Humans are beings who are aware of their mortality. Humans are animals with morals. Humans are creatures who can invent worlds and create art. Humans make laws and throw parties. Humans experience community and measure themselves against each other. They laugh, sing, dance and bawl. They hug, cuddle, scuffle, wrestle and fight. People want to feel life. They want to get out. People want to make an impression. They want to let go sometimes and rule sometimes. People are free.

Freedom is dangerous.

The human species is a lout. The more anyone is forced to do something, no matter how right and important it may be, the will to resist increases, especially if measures suppress primeval human behavior.

I love freedom. It allows me to be a privatized communist who tries to be a just person. I rejoice when I succeed and I’m irritated when I fail. But when I’m imposed upon, when I’m declared to be a problem, a sense of resistance arises in me.

Of course, rules are needed to maintain a social community, but when the rules become inhumane, when the human being becomes the problem, either everything breaks down or oppression increases.

There are those who’ve lost their livelihoods during this state of emergency, whose relationships have been ruined and whose children are suffering depression. The crisis leaves behind desperate people who cannot eat cake in their home offices because there is already a shortage of bread. There are people for whom the soccer stadium, the theater, the pub or the club were vital distractions, and a social form of stress relief and anger management. All of those venues are closed.But, people need diversions. If they are deprived, they will devise their own diversions. They will go out on the streets.

When people feel the roof is falling on their heads, they will leave their homes. When they are at the end of their ropes, they will break the quarantine rules. They don’t need punishment. Nor do they need moral lectures from people who can afford wine in a crisis especially when they themselves are up to their necks in deep water.

Some can afford the lockdown. Many can’t.

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(Translation: William Wires)