From the White-PillBox: Part 2

Yes, there are White Pills in the COVID madness.

Black pills abound in the COVID hysteria, especially with regards to the general public’s reaction to State mandates. People complied easily; they complied quickly; they even policed each other. They not only accepted the intrusions, shaming and threats by governments, but readily accepted the same from private corporate interests. And finally, the compliance was world-wide.

Moreover, the State tasted blood. It observed that its extreme overreactions to COVID were largely accepted. It learned how far it could push its interventions and still enjoy public acquiescence.

The White Pills are harder to see, but potent. They are found by examining both public’s ready compliance, and the State’s unsophisticated interpretation of it.

The public

I previously argued that the entire COVID event is an extreme and historic example of mass hysteria. I explained how near-universal compliance was possible: in the face of (what was perceived as) a global catastrophic threat to humanity, the public’s reaction corresponded with the threat. Most did not see it as an overreaction; indeed, it was perceived as eminently logical and justified.

But fear and compliance do not define the public. These responses merely reveal what is possible. Yes, the reaction to a (perceived) catastrophic threat was not calm, logical and measured. But this should not be surprising given that every major institution on the planet pushed the COVID propaganda, and silenced contrary views.

People did not fundamentally change. What changed was a clearer understanding of how people react when brought to a psychological extremity.

We should not judge the public solely on how they reacted in the face of a serious (though false) threat - especially when they are under the sway of an hysteria.

So one White Pill is how astoundingly extreme a threat must be framed and communicated, before it can hope to have broad public compliance. In other words, it was a performance not easily repeated (notably, none of the horrors and instability of the 20th century aroused the same worldwide public compliance achieved by the COVID hysteria).

We also learned about the adaptability of humans. We were first-hand witnesses to, and participants in, adaptation to radical change. The normal course of life was utterly upended by draconian State interventions in personal interactions, health, education, commerce, travel, and entertainment. Yet people adapted.

Again, people did not fundamentally change. What changed was a clearer understanding of how people can adapt to extreme social changes.

So another White Pill provides insight into the question often asked by freedom advocates: can the public ever adapt to a free society? Clearly they can. They adapted to extreme hardships based on a false threat; they can surely adapt to the genuine, realistic conditions of freedom.

And yet another White Pill is found in the speed with which the public adapted to the COVID measures. This confirms what history has already taught us: it is within humans to adapt quickly. The best example of this is found in the abolition of slavery. Over a few decades of the 19th Century, one of the world’s oldest State-sponsored institutions virtually ended.¹

The State

I’ve described the State’s interpretation of the public’s ready compliance as “unsophisticated”. As I’ve written before, the State is itself not a thinking entity. Since it cannot think, it cannot analyze in any meaningfully sophisticated way.² And since it cannot analyze well, it is missing an obvious lesson of its extreme interventions.

Namely, that it is possible to go too far. Humans can bear only so much of a burden. No, the public is not likely to broadly resist ideologically, or in highly explicit ways. But in small ways that add up, it will shift or curtail its acquiescence and productivity. Moreover, it further loses faith in the legitimacy of the State, the major media, and popular experts.

Far more potent that its touted vaccines, is the White Pill served up by the State itself. We can thank the State for accelerating a trend that was moving all too slowly for most freedom advocates: wider global awareness of its illegitimacy, and that of its favored institutions.

1. True, the public could just as easily turn on a dime back toward Statism, if they ever made headway towards freedom. This will be the subject of a future White Pill essay.

2. Yes, the State can occasionally achieve fairly complex goals. But this requires a relatively small number of controlling actors, holding considerable personal power, and employing notably rare levels of expertise. But by far, State actions are typically slow, superficial, inefficient, and heavy-handed or violent.