There are two forms of obedience. Rational obedience and irrational obedience. For most Americans, staying inside for a month to stop the spread to reduce hospital overruns was rational obedience. It was a short sacrifice they were going to make anyways out of rational self-interest.
When the metric went from “no hospital overruns” to “two weeks without a COVID-19 death to lift shutdown”, it became irrational obedience.
Even the barely educated like myself know we will likely will never have a cure due to antigen shift. This disease is something we will live with for the rest of our lives and shutting down the economy will not eradicate it.
We live with risk mitigation every day and this is no different. It’s now just another concern we have to add into list of concerns we have as we navigate life.
In 20 years of working in mass media, I’ve found that, individually, people can be dumb but large groups of people can be incredibly intuitive. Unlike government officials, the public is increasingly more comfortable with the risks we now face and are adjusting to it.
As governments try to deny Americans the right to make decisions they feel are appropriate, the more unruly people will become. In a country with 30% unemployment, the worst outcome is civil unrest. The most likely outcome is that even the most obstinate politicians will realize over the next couple of weeks that they’ve lost the will of the people and will begin lifting all restrictions.
Never underestimate the deep cowardice of politicians when faced with the wrath of their constituents.
