Get in the Box

It’s vital to promote the truth. However, I must admit that I often find myself afflicted with a dull, persistent despair. This malaise stems from my suspicions that the masses have been rendered incapable of accepting it. This leads me to fantasize about more authoritarian measures.

That’s why I’ve found the crackdown in China over the current corona virus really exciting. I spent quite a bit of time out in the Far East. So, I can attest that when a government over there decides that something important needs to be done, feelings are not a concern. I respect this approach.

For instance, most homes over there have metal doors and frames, and bars on the windows. So, in some parts of China, if someone is suspected of being infected, the police will simply weld their door shut to prevent escape. There are all sorts of diseased miscreants in America I would love to weld into their domiciles.

Mahjong, the quintessential Chinese game, requires several players. To counter this contagion risk, police are busting into houses to smash the gaming tables (and the gamers).  Can you think of any unwholesome recreational activities you’d like to smash? I sure can.

Here’s some heartwarming footage of an official using a drone with a loudspeaker to admonish reckless citizens in a disease zone. Their compliance is full and immediate. That got me to daydreaming about doing the same thing in my own local disease zone, Walmart.

From the comfort of my wood paneled commissar’s office, I could give commands to the creatures via the drone. They would have to obey-or else. Non-compliance would earn them an electrocution by the drone’s taser gun right on the spot. Then, my goons (Chinese municipal governments employ thug squads for grey area tasks) would cart them off to a gulag.

Right from the start, no obese individual would dare huff out of there with a cart full of soda ever again. That’s pretty much guaranteed. The other possibilities are endless. I’d critique clothing, tattoos, lifestyle choices, companions, etc. It would all be for The Greater Good.

The Greater Good is a concept they understand over there quite well. That’s another thing I respect about them. It’s simply absurd to conceive of oneself as existing in a vacuum. However, many of us essentially do. This is a primary symptom of our current malaise.

There’s no Chinese equivalent of shrugging your shoulders and saying “do whatever makes you happy,” or citing a rap song and asserting that “only god can judge me” in regards to one’s reckless and pernicious behaviors. It makes me cringe because it’s a way of absolving oneself of responsibility to everybody else. They don’t deride each other as “haters” for objecting to activities that are harmful to society.

Beyond the Chinese state, they have a concept of the “Zhonghua Minzu,” which is essentially the broader Chinese racial group to which they all belong. The communists tried to ditch this rather ambiguous ideology but found that there’s nothing terribly unifying about a state defined by a concept of government.

I’m not sure where I was going with this screed, but my basic point is that if a Chinese person is infected, and needs to be locked into a metal box and driven off to God-only-knows-where in order to prevent a virus from spreading to others, then most of them are okay with it.

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