The COVID-19 pandemic and, especially, the actions governments have taken in response to it have been, both directly and indirectly, enormously destructive of life, liberty, and wealth. But another tremendously significant aspect of these terrible events has been the lapse into what we might call ideological insanity on both sides of the lock-down divide.
The two camps, with some exceptions on both sides, of course, have largely taken leave of their good sense and well-balanced judgment and allowed themselves to speak and act almost entirely as their ideological appraisals have dictated. In short, the pandemic and the governments’ policies in response have both reflected and magnified ideological fanaticism.
Because such an ideological change is unlikely to simply appear and then soon disappear, its long-term consequences may remain in place, constricting social cooperation and slowing economic development for years to come.
