COVID Follies? - 16 November 2020 - Plague Journal Day 249

Micah 6:8
Proverbs 30:12-13
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

I apologize for the lack of humor today.

So here we go again. Somehow the State will find a way to claim the power to compel behaviors from its citizens - or perhaps from its subjects is a better way to put it. While our legal system in general is there to prohibit specific behaviors (e.g., murder, theft, fraud, kidnapping, turning without using a signal, and other such major infractions), somehow we've "progressed" to the point where our leaders rulers have found the power to compel us to do particular things (e.g., wear a mask, buy coverage for things you can't encounter, and other "oddities" of this present age). It's not clear to me where in the U.S. Constitution - nor in any of the various State Constitutions - anyone is finding a positive power of coercion for the government over the governed. I still remember being taught - in a government school, no less! - that the legitimacy of the government derives from the consent of the governed. Somehow we seem to be moving from public servants to a ruling class. If there is a better argument for term limits than what's going on these days, I'd like to hear it.

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

08 October 2020 - Plague Journal Day 210

Micah 6:8
Matthew 20:25-26
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

Those of you who know me are likely aware that I am a nearly-rabid C.S. Lewis fan. I've read nearly everything he ever wrote (even his narrative poetry and sometimes-bizarre myth-based novels), and find a great deal of wisdom in his essays and fiction.
The other day I came across this quote (originally from an essay titled "Willing Slaves of the Welfare State" first published in 1958, later included in his collection of essays, "God in the Dock") which I remembered having read, and which connects beautifully with his third SF novel, "That Hideous Strength." It also comments on many of today's political screeds.

"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of Earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be "cured" against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals." - C.S. Lews, "Willing Slaves of the Welfare State" in "God in the Dock"

Yep. That's a pretty good capsulation of why we can't allow government to tell us what to think, what to believe, how to behave. (I grant that there are very legitimate areas of governmental power, generally concerned with but not limited to the prevention of injury to its constituents.) This site (Libertarian Christians) looks interesting, but I warn you that I haven't read much there yet, so I may have to comment further in a future post.

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.