Genetically Tailored Deterrence

Terminator (1984) has always been one of my beloved flicks. The best piece of dialogue from it is the speech by Kyle Reese to Sarah Connor trying to impress upon her the risks of having a hunter-killer robot tasked with your elimination:

“Listen, and understand! That Terminator is out there! It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop… ever, until you are dead!”

Those who feel nostalgic about this movie are most likely white, male and old enough to make responsible decisions regarding pandemic safety precautions. “It’s just the flu, bro” spring breakers partying down in Florida have probably never seen it.

Thus, Michael Biehn reprising his role as Kyle Reese to recreate the scene as a PSA urging folks to stay home was a fairly pointless endeavor. Anyone who grew up watching Terminator now has elderly parents or young children whom they’re paranoid about keeping uninfected.

It’s also the case that we’re facing fines or even jail time for violating public health mandates. I really hate making punitive payments and definitely don’t want to spend any time in a cage. Consider me thoroughly deterred. Although, I’m not representative of the entire population.

This is why I respect the approach of law enforcement in Zambia. They’re not bothering with tactics based on a future time orientation. Obese Police Spokeswoman Esther Mwaata Katongo went on national television brandishing a large cane to make the following announcement:

“This is law enforcement. We will whip you. You know, to make you comply. We are directed on how to do the whipping. So we are going to whip you… We tell you not to go there, and you go there, we are going to whip you.“

This is basically how African-Americans parent their offspring. You touch them skittles in the checkout line, and you’ll be sorry. I remember decades ago as a little kid, watching this vibrant tableaux of Americana play out directly in front of me. I recall feeling grateful that I wasn’t one of them.

My mom wasn’t going to buy me those skittles either, but she also wasn’t going to whack me across the head as she growled “I done told you not to touch nothin.” She’d only kill my brain cells by applying nail polish in the car with the windows rolled up. I suppose I lived a genteel life of privilege by comparison.

The reality of this world is that its inhabitants are quite diverse. Therefore, it takes different approaches to frighten different people into not engaging in exact same behaviors. In Italy, fines are sufficient to keep everyone home, while in India a more firm approach is required:

When we’re sitting in FEMA camps waiting to get micro-chipped and then shipped off for processing into fertilizer, we should all take comfort in the fact that our lives transpired on a planet filled with such inspirational diversity.