Hey, I never said that I would not hide under the bed!

Michael Lumish

I simply refuse to do so under the command of some petty bureaucrat in Alameda County.

The various counties in the San Francisco Bay Area have decreed that people may not leave their homes without sufficient reason and, needless to say, it is those petty bureaucrats who get to determine what sufficient reason means.

They are, in my opinion, local authoritarians exercising their little fascistic muscles and I absolutely refuse to be told under what circumstances I may be allowed to leave my own home.

But for those of you of a slavish nature, keep your trembling self-righteous indignation in check.

I will come and go as I please, but that does not mean I refuse to self-quarantine or follow necessary precautions when out on the street. I have no intention of gathering amongst crowds for the purpose of sneezing on them.

What I object to -- as someone who values individual liberty just as my countercultural forbears did -- is the authoritarian nature of these dictates. We are such lambs. Such sheep. So easily frightened by the media and authority figures.

I will keep a reasonable distance between myself and people on the street. I will not go to bars or restaurants or large social gatherings. I will not bang on your sister's door and give her a big sloppy, just for the hell of it. And, yes, I promised my mother when I was ten years old that I would wash my hands regularly.

So, of course, I will follow basic guidelines, but I am not going to allow the government to deny me essential liberties, such as freedom of speech, freedom of movement, and freedom of assembly, on their insistence, even as they wreck the economy and ruin people's lives in the process.

We need to be focused on the virus, but we also need awareness concerning how our reaction to the virus will cause people to lose their jobs and homes. We need to be concerned about how a severe international financial downturn, which we are already beginning to see, might be just as devastating as the virus, itself. In fact, it might turn out to be considerably worse than the virus.

The thing is, we do not know.

We are therefore taking extreme measures, toying with people's lives and livelihoods, based on insufficient data.

We need to calm the fuck down and quit with the hysterics.

I do not like the fact that the various local governments are shutting down the bars and restaurants and beaches, but it is a momentarily reasonable reaction to a pandemic.

But, once again, as a matter of principle, unless I am under arrest via due process, I will not allow anyone to tell me under what circumstances I may be allowed to leave my home.