Welcome to the Corona Caste System: Are you Essential?
“Caste is a form of social stratification characterized by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation.”
So really it is more social stratification, as endogamy is not a factor. Social stratification is happening as a result of corona, defined as ‘society's categorization of its people into groups based on socioeconomic factors like wealth, income, occupation, and social status, or derived power (social and political).’
Overnight classifications were developed. Nonessential and essential. With nonessential being jobs that were deemed unnecessary, not critical. Well those jobs were critical to the livelihoods of those people. And who gets to determine who is essential and who is not essential?
There is another group in this three-tiered social stratification. The 1% at the top making the rules. Apparently rules that don’t apply to them. They make them; enforce them, despite it being unconstitutional, as it is not the sole role of any one official to make laws, laws that apparently they are above.
In New York, we have Mayor DeBlasio violating his own government’s recommendation and working out at the YMCA all by himself. A business he deemed non-essential, appears to be essential after all. The mayor’s defense was “he wanted to visit a place that keeps him grounded.” Well wouldn’t we all. And how is a place that keeps you grounded un-essential? What happens when there is a population of people that are no longer grounded?
Is emotional health and mental health not essential? Is physical health the only health that matters?
Then in Chicago we have Mayor Lightfoot facing backlash as she violated her own quarantine advice to go to a salon and get a haircut. Salons are another unessential business. Not to the hairdressers whose only source of income is the salon. Lightfoot said “I’m on national media and I’m in the public eye, I take my personal hygiene very seriously.’
And the rest of us don’t take personal hygiene seriously? Apparently the Mayor’s hygiene and appearance are more important than the income of her constituents.
The 1% are getting all sorts of special treatment. Not only do they get to make use of the nonessentials while the rest of us poor saps can’t, they also get to keep their nonessential businesses open as Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf was able to get a waiver to keep his cabinet supply company up and running.
Family businesses that have been around for a hundred years are not going to be able to sustain this shut down. That is devastating.
But businesses aren’t the only necessities to a happy, healthy life that are being classified as nonessential. We also have other things like boating and camping. Even National Parks are closed. All activities that are inherently distancing where the likelihood of contact is less than that you’d find at the grocery store or Lowe’s. Things that are healthy activities for families to do together to stay active and happy during these trying times.
Fishing was banned in some states and so was the purchase of seeds. Two ways for people to independently source food outside of a grocery store. Things that can be done with a lot of social distancing.
And let’s talk more about grocery stores. Apparently they are the only places social distancing works. A place where everyone assembles once a week is more likely to have successful social distancing than a nonessential business?
On the East Coast and the West Coast we had surfers arrested for surfing. Another activity where social distancing is entirely possible. Two police officers arrive to escort single surfers to a crowded jail cell.
The illogic abounds. The privilege abounds. The discrimination abounds.
We have elective surgeries postponed; however abortion clinics remain open.
We have abortion clinics open, yet Church suspended.
Churches offering outside mass from cars yet being denied even that by overreaching irrational officials.
Churches typically remain open during epidemics, as they are also critical to health. In this issue we are only taking physical health into account. Not mental. Not emotional. Not spiritual. Yet they are all critical components that do not operate independent of one another, they are intimately connected.
A Brenner study from John Hopkins showed that for every 1% rise in unemployment there would be 48,000 deaths of despair based off of our current population. How much is our unemployment up to? The largest increase in recorded history. That means that statistically we will have more death by murder, suicide, alcoholism, drug abuse and heart attacks as a result of this unprecedented shuttering of the economy than we will from the virus.
Someone tried to argue with me that they were unstable and therefore less deserving of consideration than those that are physically vulnerable. Both need to be considered.
Another friend tried to explain his political belief which he explained as “government is an overwhelming force for good.” I asked which governments? Venezuela, North Korea, China, Germany 100 years ago? He was trying to explain to me how freedom was his ability to choose giving his choice to government. I explained that although we went to the same high school it appeared we walked away with very different understandings of history. As governments can quickly turn into overwhelming forces, but not for good. He explained he didn’t say governments. Plural. Just ours. I later asked him to explain how all of the above fit into his belief that our government was an overwhelming force for good, and never received a reply.
I do not think governments are overwhelming forces for good. I think we have history to prove that time and time again. And I think right now our government is abusing their authority. They are overreaching. They are setting up a Corona Caste System that puts them on top and the rest of us looking like we are as David Icke suggests, on a path towards the Hunger Games. Not conspiracy anymore. Current policy.
That is why people are protesting. It’s not that they want COVID. They see what is happening. They see the abuses that are taking place in the name of COVID. A virus that was estimated to kill 2 million Americans and has since been downgraded to 60,000-80,000. That of a bad flu year. Hardly the threat we were originally sold.
Yet our churches are still closed while abortion clinics are still open. And we are still unable to work. With some Governors lifting stay-at-home orders and others not. The ones that aren't lifting it are doubling down. Even when the numbers in some areas aren't warranting the prolonged response. The inaccurate numbers, as COVID deaths are being recorded as such even without confirmation through testing.
The states that are not lifting stay-at-home orders, despite not being hit as hard as initially thought, and not having hospitals overwhelmed are where you are seeing protests.
People see these protesters and name call. I was at one yesterday and a car full of young adults yelled out to us. “Stay home, I hope you all get the virus and die.” Ironic, that they were also not home, nor were they social distancing. Hypocrisy. Little do they know they are not equals in the caste system either and the rights we are fighting for are also the ones they are losing.
With the 1% saying we are all going to have to carry immunity papers, and submit to microchips, mandates that they will profit from and likely won’t have to have, as they make the rules but don’t need to follow them. We are becoming captive commodities to the growing inequality of the Corona Caste system.
Then there are people that think it is unfair to talk about such things. It is insensitive to healthcare workers. They should be lifted up. I agree they should be lifted up. But making discussions around religion taboo, drove God out of schools, and ultimately out of the country. Talking about politics became taboo and now we have politicians that think they deserve more than the rest of us. Making public health policy discussions taboo is going to guarantee that is the end result. Devoid of choice.
One of my friends even suggested it was inappropriate to discuss freedom as people are dying. I said, I don’t think our veterans would discuss freedom as trivial, as it is worth dying for.
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
And that is what is happening. We are trading essential liberty for a false sense of security. And Governor’s are saying this is going to be the new normal until we have a shot. Considering the issues with the SARS one, and with experts finding mutations and multiple strains, it is possible we will never have a safe or effective COVID shot. So what then? Liberty removed forever? The Corona Caste system indefinitely?
Enough fighting amongst us lowly and less privileged. Time to rise up and show we are not going to submit to this new normal that benefits them while the rest of sit home on our couches fat, drunk, lazy and compliant. Say no to the Corona Caste System. As everyone is essential. We must balance health and freedom. Not give up one for the other. As they both can’t operate independently of one another. As they both are essential.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_stratification
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/i-take-my-personal-hygiene-very-seriously-chicago-mayor-lori-lightfoot-violates-her-own-quarantine-advice-to-get-a-haircut/https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/public-global-health/487915-de-blasio-defends-going-to-the-gym-i-need-exercise-to
https://www.inquirer.com/business/spl/pennsylvania-coronavirus-wolf-home-products-essential-business-life-sustaining-20200330.html
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/10/fauci-coronavirus-immunity-cards-for-americans-are-being-discussed-178784