Most catastrophes involve the government (correctly!) asking people to give things up for their fellow human beings, and it's almost impossible to do that equitably. Both Covid and active shooter situations involve this, to a certain extent. With Covid people were asked early on to forego high quality masks; stay home but not "hoard" sup…
Most catastrophes involve the government (correctly!) asking people to give things up for their fellow human beings, and it's almost impossible to do that equitably. Both Covid and active shooter situations involve this, to a certain extent. With Covid people were asked early on to forego high quality masks; stay home but not "hoard" supples; asked to "wait their turn" for vaccines even as "vaccine passports" were already being floated (next time, let's not do those two messages simultaneously). With active shooter situations, people are called on to fight back and help other people get out "if possible", as if it's not *always* safer to get the heck out. In severe droughts, people are asked to conserve water - in some cases even *drinking* water. In heat waves, people may be asked to turn off their air conditioners.
It's not that being asked to ration is bad; it's absolutely the government's role to ask people to conserve resources in catastrophes - or better yet enforce rationing. The latter is seldom possible in the context of late stage global capitalism that we're in. Instead we just get a signal from the government (or workplace, or utility company, or grocery store) that a given resource is scarce, and you just end up with an ugly every-man-for-himself situation.
People who dodge serious catastrophes don't become versions of themselves they care to remember.
Most catastrophes involve the government (correctly!) asking people to give things up for their fellow human beings, and it's almost impossible to do that equitably. Both Covid and active shooter situations involve this, to a certain extent. With Covid people were asked early on to forego high quality masks; stay home but not "hoard" supples; asked to "wait their turn" for vaccines even as "vaccine passports" were already being floated (next time, let's not do those two messages simultaneously). With active shooter situations, people are called on to fight back and help other people get out "if possible", as if it's not *always* safer to get the heck out. In severe droughts, people are asked to conserve water - in some cases even *drinking* water. In heat waves, people may be asked to turn off their air conditioners.
It's not that being asked to ration is bad; it's absolutely the government's role to ask people to conserve resources in catastrophes - or better yet enforce rationing. The latter is seldom possible in the context of late stage global capitalism that we're in. Instead we just get a signal from the government (or workplace, or utility company, or grocery store) that a given resource is scarce, and you just end up with an ugly every-man-for-himself situation.
People who dodge serious catastrophes don't become versions of themselves they care to remember.