'those who have given themselves up to reckless optimism'

someone handed him an orange (and then the dream was over).

horsemouth's plan (as you know) is to stay sat down and out of the way and with a paper bag over his head and wait for the whole thing to be over. the hermitude suits him. 

the virus is real. the vaccines work. the lockdowns and social distancings are necessary. 

what we are not living through is a cunning plan by the ruling class to seize control and in fact they are not using it for totalitarian purpose as much as they might because they have been singing from the entrepreneurial hymn-sheet for so long it has fucked their brains. 

the anti-vaxxers are the people who were dissatisfied with everything and who saw the hand of the state everywhere, the anti-lockdowners may have a point (after all the working class are still compelled to go to work by economic necessity - how can that be safe?), the anti-mask wearers may have a point - where is the research on how this airborn virus spreads? anti-mandate people are probably right (compulsion is probably not the way to go in terms of getting more people vaccinated/ getting staff to stay on). 

but on the whole horsemouth thinks the anti- arguments are bollocks. people are upset at losing control, they are disturbed by the irruption of danger into the safe world of consumption. (and when the virus is declared to be no worse than the winter flu and thus tolerable there will still be global warming).  

despite that horsemouth has a busy social calendar today. (test permitting). some child minding and then a social event  for a friend's birthday. 

horsemouth should probably deal with agamben's statements and the backlash against him. the pandemic has of course resulted in a vast expansion of bio-power (the extent to which the state is interested in our bodies and our health), but the alternative is the one the state keeps trying to revert to, a laissez-faire 'if they die they die, if they live they live, god will know his own'. of course they were partying it up in the garden of downing street because they were young and exceptional (your natural biological betters to whom the rules do not apply, our sovereign lords by virtue of their intellect and clear sightedness now having to apologise and act humble (such are the injustices of egalitarianism and democracy/ another promising career ruined)). 

you have to realise the strategy they planned to run was no lockdown let it rip this is not china. 

when the great accountant gets to review these years he may decide that the economic and social harms of lockdown exceeded the harms of the virus had we let it rip - but there was no way of knowing this at the start (just as there is no way of knowing what the next variant will be like). 

agamben did not think it was so lethal that it necessitated the lockdown (and true it does kill mainly old people) but people also get sick, there is long covid and a health service broken by covid is not in a position to dole out the care an ageing population requires (so more people die). vastly more people have died than they initially thought would. vastly more people have acquired long term chronic illness. the accounting of the death toll is not a matter of 28 days since your test but will not be clear for decades. 

agamben has the right to say these things though, because that is philosophy, socrates must be allowed to speak. 

anyway as horsemouth said, test permitting a day of social activity. he will then return to his hermitage by the river.