The Amicable Anarchist

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The virus is real, and it is more deadly than some. Though with a 98.5% survivability rate it's a lot less deadly than others.

But as we have never had a full quarantine, as we've never had a coordinated nation-wide effort, it's too late now.

The virus has spread. As wide and far as if we'd done nothing. And it will continue to spread. No matter what we do now.

Social distancing, facemasks and closed industries are not saving America, they are destroying it.

The compensation isn't a kind and charitable gift, its a "a few dollars for many, far less than they need" and "more dollars for some few, far more than they need".

And the $1,200 was never charity - when the government takes things from you against your will, not only are they supposed to pay you, but they are supposed to pay fair market value.

Any one figure their job and house were only worth $1,200?

But all this is for saving grandma's life? Yeah, sorry. Grandma's still going to catch it eventually anyway. But odds are, she'd have survived anyway.

Does that make it a conspiracy? No, but that word is used to dismiss any who question the official narrative. Truth is, the virus was probably not a conspiracy, though history has shown us stranger things than that.

But the response designed so well for a massive wealth transfer, but so poorly for doing any real good?

Yeah, sure, that was a "conspiracy" in the simple sense that obviously several different interest groups had to come together to get this terrible response whipped up.

As to which interest groups, well, the only two things you could know such groups have in common is that one, they're awfully wealthy.

And two, they ain't you.

I used to see this a lot during the Black Lives Matter movement. Some would block a road, an ambulance would be delayed, and then some hick conservative would say something like, "They should just run 'em over!" or "I hope one of them needs an ambulance, and the driver refuses to take them!"

Or other such dumb comment that implies that what or how a person protests is worthy of murder if it is at odds with the person viewing it.

All the odder in that the original anger is supposed to be over a threat to human life. Which makes suggesting the cure of "more death, but this time certain", kind of bizarre.

Now I get to see it from the liberal side while a class of people most known for having great pay and benefits (nurses) were apparently being impacted by a protest by those most well known for having little pay and no benefits.

Seems that some of those who lost their incomes and livelihoods, and now are losing their cars and houses are getting a might frustrated at their perception that this Covid thing is crap.

They are - go figure - seeing movie stars and politicians and the 1% go anywhere they like any time they like, while they are told to "shelter at home".

And they see an incredible variety of folks from a broad diviersity of professions getting to still work and not all those jobs - like liquor store clerk, hospital HR admin, cab driver - seem all that "essential" to them.

But funny, the truth of falsity of the protester's position is actually not relevant. They are right, if you care to know, but it doesn't matter. It never has.

Take the BLM. They were a group not liked by the Right anyway - being black - and they were going after a group the Conservatives do like - cops. So the merits of BLM mattered not.

And for this time around the Left doesn't like regular Joe workingmen as a general rule, so now that such are going after a group the Liberals do like - college educated professionals - the merits now also matter not.

I'm now telling the Left that which they applauded me for when I told the Right: Don't wish death on protesters. And, while we're at it, expect protests to be inconvenient, they'd not get noticed if they weren't.

Of course, the same Liberals who previously applauded me are now more up for insulting me and throwing e-bricks at me. Comments and such as to how I must want everyone to die of the plague and how Nurses are the Heroes of the Age and who am I to speak less than reverently of them?

I'm sure some even feel I've betrayed them, as I more usually find things on the Right to criticize. But I've betrayed nothing and no one. My position is unchanged.

"Governments are at best an expedient", as Thoreau said, and as I believe. And as he went on to explain, they are always far more likely to be inexpedient. And that I also believe.

I also am a firm believer in that the right to assemble and the right to free speech must necessitate some inconvenience - or even hardship - to the rest of us, whether we agree with the positions or not.

I find it funny that no amount of interference in people's lives from the government is ever thought "too much", but a half hour delay to work by "We the People" is always and ever just WAYYYY out of line.

And finally, and I should have thought obviously, cutesie comments that are really veiled threats about murder are really not appropriate in any vaguely free society or from any halfway civilized person.

Are the nurses now the "heroes of the day"? Well, before that were the cops that the BLM protested and before that "First Responders", and ever and always veterans. Heroes come and go, and when you see that the tag "hero" is for what job they chose - as opposed to what specific thing they did - know that they really are NOT heroes.

And even if such were, it confers no extra rights. No right to be excused from protests or the fall out of such. No veteran, however noble, had a right to expect the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to "march elsewhere" so as to not inconvenience the vet.

