Posted on 04/21/2022 5:18:29 PM PDT by george76
Airports have been the main stages for security and hygiene "theater.".
Bureaucrats cling to power. It’s their institutional predisposition.
So it was no surprise on Wednesday when the Department of Justice appealed the recent Federal court ruling that struck down the mask mandate imposed on mass transportation by the Centers for Disease Control.
As the appeal demonstrates, governments are especially reluctant to give up emergency powers. When they do, the relinquishment is grudging and only partial.
That is a big reason why big government keeps getting bigger. As economist Robert Higgs showed in his book Crisis and Leviathan, since the early 20th century, the US government has exploited every national emergency to seize emergency powers. After the crisis subsides, government power recedes, but never all the way back to pre-crisis levels. In this way, the federal government “ratchets up” its power, at the expense of our liberty, crisis after crisis.
This “ratchet effect,” as Higgs termed it, is on vivid display in airports especially. There, the travel mask mandate persisted long after the pandemic panic subsided and many other COVID policies were rolled back. And if the DOJ’s appeal succeeds, it may return and linger even longer.
The wretched ratchet effect is also manifest in the many post-9/11 airport security policies that the Transportation Security Administration continues to enforce more than two decades after the crisis that spawned them.
A curious aspect of many of these policies is how seemingly petty they are. Why is the government so adamant about travelers removing their shoes at security and wearing masks? The effectiveness of such measures has been shown to be highly dubious at best. Moreover, such compelled performances of “security theater” and “hygiene theater” don’t even seem to provide much material benefit to the government. What’s the point of ratcheting up that kind of power?
I suspect a major purpose of such petty policies is the mass inculcation of obedience. Security theater and hygiene theater are part and parcel of a broader “obedience theater.” Humiliating compulsory gestures like removing your shoes and wearing your mask are obeisances: symbolic ritual acts of self-abasement and submission.
It’s not about keeping you safe or healthy. It’s about showing you who’s boss.
Obviously, it’s because they dearly care about our health and look over us like a mother to its child...
Or, more likely, it’s an orgasmic addiction to exercising power over others.
Could be either one...
There’s no shortage of peeps in DC who need to be Che’d.
It’s about showing you who’s boss.
Power and control.
Out of control government remains out of control.
They need to be able to bring back the lockdowns after the election.
Ready for their next October surprise?
I’d bet on the latter, rather than the former.
I think you mean “Before the Election.” Need to have those mail-in ballots, and drop boxes for election week.
I think it should be mandatory that every one wears a condom. You never know when you might be exposed to something nasty.
In fact I am wearing one right now.
Call them COVIDictators!
Because they are totalitarians? Just a hunch.
It’s not about keeping you safe or healthy. It’s about showing you who’s boss.
Absolutely right. And the government enlists millions of very willing kapos to do their dirty work for them. We call them "Karens." Kapo and Karen both start with "Ka."
“They need to be able to bring back the lockdowns after the election.”
Yes, lock down the politicians and make them wear Trump masks.
It’s all about CONTROL and MONEY. We are being conditioned while big pharma, and paid off politicians are making a fortune. It’s a racket.
It the government cared about the Covid flu thingie, it would have ALLOWED doctors to prescribe Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine.
I think they simply can’t admit they were wrong.
I also wonder if they think that removing mandates on masks, vaxing etc. implies an admission of liability of some sort?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.