For all of those tormented by visions of a near future where everyone is forced at gunpoint by federal troops to wear a mask and get vaccinated, I’m here to put your mind at ease.
Don’t worry: it ain’t gonna happen.
The government isn’t going to declare martial law, suspend habeas corpus, or take away your inalienable right to be a jerk. I don’t think the government could do this even if it wanted to. Quite often, when people are bound and determined to be jerks, there’s only so much the government—or anyone—can do to deter them.
Some people are shameless. If they take the opportunity to assert their jerkishness, there is no earthly force, governmental otherwise, that can stand in their way.
I base this conclusion on my many years of experience dealing with the genre of jerks that illegally park in spaces designated for disabled people, like me. This is a clear example of someone making a conscious decision to be a jerk.
People who don’t belong in disability spaces never park in them accidentally. There’s a sign that says “RESERVED” and it has the big blue and white wheelchair access symbol emblazoned on it. Here in Illinois, the sign even says “$250 fine.” Usually there’s another wheelchair access symbol painted on the ground. Anybody who can’t see that is too blind to drive.
But too often, people who have no business parking in these spaces do it anyway, like in the parking lots of grocery stores. Good luck trying to get anybody to do anything about it. If you go inside the store and complain, the manager will just shrug. If you call the police, all you’ll hear will be crickets. I doubt that there’s a police emergency dispatch code for “JERK PARKED IN DISABILITY SPACE.”
No, I’ve learned from experience that those who are hellbent on being jerks will inevitably prevail. They’ll triumphantly drive off, unpunished. All the government can do to them is bluster, urge, cajole, recommend.
Some people are shameless. If they take the opportunity to assert their jerkishness (so as to chalk up another one for the brotherhood of jerkdom), there is no earthly force, governmental otherwise, that can stand in their way.
If the authorities are unwilling or unable to bring the hammer down on these scofflaws, there’s little chance they’ll crack down on people who insist upon exercising their civil liberties—even if it kills them (and the rest of us, too).
But everyone that’s part of this jerk juggernaut can take heart. Your dystopian nightmare will not come true. You will not have to succumb to empathy.