And no nurse - however heroically the temps are being took and the IVs checked - has a right to expect the jobless and disenfranchised to "respect her authoritay". Her - or his - "heroism" is simply in being part of a well oiled machine geared to save lives, the role of the nurse is no more or less essential than that of the janitor or admin.

All play their parts, none could do it without the others.

To suggest that such nurses should fail to do their jobs if it is a protester sick...well, that sounds far more "petty" than "professional" to me. And if actually followed up on, sounds far more "hell bound" than "heroic".

In utter defiance of the Constitution of the United States, most all Churches of all faiths are closed for the emergency. Because to have more than ten people under the same roof would be dangerous.

Meanwhile, you can still have ten or more people at grocery stores. And before you say, "they're essential", are the hardware stores also? And the liquor stores with their single aisle of "chips" and "jerky"?

Because Covid 19 is sentient, isn't it? It knows to kill in Churches and your work place, but it knows not to kill in grocery and liquor stores? Right? That's how it works?

Many can't go to work, because we can't have ten or more in a building. But the police station still can. And before you say they're essential, is the Fish and Game? The Post Office?

And who tells us these shifting and senseless commands, but groups of ten or more government folk up near a podium being filmed by ten or more newsmen?

But is this just the art of the possible? No. Everyone could have been locked down at once. Cops in hazmat suits could have made sure the roads were empty save for police cars and ambulances and hearses.

National Guard trucks could have delivered MREs and water barrels to each neighborhood.

All jobs could have been stopped. All but doctors and enforcers in full biohazard gear could have been told to stay home.

That would have stopped the virus at once.

As it is, what we've done has hardly even slowed it. Nor will it. The rules are illogical and arbitrary. The rules are full of exceptions. And the rules are ignored at whim with little danger of any trouble.

I go out all the time. Some would say, "But Mr. Amicable Anarchist, you deliver food to the needy! That's essential!"

Yeah, so essential they forgot to list that one. But as I know I am, I just do it anyway. I think they maybe got around to putting volunteer food deliverers on the list, but I haven't cared to check. Because I'm not letting someone go hungry while waiting for some bureaucrat in Chicago or DC to remember to list me.

I also go about to all three sober living homes I run. Because that's essential, too. And I know that one is NOT on any list. And what would I do if they caught me? The same, as they won't take anyone to jail save for the most heinous of crimes, letting the quarantine be violated for any good or bad reason and the disease continue to spread.

Should I stop? I would. If it was a total quarantine. But not when your dad is bored and goes down to Ace Hardware to browse about contaminating every surface there for the next guy who had no reason to be there either. Before both go back to their families.

Not while the grocery gal is ostentatiously disinfecting cart handles - without mask or gloves on.

Not while police can't be bothered to wear masks or stop the clearly non-essential drug traffic at houses that they know to be drug houses. (Because if I know, why couldn't they be as smart as me in spotting such? They're hardly secret - any teen can find them, or we'd hardly have teen drug use would we?!)

Not while the government still meets at their work to tell us we can't meet at our work.

Not while banks pass linen/paper money to us instead of the sensible switch to cash cards.

Not while the parks are still full of folks who think that "six feet" is magic, that somehow the Covid virus knows to die or be inert after two meters. As opposed to the reality that it has to do with air temp, wind, pressure and such, and also that some will be hardier and longer lasting than others.

Yeah, that's right. Of 100 Covid 19 viruses travelling from one person to another six feet away, some will fail before four feet - and some will last after eight feet! You think those viruses carry tape measures?

And any virus that would die after six feet - if it has a wind behind it, it could fail to die till sixty feet! So much for the grocery stores being appropriate to have open. Look up, next time - yeah, those are air vents, ducts and industrial fans.

The entire quarantine is not worthy of the name. We should call it what it is - a "work interruption", an "economy destabilizer" and of course, in the final and inevitable post virus analysis to come, an "income redistributer".

And the same 1.5% that would have died without any measures? Will literally still die with these measures. The virus is even now only spreading more. By me for good reasons, by the police for good reasons, by the doctors, nurses, postal workers, cashiers and clerks who still go out and to work each day.

Because the Covid virus doesn't know that they're "good" and "essential", so they - while telling you to stay home - spread it about for you.

