Could this become the new normal?

Society has been shut down across the world not because of deaths that have actually happened, but because of projected deaths.  Well, one might say–giving our leaders a reasonable benefit of doubt–doesn’t this indicate far-sightedness, not waiting until disaster has struck, but proactively averting it?  The trouble with “safety” issues is that their demands are insatiable, so one cannot prioritize them absolutely.  A flu that ends up being an order of magnitude worse than the the regular flu could kill millions.  How many would die from crashing the world’s economy?  Are we sure that locking down the developed world won’t do this, or that if it will the deaths will be few?  Because we must be sure of this before talking about “lives” being more important than “money”.  (Similar doubts apply to other situations in which people so easily say that “lives” are more important than “rules” or “institutions”.)

The media is working hard to make me panic, but I reserve my right as a monarchist not to have an opinion.  Even if, suppose, the decision to shut down society was right and prudent this time, what was unimaginable a week ago has happened with no resistance, and a precedent has been set.  One doesn’t need corpses in the street to cancel school, outlaw private assembly, and (most ominous of all) for the Mass to be suspended–in many places voluntarily canceled even before being prohibited.  Just a month ago, we were all hearing the argument that the movement of peoples is something that is beyond any government’s power to control.  Now, it turns out that governments can lock down entire populations.  For good or ill, we see that many governments do have this power.

Is the threat of disease really worse now than in Western civilization’s past, when such measures were not taken, or have we re-evaluated our priorities?  And if the latter, to what extent will we ever get our sociability and our religion back?  Because tens of millions of people will always die each year of something, and new viruses will always be coming along with at least some period of exponential growth.  I can imagine a time when we look back on the times before this week and be amazed that once people crowded into buses, churches, concert halls, and sports stadia, that they walked outside without masks and shook strangers’ hands, that they went to public parks and let their children play with strangers’ children.  The traditional sociability of Westerners, and the social dimension of Christianity, might come to be seen as irresponsible, something governments, “health experts”, and public opinion have a duty to discourage.

I know I will be making many readers angry by voicing such concerns, but as we’ve seen with the self-destruction of the Catholic Church, complete fixation on one problem, however legitimate the problem, is dangerous.  We should get comfortable with the idea that the Mass might be something whose continuance we’ll have to argue for every few years, usually with our bishops on the other side.  “But germs!” can’t be allowed to be an absolute trump card; it’s a concern to be balanced against others.