us because we need a babysitter.
Here is what I believe is in store for tomorrow, as I am assured many of this president’s most extreme supporters will listen to him, rebel, and shortly thereafter fall ill. Of that group, several will die and the state’s mortality numbers will increase, which will cause the implementation of new strategies to fight the novel coronavirus. I cannot convince these people or anyone that we are not yet ready to reopen, much less be “liberated.” Covid-19 is not political, and yet this president has made it so.
As a result …
- For entertainment, no crowds will play to an audience in any location for at least two years. Performers and athletes will continue to play in empty arenas.
- For television and filmed entertainment, we will take a lesson from the porn industry (not a misprint). In the midst of the AIDS crisis, they adapted, testing all performers for HIV before going on camera. Further, some of them began to wear condoms. For straight entertainment, I see nose swabs and/or other quick tests for Covid-19 (or any mutations thereof), prior to working on a day’s shoot. When an actor goes home and returns the next day, they — like the crew — will have to be retested. Insurance premiums will skyrocket.
- Video surveillance will become di rigueur, as the populace of some states will, thankfully, demand the risk be taken seriously.
- Social media will share data to a larger extent than ever, and some who have suffered from the illness may be marked for the possibility of antibodies. I use the word marked, as if the virus is considered neither conquered nor treatable over the next year or two, carrying an ID with note of your past status may become required.
- Those who have recovered from the illness will face a period of being shunned by those resentful of having been shut in and needing further entities to blame.
- As a society, we will become more politically polarized than even today, and Donald Trump’s “legend” will only grow in some quarters despite the repercussions of his actions.
A message on repeat: As with the pandemic of 1918, which killed millions in a considerably less prepared word, today’s viral plague is, emphatically, apolitical.
In his effort to score political points 48 hours after the “Day of Gridlock” — which also blocked healthcare workers from attending to their patients — and 24 hours after discussing a “gradual reopening” on television, Trump exploited the very real fears and moods of his base by sending those immensely dangerous tweets above, encouraging “liberation” while those state governors were trying to save lives.
We are living in heady times. We need to be smart, as the leader of the free world is acting as anything but right now.
I posted the following on March 25, 2020, less than one month before penning this current piece, and circumstances have already changed. Though some of what I foresaw when I wrote “The Other Side of the Curve” I still believe will be realized, Donald Trump’s push today to encourage the citizens of Virginia, Michigan, and Minnesota to liberate against their governing bodies is the height of hypocrisy and endangerment.
All bets are off.
Thank you for reading.
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