Member-only story
I’m sorry about that. I wish we did not have to take this step, but as your prime minister I must do what is necessary to stop the spread of the virus and save lives.” Boris Johnson, September 9th, 2020
Welcome to the ‘new necessary’: the perpetual, ever-green ‘necessary’ which serves as the logic lynchpin for all kinds of state control of the subject. There is absolutely no logical barrier, no cognitive firewall, between taking extraordinary measures to save lives during a time of moderate crisis (like March and April) and a time of absolutely no crisis (like fall 2020) — no inherent separation between taking ‘precautions’ to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and any other airborne disease.
If you wanted to know how you would have behaved in a historical moment of totalitarian over-reach, of mass hysteria, well you (most of you) now have your answer: you would have joined; you like joining; you are willing to sign up for more. You were not able to draw a line with the government, with governors, with ‘leaders’, to say, ‘no, actually, this is not necessary.’ You will actively seek information to confirm your own bias — your own preference for psychological safety.
In these kinds of historical moments, individual will is murdered, buried, while a collective will takes its place. An origin story then has to be generated, and propagated, then, to justify this ritual murder or sacrifice. ‘Here is why you’ve stopped being you. Here is why you’ve melted into everyone else. You, and we, are evil and our natures have to be…
