The late William Raspberry is often credited with comparing the Green Movement to a watermelon: "green on the outside/pink on the inside." Civil libertarians need to be watchful of the overlaps epidemic restrictions have with the prevailing Green agenda.
Here is a question for you. Is it plausible that a government would use an epidemic to affect social change?
I'm not talking about in an overt way. I personally do not think our current health crises is an insidious plot to take-over the world, wrought by mad-biological warriors and shady Illuminati (like that mixed metaphor-- "shady." "Illuminati"). But that does not mean I do not believe scores of social engineers are not chomping at the bit to make green hay while the coronovirus sun is shinning.
I also want to go on record to remind readers that even though I am a longstanding Libertarian, I have fully encouraged and supported the various temporary curtailments of our civil liberties in the face of controlling an unknown contagion. The issue I am warning about here and now, is what comes next; and the ease with which many Green dreams could become a reality.
For a certain segment of the population (primarily urban) there is a growing belief that things like POVs and air travel are wasteful and archaic. Here in Puerto Rico we just began "alternate day driving" to limit social exposure; and we are down to one airport and limited flights. But "alternate day driving" has been a dream of Greens for decades now, and as any person who had not been in a bomb shelter for the last year must know-- the Greens have a long-standing disdain for air travel and its environmental impact. That is unless that air travel is by private jet that they themselves are on. But that's another issue for another day.
The issue here and now is that whether it's meat consumption, air travel, driving restrictions, retooling of industry, hobbling non-fair-market coffee shops, or eliminating "luxury" dining; the overlap of current restrictions and Green dreams are too prevalent to simply ignore. In a few weeks the imminent need for these restrictions will pass, but already temperature tracking, virtual business (over an internet fully monitored by the national Security Agency) electronic currency, and stigmatization of "commercial" versus "global" needs will be in full flower and at high (if not flood) tide. The time to make the boundaries known is now. Let our local governments understand that as Americans (and any other free people who might happen to read this) that whereas we are all for acute circumspection; that does not equal or extend to institutional curtailment.
And for those youngsters who applaud this opportunity to prove to the world that socialism is not scary (like Cuba and Venezuela) take it from me. When I hear the streets surveilled by plane and helicopter, and I watch police checking the last number on my license plate, and I am checked-out and deemed worthy to enter a grocery store. These things do not remind me of Utopia-- they remind me of Cartagena 1992.
Green on the outside/pink on the inside. I think I'll order the cantaloupe instead. Thank you very much.
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