Everywhere you go, people are dutifully wearing face masks. I was in Idaho over the weekend. I saw a woman wearing a face mask while riding a bike with not a soul anywhere near her. I’ve seen people wearing a face mask while driving.
Joe Biden has called for all governors to mandate mask wearing for everyone who is outside in America. Then there’s this:
A Wisconsin state agency is reportedly mandating that its employees wear face masks during video conferences, even if they are home alone. In a July 31 email, the Department of Natural Resources Secretary Preston Cole reminded employees that the governor’s mask order, which requires anyone over the age of 4 to wear a face-covering while indoors, was to take effect Aug. 1, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
“Also, wear your mask, even if you are home, to participate in a virtual meeting that involves being seen — such as on Zoom or another video-conferencing platform — by non-DNR staff,” Cole said, according to the Sentinel. “Set the safety example which shows you as a DNR public service employee care about the safety and health of others.” (Fox News)
“I must comply … I must obey … I must submit.” The is forced conformity. It reminds me of this clip from the 1953 film Stalag 17 starring William Holden:
I was in four different airports over the weekend and four different planes. We were constantly barraged with demands to wear a face mask, to make sure it covered our nose and mouth. on the plane, if we didn’t, we would get a “gentle” reminder of our rebellion. Welcome to 1984.
Forced compliance is the stuff of movie legend as depicted in the 1967 classic film Cool Hand Luke. conformity is the name of the game on the prison farm ruled by a sadistic “Captain” and his ruthless enforcers. “You gonna git used to wearin’ them chains after awhile, Luke, but you never stop listenin’ to them clinkin’. That’s gonna remind you of what I been sayin’. For your own good.” That’s right, it’s all for your good. Don’t forget that:
It was OK to remove your mask if you were sitting down at a restaurant and food court. What medical magic happened when you started to eat food I’ll never know. Even on the plane people took off their masks when they were given dry-as-burnt toast snack boxes. If the virus is so dangerous that it requires a person to wear a mask outside, then what changes when people remove their masks to eat? One restaurant in Salt Lake City was packed. Of course, no one was wearing a mask. More medical magic.
There were a number of people besides me who thought the entire charade was ridiculous. As soon as they were out of sight of airport personnel, they pulled down their mask. If people are breathing—inhaling and exhaling—they are transmitting whatever they are breathing in and out. Most masks I’ve seen are flimsy. While you can’t see the airflow, you know it’s there otherwise the people wearing masks would be dead via asphyxiation. Look at the following. It shows what happens every time you exhale. Notice that the airflow is going in all direction, including behind you as the person six feet away steps into your six-foot “safe” circle pasted on floors everywhere as we dutifully step in the space that has been assigned for us to use:
A medical doctor vaping shows what happens when you wear a mask and exhale.
We’re told that wearing a mask is a way that we show love to our neighbor. If we really love our neighbor, we should defy demands from our government to wear masks. At the beginning of the virus we were told to wash our hands, not touch our face, wipe down surfaces, and wear gloves, and yet bathrooms are not wiped down every time a person uses it. I was at a convenience store where all kinds of things were touched and retouched by the ungloved. If there were 15 people in the store, I can assure you that what they exhaled was still lingering and people were breathing in their air. By the way, wearing gloves all day is not sanitary.
People have become compliant. What’s the next thing the government will tell us we must do, and we will dutifully do it? Today it’s masks—tomorrow it’s turning in people who don’t wear a mask. This potentially dystopian future reminds me of this final scene from the 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers:
Donald Sutherland in the 1978 film Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Don’t say, as Sinclair Lewis facetiously warned, “It Can’t Happen Here”; it is happening here. Not wearing a mask is a visual statement that we won’t be duped and cudgeled into conformity because some politician or bureaucrat demands it.
Further demands will be made. If Biden and the Democrats get back in power come January 2021, it’s going to be a whole new United States that our parents and grandparents would not recognize. Love demands that we push back against government oppression, not just with masks, but with everything.
This does not mean we should not be cautious around sick people. If you are sick, stay home. This is something we as children learned in the first grade.