There’s a Revolutionary Spirit Enlivened In America By Jeffrey Tucker for Real Clear Markets
Since the great, or actually miserable, lockdowns of March 2020, I’ve had a sense of foreboding. I recall thinking that there was no way something this contrary to all American values could happen – imposed by a tiny elite, a centralized pandemic plan we were forced to accept without evidence – without some gigantic blowback.
In April of that year, I filed a report of what I expected the blowback to look like.
I predicted a revolt against Zoom life, a resentment against the media and the political establishment, an increased loathing of intellectuals, a new frugality, and a huge pushback against forced human separation.
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I look back at that now and see that I was way too moderate in my expectations.
Probably like you, I’ve been curious about attitudes in this country, and sought to extract information and listen in every way I can. What I’ve discovered you can consider alarming or encouraging depending on your attitudes. America is a vast tapestry of opinion, essentially uncontrolled despite mainstream media pretensions, and more polarized by the day. Getting a full handle on it is impossible because the media is more decentralized than ever, while polls, though interesting, are mere snapshots of what people say what they think they are supposed to say.
My intuition, informed by experience and many conversations with friends and strangers, is that the last 15 months have unleashed something unpredictable, possibly terrifying, and possibly wonderful. It feels like a full-scale revolt.
The lockdowns followed by the reopening have unleashed every manner of rebellion, in good but often alarming ways.
An example follows. I was in a Texas diner and the server was wearing a mask, which is quite unusual in this state these days. I asked why. She explained that as a twenty-something, she is refusing the vaccine because Covid is no threat to her. She was defying her corporate elite and not going to let anyone inject her solely to free herself of the mask obligation. She said that she would sooner wear this thing for a decade than let herself be drafted into a medical experiment.
