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every state is a totalitarian state - they just need the right conditions for their manager of the moment (MOM) to show its true colors. and declaring a state local/national/global emergency (is covid-19 really an emergency, or a knee-jerk/convenient hyper response?) is exactly the conditions they need. of course it will always be "for our own good". which does not mean individual good but for the good of the abstract/nonexistent entity of "The People"... which is code for the state itself.

whether the measures taken - or merely threatened - are considered reasonable depends on one's perspective. whether they promote calm and sense of control also depends on that perspective. but this emergency, whether it should be considered one or not, is showing how far state actors (and non-state) will go. and this is just the beginning.

"preppers SHTFer, survivalists" could tell you how it will play out - though the end itself cannot be known. so far, the script is being followed verbatim. from mandatory quarantine enforced by fine, imprisonment, or death (by states that are unapologetically, openly authoritarian), the imposition of national guards in "hot spots" - of course only to distribute food, clean up spaces, and help us old ladies across the street. to grabbing full-on power to impose whatever the fuck they want when they want.

in a recent example, the mayor of champaign illinois just gave herself super-powers, through executive order, that allow her to ban the sale of all guns and ammo and alcohol. to shut down access to water, electricity, and gas to whomever. to confiscate private property. and more.

i doubt that this is unusual power she is taking for herself, for her minions and enforcers. most people do not read the text of government law and order. you might be interested in what the MOM of the state you are in say they can do. the question is not whether they ought to do this or have the legal right to do or even if it is GOING to be done. what effect does the possibility alone have on people's perceptions and therefore behavior? i guarantee people in champaign (and elsewhere now that they know the possibility is real and here) will be stocking up on guns and ammo, on alcohol, water, propane and gasoline (toilet paper being a low ass priority). meeting up with friends and family they trust to figure out how to secure their own "constitutional rights" to stay and go where they want and do as they think best for them and theirs.

in other words, making an already tense situation worse.

extreme conditions shows the hidden details and tests the boundaries of all social, political, economic ideologies; exposes the tension between the individual and the mass. drives home the weakness of giving up personal autonomy and agency to a system that has a single prime function: its own survival - the possibility of new loci of power coalescing by factions right and left looms darkly, largely in their waking nightmares.
interesting times indeed.