Journaling the Coronavirus (COVID19) Pandemic,
Reflection #67

May 21, 2020

Only the Shadow knows…
which is a line lifted from an old television/radio series back from when I was a kid.

What is ‘shadowing’ and what does it portend for the coming future of our culture?

Shadowing is the central core part of contact-tracing application. A person determined to have or contracted the virus is questioned to see who he or she has had ‘contact’ with over the last three days, or since diagnosis. The virus infected person is asked to self-quarantine for two to three weeks, of course. The virus infected person is then asked, in a detailed sit-down or virtual interview, to name all those social contacts that have been made, going back to three days before diagnosis. The people on that list, a list dreamed up by people who supposedly have the virus, is then taken and those people contacted to encourage them to self-quarantine (not leave bedroom or house for ten days) because of the supposed contact.

Shadowing is the investigative series of acts to check, track, watch, investigate and monitor to assure that the person who gave assent to self-quarantine actually is doing it. People who say no to the self-quarantine are reported to the authorities for local enforcement or arrest, depending upon state and local laws, ordinances, and rules. People who self-quarantine and are found to violate that are also reported. The equipment given to those forces of the trace-contact group of enforcers (predicted to rapidly grow to 200,000 over the next few weeks) will be masks, gloves, and sanitizers. The only piece of equipment missing from that list, which needs to be included, is a gun.

Is anybody at all out here in the culture, awaiting the arrival of this new authoritative force of ‘brown-shirted’ investigators or enforcers, ready for strangers to approach and then basically ‘lock them up’ without their approval, and let them do it without recourse? I can easily predict that there’s going to be very violent recourse. There are a lot of guns in this society (estimated to be 400,000,000 or more), and what we can expect to see if history is any judge at all, is a lot more usage of them.

Shadowing is coming to your community, your neighborhood, and your home. Get ready, and the expression that might best describe that is ‘lock and load.’ It’s going to be frightfully interesting to watch how all this goes down.

Only the Shadow knows…

Alright, Unleash your thoughts below