Emily
Editor, Senior Moderator
https://brownstone.org/articles/comedy-tragedy-or-both/
Comedy, Tragedy, or Both?
By Jeffrey A. Tucker February 28, 2022
The Saturday Night Live skit on Covid policy is a welcome relief, a cultural sign that rationality has started to return. Yes, the segment is truly hilarious. And it reveals so much about the present moment in which even highly politicized elites are realizing that the dissidents in the Covid wars had it right all along.
At the same time, the skit speaks to a deeper truth about the last two years. For many in the professional Zoom class, the entire occasion tragically became an opportunity for signaling virtue, pontificating about politics, and tightening alliances with their class compatriots, even as billions around the world suffered at the hands of overlords who massively neglected the lessons of traditional public health in favor of a wild experiment in pointless compulsion.
They shut down the “economy” (two weeks turned into two years) but for people in a certain class and age group, it was a welcome relief from the burdens of going to the office. The value of seeming to be part of a grand political mission outweighed the cost of not going out to eat. The lack of empathy for the workers who had no such luxury, church goers locked out of their houses of worship, and kids torn from their peers, to say nothing of millions who fell into poverty – and we could go on – was truly starting.
No, there was nothing amusing about any of this. Not to be humorless here but this was an unprecedented catastrophe the world over...
Comedy, Tragedy, or Both?
By Jeffrey A. Tucker February 28, 2022
The Saturday Night Live skit on Covid policy is a welcome relief, a cultural sign that rationality has started to return. Yes, the segment is truly hilarious. And it reveals so much about the present moment in which even highly politicized elites are realizing that the dissidents in the Covid wars had it right all along.
At the same time, the skit speaks to a deeper truth about the last two years. For many in the professional Zoom class, the entire occasion tragically became an opportunity for signaling virtue, pontificating about politics, and tightening alliances with their class compatriots, even as billions around the world suffered at the hands of overlords who massively neglected the lessons of traditional public health in favor of a wild experiment in pointless compulsion.
They shut down the “economy” (two weeks turned into two years) but for people in a certain class and age group, it was a welcome relief from the burdens of going to the office. The value of seeming to be part of a grand political mission outweighed the cost of not going out to eat. The lack of empathy for the workers who had no such luxury, church goers locked out of their houses of worship, and kids torn from their peers, to say nothing of millions who fell into poverty – and we could go on – was truly starting.
No, there was nothing amusing about any of this. Not to be humorless here but this was an unprecedented catastrophe the world over...