Covid Journal, March 28, 2020 (Snitch line edition)

It was inevitable that snitch lines would start to materialize. London, Ontario is the first I’ve come across, but there will be many more.

At first, people will try to tow the line and be legit about their complaints and observations, but I’m sure it will quickly spiral out of control, where neighbours will complain about the other neighbour that they had a spat about when they installed a new fence or didn’t use the right lawn maintenance service. Or didn’t clip their dandelions in time.

It’ll get ugly.

And that makes me sad.

Our society deserves better than this.

Ageism, demographic targeting, scaremongering etc will continue to drive people into their homes and become more anti-social as they socially distance from the world.

As our ‘social’ situation devolves – snitch lines, alienation, Martial Law – it will take nothing more than a snap of the fingers to bring about complete autocratic domination of our lives.

What’s next? Will black trucks show up in the middle of the night at the doors of dissenters and they disappear right under our watch?

Please tell me I’m wrong. Please, please, please tell me this is just a hyper version of a flu bug and we have nothing to worry about.

Some good news to go with this plea: Wuhan, China will be lifting its 2-month lockdown.

Let’s lighten the mood with a game: after the Black Plague, inheritance laws evolved. After 19th c cholera epidemics, sewers were built in Paris and London. What do you predict will be the lasting outcome of this epidemic?