Tyranny

          Semper tyrannis (thus always to tyrants) is said to have been uttered by Brutus as he stabbed Julius Caesar. The phrase was also used by John Wilkes Booth after shooting Abraham Lincoln.

            We have many tyrants these days operating out of state houses and mayoral mansions. I’m not suggesting we assassinate them, but I am saying it’s time for them to recognize that the tyranny they exercise is doing irreparable harm to this country, while oppressing the very citizens they were elected to serve.

            When Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti extended his stay-at-home order indefinitely, he said it was to save lives. He added he was guided by science and nothing else. This sanctimonious idiot certainly was not guided by common sense.

            When mayor Bill De Blasio told the citizens of New York City that he would send NYPD officers to haul swimmers out of the water, he said it was to protect them. How stupid is that? After pointing out that his city will remain shut down, he claimed that “things are going well.” This tyrant is actually pleased that his orders are destroying his city. How many taxicabs will return to his streets after this is over? How many restaurants will reopen their doors? How many New Yorkers will move away and never look back?

            There are many other government tyrants issuing silly and arbitrary orders. Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer (only one person per boat), New Jersey’s Phil Murphy (singles but not doubles in tennis), California’s Gavin Newsome (no sunbathing on LA beaches). The list is very long. What they all have in common is the utter lack of common sense. Drunk with power and impervious to ridicule; they are willfully blind to the misery they are causing in their zeal to save lives.

            Reality is stark: businesses big and small declaring bankruptcy, with Hertz, J.C. Penney, and JCrew only the latest in a long line of familiar names; shops closing their doors forever, with millions of jobs gone forever. Over 20 million on unemployment, with little chance of ever being rehired.

            The people will pay the price in misery, poverty, malnutrition, despair. We are already seeing increases in suicides, opioid abuse, domestic violence, crime. Do the tyrants not see this? Are they totally blind to the consequences of their actions?                   

            C.S. Lewis saw the problem very clearly: “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive….those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end if they do so with approval of their own conscience.”

            Many, including me, are predicting that history will look upon the Great Lockdown as the greatest mistake this country has ever made.