In what once was thought the cradle of democracy, the United States, the pandemic will be remembered certainly in part for the refusal to obey authority. For the refusal of millions of Americans to follow the simplest of public health guidelines, to wear a mask. Masks became politicized to the point where not to wear one was seen by large parts of the populace as a sign of their freedom and independence.
In autocracies the pandemic had just the opposite effect. In autocracies Covid was used, is used, to compel compliance. Governments around the world have employed the pandemic as an excuse to curtail freedom of speech and peaceful assembly. According to Human Rights Watch, in at least 18 countries either the military or the police physically assaulted journalists, bloggers, and protesters for criticizing in some way their government’s response to Covid-19.
Russia used Covid precautions as a pretext effectively to ban all political demonstrations. According to Daniel Treisman, writing in Foreign Affairs, those who defied the ban were quickly arrested. “The first six months of 2021 saw more than 14,000 people convicted of violating rules regarding public events, more than six times the annual average over the preceding 15 years.”
Similarly, even more dramatically, is what happened in China. The Chinese authorities have used the virus as bludgeon, as an instrument of power. Their capacity to control enhanced by the latest technologies, city officials tracked whether residents were, as they had been ordered to do, wearing masks. Home power consumption was monitored to check if residents were, as they sometimes were also ordered to do, following quarantine protocols. And some cities had sensors installed, placed on the doors of residents quarantining at home, to notify government officials if the doors were opened.
The Chinese government also ordered, implemented, and then strictly enforced total lockdowns, including in China’s two largest cities. The lockdowns were of a size and scope that Americans can scarcely imagine. In Shanghai alone, some 25 million people were forbidden to leave their homes for weeks and then months, with no permission to exit for any reason other than to get tested. While a few occasionally registered their anger – “We are not killed by Covid, but by the Covid control measures,” complained one Chinese citizen on the highly censored social media platform Weibo – overwhelmingly people complied. To stay out of the clutches of the state they had no choice.
As it pertains to our behavior during the worst of Covid, or to our record on Covid, we, we Americans, have nothing whatsoever to boast about. But the degree to which Covid has been used by leaders to increase their power over their followers is in some cases terrifying.
What’s worse than mindlessly disobeying orders? Mindlessly obeying orders.