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Yeah, this one's under the "mature" heading because this is a subject that gets spectacularly strong reactions out of people...which is annoying as frak. Get a grip, people! Those of you who've followed me for a while now know that I don't like getting political with my art unless I think it absolutely necessary. Well, this is.

So, right about now, you're thinking "What's your problem with masks?!" In themselves, I don’t have a problem with them at all. In fact, if you think wearing one is a good idea, I’m not gonna stop you. I don’t think it’s quite the panacea it’s being touted as, since they're designed to be used in conjunction with other equipment and practices for maximum effect. Care to guess what's not happening now? Anyway, what I have a problem with is the mandates that require them to be worn at all times or risk having force used on you to compel you to wear them or remove you, regardless of your ability to wear one or not. That's what I take exception to.

The argument used to counter that is “Your liberty ends where mine begins!” That’s not a good argument in this situation, since the use of force to compel compliance is a violation of another person's liberty, while their lack of compliance is not an infringement on yours. In fact, the use of force in this manner is the foremost calling card of a tyrant. They never start big, they start small. One small encroachment at a time, until they've taken so much that you can't fight back once you finally realize what they are. Villains who twirl their mustaches are easy to spot, but the ones that cloak themselves in good deeds and righteousness are well camoflauged.

In order to make this argument, you would have to start with the premise that we have a right to not be sick. We don’t have that right. If we did, nobody would get sick except through the malicious actions of others. Perfect health all the time. Does that happen? No. It does not. In fact, getting sick is a fact of life. It happens. You would have to assume that you have the right to use force not merely to maintain that right of perfect health, but to create the conditions for it to exist. We don’t have that right, either. We could get sick with something every day. The cold, the flu, allergies, among a vast array of others. Do you go around with a gun threatening people who might be sick so you can avoid those things? No? How about calling police to remove someone with sniffles from pollen allergies from your grocery store? Don’t do that either? Then why do so now? What’s so dangerous about Batflu that you figure you can use that kind of force now?

Put more simply: Public safety, among other things, is the age old cry of the oppressor. With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably. The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. If we, as artists, fail to recognize that, then we have no claim to the title. We must be on liberty's side, no matter the cost. The consequences of failure are, as history has shown us, far worse.

Besides, while masks are no doubt useful…Batflu isn’t going away, and it’s transmission rate is so high (while it’s mortality rate is remarkably low), that while it can be slowed, it’s not gonna be eradicated. Like as not, you’re gonna catch it. Rather than panicking over it, you might as well accept it and live your life as normal. Which makes the current goal of eliminating Batflu. entirely a joke. Not a very good one, but since it’s eradication is now a requirement in order to lift the lockdowns and end the state of emergency… and that’s never gonna happen. So what do we do? Continue the way we have been, in spite of all the damage it’s doing? Or do we calm down and get back to our lives now that we’re armed with sufficient information to make good decisions on our own?

We know who’s most vulnerable, and what contributes to a fatal outcome, and we should be acting on that…and it’d be far less effort and less damaging to have such focused policies, anyway. Instead, we’ve got this one-size-fits-all approach that seems predicated on Batflu being universally lethal (when it’s definitively not) and we’ve adopted counter-productive social standards as a result. This isn’t helping matters, and I don’t like looking down the barrel of a gun as you try to force me into being scared when that’s the least useful thing I could be doing.

“You’re not taking this seriously!” Wrong. I’m just not panicking about it because that’s counter-productive. I insist on making my own judgements based on the information I can access. And I don’t put much stock in “experts” who can’t seem to make up their minds or get their own facts straight but still somehow think they can tell the rest of us what to do.

Want merch? Go here: teespring.com/stores/nightrunn…

Description

Yeah, this one's under the "mature" heading because this is a subject that gets spectacularly strong reactions out of people...which is annoying as frak. Get a grip, people! Those of you who've followed me for a while now know that I don't like getting political with my art unless I think it absolutely necessary. Well, this is.

So, right about now, you're thinking "What's your problem with masks?!" In themselves, I don’t have a problem with them at all. In fact, if you think wearing one is a good idea, I’m not gonna stop you. I don’t think it’s quite the panacea it’s being touted as, since they're designed to be used in conjunction with other equipment and practices for maximum effect. Care to guess what's not happening now? Anyway, what I have a problem with is the mandates that require them to be worn at all times or risk having force used on you to compel you to wear them or remove you, regardless of your ability to wear one or not. That's what I take exception to.

The argument used to counter that is “Your liberty ends where mine begins!” That’s not a good argument in this situation, since the use of force to compel compliance is a violation of another person's liberty, while their lack of compliance is not an infringement on yours. In fact, the use of force in this manner is the foremost calling card of a tyrant. They never start big, they start small. One small encroachment at a time, until they've taken so much that you can't fight back once you finally realize what they are. Villains who twirl their mustaches are easy to spot, but the ones that cloak themselves in good deeds and righteousness are well camoflauged.

In order to make this argument, you would have to start with the premise that we have a right to not be sick. We don’t have that right. If we did, nobody would get sick except through the malicious actions of others. Perfect health all the time. Does that happen? No. It does not. In fact, getting sick is a fact of life. It happens. You would have to assume that you have the right to use force not merely to maintain that right of perfect health, but to create the conditions for it to exist. We don’t have that right, either. We could get sick with something every day. The cold, the flu, allergies, among a vast array of others. Do you go around with a gun threatening people who might be sick so you can avoid those things? No? How about calling police to remove someone with sniffles from pollen allergies from your grocery store? Don’t do that either? Then why do so now? What’s so dangerous about Batflu that you figure you can use that kind of force now?

Put more simply: Public safety, among other things, is the age old cry of the oppressor. With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably. The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. If we, as artists, fail to recognize that, then we have no claim to the title. We must be on liberty's side, no matter the cost. The consequences of failure are, as history has shown us, far worse.

Besides, while masks are no doubt useful…Batflu isn’t going away, and it’s transmission rate is so high (while it’s mortality rate is remarkably low), that while it can be slowed, it’s not gonna be eradicated. Like as not, you’re gonna catch it. Rather than panicking over it, you might as well accept it and live your life as normal. Which makes the current goal of eliminating Batflu. entirely a joke. Not a very good one, but since it’s eradication is now a requirement in order to lift the lockdowns and end the state of emergency… and that’s never gonna happen. So what do we do? Continue the way we have been, in spite of all the damage it’s doing? Or do we calm down and get back to our lives now that we’re armed with sufficient information to make good decisions on our own?

We know who’s most vulnerable, and what contributes to a fatal outcome, and we should be acting on that…and it’d be far less effort and less damaging to have such focused policies, anyway. Instead, we’ve got this one-size-fits-all approach that seems predicated on Batflu being universally lethal (when it’s definitively not) and we’ve adopted counter-productive social standards as a result. This isn’t helping matters, and I don’t like looking down the barrel of a gun as you try to force me into being scared when that’s the least useful thing I could be doing.

“You’re not taking this seriously!” Wrong. I’m just not panicking about it because that’s counter-productive. I insist on making my own judgements based on the information I can access. And I don’t put much stock in “experts” who can’t seem to make up their minds or get their own facts straight but still somehow think they can tell the rest of us what to do.

Want merch? Go here: teespring.com/stores/nightrunn…