Quote from: Biodom on March 19, 2020, 01:56:18 AM

Is this "new normal" or complete lunacy?

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/615370/coronavirus-pandemic-social-distancing-18-months/

N.b., I refuse to carry a phone. For reason of its location-tracking. (And its bugging ability, but that is somewhat easier to control.) I guess the new normal does not have a place for me. Excerpted in pertinent part:

Quote from: Gideon Lichfield, Technology Review, 2020-03-17

Were not going back to normal
Social distancing is here to stay for much more than a few weeks. It will upend our way of life, in some ways forever.

[...]

We dont know exactly what this new future looks like, of course. But one can imagine a world in which, to get on a flight, perhaps youll have to be signed up to a service that tracks your movements via your phone. The airline wouldnt be able to see where youd gone, but it would get an alert if youd been close to known infected people or disease hot spots. Thered be similar requirements at the entrance to large venues, government buildings, or public transport hubs. There would be temperature scanners everywhere, and your workplace might demand you wear a monitor that tracks your temperature or other vital signs. Where nightclubs ask for proof of age, in future they might ask for proof of immunityan identity card or some kind of digital verification via your phone, showing youve already recovered from or been vaccinated against the latest virus strains.

Quote

I had to travel earlier this month and this is how my movements were being tracked for the purpose of #COVID19 containment.

Follow @RadiiChina for more videos on #China! #coronavirus #COVID2019 pic.twitter.com/yHzdm7q6HF
Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin) March 16, 2020

Well adapt to and accept such measures, much as weve adapted to increasingly stringent airport security screenings in the wake of terrorist attacks. The intrusive surveillance will be considered a small price to pay for the basic freedom [sic] to be with other people.

[...]

The world has changed many times, and it is changing again. All of us will have to adapt to a new way of living, working, and forging relationships.

I called it! Enjoy!

Quote from: nullius on March 15, 2020, 05:53:59 PM

All of these actions are praised by the sheep, due to mass panic. Dissidents will be immediately labelled conspiracy theorists and/or accused of wanting for people to die.

2. The governments actions do not actually stop the emergency. This is a feature, not a bug. Short-term emergency measures become long-term daily realities to which people have become accustomed: The instant new normality.

[...]

If this does not blow over fast (viz., if the virus does not magically disappear right quickly), then the foreseeable alternatives are two sides of the same coin: Tyranny and anarchy (that last being anarchy of the rabble).

If all hell breaks loose, then it is foreseeable that my area will be overrun by roving bands of criminals violently pillaging from anybody who has foodor just hurting people for fun. Moreover, as the government starts to collapse, it will clamp down as hard as it can as it spins out of control.

And if all hell doesnt break loose, that only means that the new normality is total State control of food, personal movement, and who-knows-what-else tomorrow.

If any of this seems alarmist, look to history. Alarmists like to predict Ends Of The World: Jesus floating down from a cloud, invasion by space aliens, etc., etc. I am predicting that if the current course of events does not change soon, something will happen that has happened many times in historyexcept that it has never yet happened on a totally global scale. Hmmm.

Quote from: nullius on March 16, 2020, 04:04:05 PM

Do the opposite of what panicking people are doing. For example, I have my own take on this excellent photo of panic personified:

Quote from: LFC_Bitcoin on March 16, 2020, 12:04:43 PM

Mass Suicide!

Quote from: nullius on February 05, 2020, 07:47:42 AM

At that point, from the U.S. governments perspectiveyeah, sure, ok, let some right-wing nut in Flyover Country stash a few little gold coins.* Whatever. He can keep them between the ARs which he thinks he can use to defend freedom militia-style against a régime that twice steamrolled the most powerful Arab military without even blinking, among other exemplary demonstrations of military superpower, and subsequently used Iraq as a testbed for new technologies in asymmetric counterinsurgencyhey! American patriots, did you notice that your military was busy perfecting unopposable counterinsurgency at exactly the same time as your domestic police forces suddenly became even more extremely militarized due to post-911? Hmmm? Anyway, sorry, a few bullion coins at the margins are meaningless in the big picture of the global financial system.

(* I say this without disrespect to the people thus insulted; I am stating the USG perspective on it, and urging would-be American freedom-fighters to be strategically realistic. Dont give up your AR, but dont delude yourself into believing that this is 1774.)

Edit:
I condemn anybody and everybody who PANICS.

Out of respect for those few Americans who are not contemptible domestic animals begging to be wrapped in unlimited chains forever, I will quote a great Americana famous quote, which obviously applies here:

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. Benjamin Franklin