A Taki's Magazine article entitled "Prisoners of the New Order" popped into my reading feed last night that I thought really encapsulated what we are seeing in the US since March of 2020. I think it is worth a read.
The West is now in the midst of a great transformation. The old liberal order of respect for the individual rights of the citizens as things they possess by nature of being alive is now giving way to a custodial order. In the old order, you were responsible for you. In the new managerial order, the administrative state is responsible for you.
This is why we hear so much about "public health" and "public" this that and the other. Looking at how people talk, particularly on the left, they want the state to enforce their own particular view of how things should be done. They cannot aggress against individuals themselves so they take over state institutions to do the aggression for them. Of course the state enforcers (police) are more than happy to "do their job".
I don't bring up the police by accident. The article goes on to show what this custodial state actually is:
Prisons, of course, work similarly. Those who follow the rules are rewarded with extra benefits like additional commissary or access to the library. Those who are noncompliant are punished. As we are seeing with the administrative state’s response to Covid, the system rests on the utilitarian belief that people are motivated by the desire for pleasure and the avoidance of pain.
Another similarity is the prison system selects against empathy. Guards and administrators who care about the prisoners are a problem. Similarly, bureaucracy selects against conscientiousness. Put the two together in the prison system and the result is a lot of sadists who take pleasure in tormenting the prisoners. It turns out that people who like exercising absolute control over others tend to be sociopaths. (my underlines)
This is exactly what's going on in America (and more so elsewhere). The country is becoming an open air prison. And the point about sadists is spot on. I have shown in the Garvey's Ghost TV series how all these sadists behave. These abusers who are relishing the power they now have to act out on their depravity are enjoying this and no amount of showing truth and data will dissuade them because it is not about health or safety it is about power over others.