Woodstock Occurred in the Middle of a Pandemic

Woodstock Occurred in the Middle of a Pandemic

https://www.aier.org/article/woodstock-occurred-in-the-middle-of-a-pandemic/

Excerpt: It’s not as if we had governments unwilling to intervene in other matters. We had the Vietnam War, social welfare, public housing, urban renewal, and the rise of Medicare and Medicaid. We had a president swearing to cure all poverty, illiteracy, and disease. Government was as intrusive as it had ever been in history. But for some reason, there was no thought given to shutdowns. Which raises the question: why was this different? We will be trying to figure this one out for decades. Was the difference that we have mass media invading our lives with endless notifications blowing up in our pockets? Was there some change in philosophy such that we now think politics is responsible for all existing aspects of life? Was there a political element here in that the media blew this wildly out of proportion as revenge against Trump and his deplorables? Or did our excessive adoration of predictive modelling get out of control to the point that we let a physicist with ridiculous models frighten the world’s governments into violating the human rights of billions of people? Maybe all of these were factors. Or maybe there is something darker and nefarious at work, as the conspiracy theorists would have it. Regardless, they all have some explaining to do. [Huh! I feel foolish, but have an excuse for not knowing this pandemic had happened. I spent all but the last 19 days of 1968 in Vietnam, and was far more concerned about keeping all my body parts intact than anything else. This article does draw a very obvious contrast, though, between then and now. Ron P.]