Dystopia

If you are having trouble defining the word, look it up. Google is great!


Utopia is the concept of perfect – day, life, society, etc. Dystopia is the opposite. Just about anything that can go wrong does. Especially social contract. It works only one way.


Read The Handmaid’s Tale. It is dystopia personified. Women are objects and only good for serving men and having babies. Men are in control of everything. Children are objects to manage in order to keep the human race going forward. Girls are trained to continue to serve men and have babies eventually. Boys are trained to be doers and leaders.

People are not trusted. Everyone is paired with at least one other person to watch over the each other to toe the line. People who disagree with the prevailing order of society are enemies and subject to death; usually by hanging. Gatherings are sponsored to dictate the latest rules and regulations. Individual thought is discouraged.


Now, switch your focus to Americans dealing with the pandemic. Most of us are following orders from government officials as advised by medical professionals to shelter at home and restrict interactions that could spread the disease. These steps are designed to protect the public’s health and safety from a disease that remains unknown in all of its particulars. Treatments are still being invented for those infected. The course of the disease in one person’s body is not always copied in another patient. No vaccine is yet ready to protect the entire population. Heck, we don’t have adequate testing for specific purposes and enough of them to test all in need.


Thus the pandemic continues.


Yet, a vocal minority expresses frustration and impatience at this sacrifice dictated by government. They clamor for opening up society and the economy. They claim they are losing their jobs, assets and freedom. Yes, they are. So are we all.


The logical conclusion, however, is we all will lose everything if we contract the disease and die. Not everyone will succumb, of course, but many will. Talk about losing everything!


To keep that Armageddon from occurring, executive orders have been designed to protect the public. These orders are a collaborative result of medical and scientific professionals, and government authorities. The State and US Constitutions are the baseline of authority exercised in these circumstances.


Logic should also be a co-determinant. If the authorities are correct in their understanding and projections, we remain mostly protected and healthy to live many more years. If the complainers' view prevails, and if those people are wrong, unnecessary death and suffering will happen. I’d rather stick with the crowd whose business it is to study and understand the science and medical realities of the disease.


I side with the Governor of Illinois to keep the state on lock down with a prescribe opening in stages by region. None of this was arbitrary. All was carefully calculated and planned using the best and latest information available. I trust their focus on detail, their transparency in seeking expert inputs, and their care and trust in us, the citizenry of the state.


I think we have the right people in the right jobs at the right moment in history. That includes Mayor Lightfoot of Chicago. Smart, caring and decisive.


For those who disagree, please do your homework and understand all elements of the problem before tossing out glaring political bon mots. You demean yourself and others.

Worse, you endanger yourself and others.


May 16, 2020