And because all the under the table jobs are still going strong - stronger than ever. From undocumented migrant works to drug dealers to prostitutes to construction workers to lawn care to the homeless guy holding the sign on the coner, all of them are catching and spreading the virus.

Each of you know someone who goes from your house and comes back to your house. And that person helps spread it. Be he going out for drugs or groceries or to nurse others, he or she is aiding in spreading it.

But celebrities will meanwhile get good guy/gal publicity telling you to "save lives, stay at home", and most, having no thought of ever bucking the system will stay in as long as the internet and tv - both essential industries, of course - still keep them entertained with messages of how brave they are.

You are not surviving a catastrophe. You are participating in a farce that is being played upon you by those who are robbing you.

Scrolling and clicking about the interwebs, I see a poll in which 64% of voters in New Hampshire would prefer a giant meteor to hit Earth and destroy all of humankind than Trump be elected again.

Elsewhere I see the same stuff most of you do - an unceasing barrage of praise for Trump from Conservatives and an unceasing barrage of contempt for Trump from Liberals.

He is the absolute best and absolute worst President in the history of ever, and he is the Savior and the Devil that will lead America to New Zion and the depths of Hell itself.

I'm here to suggest that both sides are equally wrong, and need to take a very deep breath and a giant step back.

As an anarchist, I can certainly judge that the man is a fool and a poser, power mad and narcissistic. He has no couth. No finesse. He is the type that you can't watch without feeling embarrassed on his behalf.

However, it's not like we haven't had such before, though admittedly he does seem a rather extreme case. But certainly George W., LBJ, and U.S. Grant are all strong and much overlooked contenders for that "honor".

But the hate is still as foolish as the love. I've heard Trump propose quite excellent ideas, like purchasing Greenland or starting a Space Force. And yeah, they both so happen to be great ideas, but as he said them, half the population of America is against them while the other half would have been for them even if he proposed using marshmallows to buy Greenland and graham crackers for space weapons.

I'd like each side to understand the crucial mistake they are both making.

We've deified the President. And it's not only stupid, but it's a form of idolatry.

The levels of reverence and fear, of adoration and contempt, are at emotional levels that historically have been more properly reserved for Gods and Demons.

Which prompts my very concerned question of, "Just why is any President of any nation at any time so important to you?"

Oh, yes, I know, some of his disparate policies will affect disparate groups in disparate ways, including ways that I don't like. Which is nothing more than I could say for any other President from George Washington on up.

Yet everyone of you puts your pants or dresses on each day, and each of you goes to work or watches Maury each day, each of you lives and loves and laughs - or dies and hates and cries - each day, whether he's in office, or whether unbeknownst to you Pence is running things while Trump undergoes surgery.

Or have we forgot that sometimes Presidents cede power temporarily without telling the public till years later, like W. did with Cheney?

The point isn't, by the way, whether Trump has ever been temporarily not President, the point is who cares? Both sides are just making WAY to big a deal about it.

When Trump came to office, he tried to do quite a few things, mostly sucky, and was promptly stopped by dozens of different sources from judges, to Congress to bureaucracies to powers that be.

And the first time the House could change hands, it did, as is usual in such cases. The Senate probably won't be far behind, especially if Trump wins again. America has a long history of making sure the Executive and Legislative branches are in opposite hands.

We are a nation of 330,000,000 people and frankly, one man just can't do that much good or bad. He's going to now muck about for another year - or five - and the Republic will still stand afterward.

Yes, the worship that I have literally watched some Conservatives give him is disgustingly sinful and foolish. But the hate and vitriol I've also watched Liberals give him is just as idolatrous and foolish.

He is neither God nor Satan. He is not an Angel or a Fallen Angel. He is not Christ or the Anti-Christ. And no, it is very, very doubtful that either side - God or Satan - is recruiting him to carry out anything good or bad.

He is a man. And be he brilliant or brainless, those are each attributes of a man.

We're going to have an election now. Probably a pretty contentious one. But whether he wins or loses, it is not worth any tears of joy or grief. It is not worth a voice raised in rapturous praise or angry jeering.

He is just a man. And if your life and happiness stands or falls on his winning or losing, then the problem lies in you, not him. Guys like him have built things up or mucked them up from the dawn of time. It's what you're about that should be the biggest factor in your life.

And if you still think it's a huge problem? Then try and realize that the problem is not the particular man, but a system that lets any man become so falsely important to so many.