Well, they are finally saying the quiet part out loud. The New York Times published an opinion piece by Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal with the title “It’s Time to Scare People About Covid.”
You could be forgiven if you thought they were already doing this. The year has been filled to the brim with dark and dour Covid reporting, after all. Jesus turned water into wine, but the mainstream media turn even good news into despair. Consider the simple fact that this is a generally mild disease where 40% of carriers have absolutely no symptoms. This only means you could be the carrier of a deadly virus without even knowing. You must be afraid, very afraid.
Of course, the previous efforts to frighten us haven’t been nearly enough. Dr. Rosenthal informs us what real fearmongering looks like. You remember the anti-smoking advertisements of yesteryear (think people talking out of a hole in their neck)? Instead of relying on smug ad campaigns with pithy slogans, we should take the lesson and show real Covid patients. Only the serious ones, though, we wouldn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea.
Now, before we get to the main issues, I’ll try to be generous. If inducing fear is as simple as exposing people to reality, I must say it is a better strategy than the lockdowns. There is also the more human concern accompanying those in the medical community. Doctors have the unenviable position of viewing the suffering up close. It is admittedly easier for me, who had the mildest of cases and has known no one who has been seriously affected, to downplay this pandemic. They face the ugly side with greater frequency, so it is understandable if their outlook is a bit more dark.
It is this sympathy, however, which leads us to the first issue. Fear is being measured out without respect to the larger body of evidence. I won’t pretend this is a simple calculus that can be determined by the examination of death rates. How does one draw the line on acceptable loss of life? Nevertheless, there are other good things that have been threatened by our pandemic response (many of which our fathers considered worth dying for). After all, man does not live on bread alone. To question whether extreme action is warranted is not only acceptable, it is the responsible thing to do.
Progressives have always had this blind spot, so it really should come as no surprise. There is this inane idea that our lives would be better off if they were run by the experts. We have all heard this. The leftists believe that they are virtuous for ‘listening to the science.’ Somehow, they have managed to overlook the fact that these apparent experts live in the greatest fantasy land of all (and a lousy one at that). Human life does not unfold like a lab experiment. It is complicated. This is why we generally prefer our leaders to be well-rounded, thoughtful people, or even better, just to be left alone.
There is another absurdity to the scaremongering. No one asks where this will end. Even Dr. Rosenthal must admit, the cases she wants to advertise are in the extreme minority. Most people who catch Covid will be perfectly fine. She wants to intensify the fear because real people tend to downplay the risk. It should be obvious that this is a feature, not a bug. People die in all sorts of ways. Should we require drivers to view mutilated car crash victims before receiving their license? Should we require all beach goers to watch a short film on the perils of the sea? If we caved to every danger, the world would be a pretty dry place.
I have often wondered why the media, experts, and politicians have all boarded the panic train. The fear of death, political pressure, ideology. These all play a part, but they are no more unprecedented than the existence of a deadly virus. What is, perhaps, unprecedented is the dramatic response, and this should tell us something. The advancement of technology has given the elites the hope that they can stick their nose into every aspect of our lives. Naturally, they are all too eager to follow through.
The truth is, the progressive left thinks very little of individual human beings. Like their beloved experts, their minds inhabit a utopian fantasy. And, of course, it is utopian because it resembles no place that ever has or ever will exist. At the center of it all is a new humanity. This is why they feel justified in manipulating us through fear. I don’t suppose even they would consider it an entirely decorous venture. Nonetheless, they are enlightened, so the means is justified by the end. In other words, they think they are better than you and hope like good little children you will fall in line.
If I make this out to be a coordinated conspiracy, I will have done a disservice. In fact, I don’t imagine very many of the ‘elites’ have thought this through. We have absorbed leftism into our institutions, and now we see the results. They are merely demonstrating the ends of a secular worldview. Their world is one held captive to the fear of death. The shallowness of the ideology is rather an indictment on us who know better. There is more beauty in a page of Lewis or Chesterton than their entire library. If we can’t provide a better vision of the world, we really should stop complaining when the left’s is so miserable.
It is all too easy to get muddled in a web of scientific arguments. They have their place, but it is better that we press into the deep questions. What kind of life is worth living? I for one say that a life without courage is not. Beauty does not blossom from cowardice. Courage cannot be demanded, but to treat it like a vice is simply evil. Let’s resist with joyful disregard for petty tyrants. Yes, some of us will die, and for a few, it will not be pretty. Such is the nature of life. Death is always behind nipping at the heels, but we look forward to the day when death itself will be defeated. Jesus Christ is King; it is time we started living like it.
The Free Narnian 