Academic

JAMES LILEKS? WEDNESDAY REVIEW OF MODERN THOUGHT: At some point in a pandemic, the suspicion of inf?

By Ed Driscoll

JAMES LILEKS’ WEDNESDAY REVIEW OF MODERN THOUGHT:

At some point in a pandemic, the suspicion of infection morphs into the presumption of infection. That?s smart if it?s bad and widespread and raging. Hospitals overwhelmed, the sick hacking on every street, clinic corridors jammed with the rheumy victims, cordwood stacked like bodies in the morgue, or something. But this is not that. What?s more, this was never that. It was apparent months ago that this is not that. It?s not mild flu, but it?s not that.

The presumption of infection in a situation where A) it?s not the case, and B) the consequences for infection are statistically nominal, well, this is injurious to society, and every incremental introduction of something that bolsters the accumulated paranoia makes it more difficult to surpass the sense of constant suspicion.

These devices become talismans of safety. You start to distrust places that don?t have them. You resent the suggestion that you submit to them, but you go along — it?s anti-social to do otherwise. It just becomes part of life: standing in front of the device and fitting your shoulders to the contours of the anonymous human shape on the screen.

Read the whole thing.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on October 21, 2020 (boomark / email).