Another episode of that nagging little voice telling me we’re on a slippery slope to a new witchhunt-Red Scare-age of conformity where the ones who stand out from the crowd will be forced to comply, and if they don’t, shunned, banished, persecuted and eventually slain to rid the world of independent thought & action, and as an object lesson and reminder to the rest: You Will Obey.
While the number of new cases decreases and the virus runs its course (like it has throughout human history: burning itself out, until it mutates into a newer strain), the official policies are becoming more stringent and oppressive: where, 2 months ago, I shopped at the DIY emporium and there were a roughly equal number of facemask wearers and non-wearers, today I was the only person I encountered who had not bent the symbolic knee and donned a facemask.
You do become self-conscious against your will, when you’re the only one not hiding behind one of those useless nose and mouth coverings. As the lockdown gradually deranges people and they start chafing (unconsciously at first) at the insane level of micromanagement being foisted on humanity, you see the eruptions of violence and wonder, “When will someone publicly denounce me as a non-believer?”