Rights, Stuff, and The Gulli-virus

Editors note:
The post below has been edited for clarity. The original was poorly written. In fact this is nearly a  rewrite. The concept of the post has not been changed but the tone has been moderated and clarification has been added. The original could give the impression that the author was insulting his readers. Good writers don't do that. It was not the intention.

Often my writing is snarky and that is not universally well received. My apologies to readers for the poor expression of ideas in the post. I give no apologies for the opinions expressed. This is an opinion blog and it is not expected that agreement with those opinions will be universal either.

Some writers have the luxury of editors who can tell them when the water is muddy even though the writer thinks it's clear. Unfortunately in this case the writer and editor are the same person.

Without caution, snark can turn into hubris. So this is my mea culpa. I shall attempt to be more cautious. I hope you will wish me luck.




By Grant Davies

Some political media types have tried to frame the argument between the "stay at homes" and the "let me work agains" as "Lives vs the Economy." 

For a very long time people (myself included) have listened to the arguments these media types have made and chose which side we are on. But we thought very little about why they were framed the way they were. My opinion is that they are framed in a way that will  divide people. Divide and conquer is a very old trick.

We keep falling for the trick time after time. The above argument involves a false choice. I suspect that those who still were buying into it after having a few days to think about it show the symptoms of the gulli-virus. 

Like COVID, it is said you can have it for a few days before you notice it. Some even recovered before they knew they were ill. Unfortunately, some will not recover at all.

Gullibility went viral before the Corona did and it has long been a pandemic. And yes, I just created that virus out of my imagination. Viruses aren't the only things that mutate. I have personally contracted this virus many times. Hopefully I have recovered but no immunity exists for this one. It's part of the humanity virus, for which there is no vaccine.

Here is the point, I would sum up the current philosophical battle this way:

Some would rather give up their rights for some favored policies and perceived safety, and yes, for some stuff.

Others would rather forego the policies, perception, and stuff to keep their rights.

When you think about it, isn't that what all the arguments over government are fundamentally about?