Bill Marvel: Hamstringing Herodotus

No disease, including some that were far more deadly, ever moved state and local governments to impose such prolonged and severe restrictions on movement and association as the plague of 2020. No other generation would have borne it, either, but the American people have shed their historic fortitude, and turn downright submissive when their freedom is curtailed on the excuse of public safety. Politicians dread being blamed for any adverse consequences from exercising restraint in the name of liberty, so most of them err on the side of authoritarian excess, especially in an election year.

Hysterical overreaction to an admittedly serious disease may prove to have been as destructive as the pandemic itself — crushing the economy and worsening public health in other ways. The impact on the intellectual development of the Zoom Zombie generation, which was already increasingly ill-served by public schools, is likely to become notorious, and remain conspicuous for decades.