The External and Internal Redistribution of Power with covid-19

The last two weeks in quarantine in San Francisco starts like a zombie apocalypse novel; an entire city is forced indoors to quarantine covid-19 in the attempt to flatten the curve. People are getting $400 fines for hugging in public and double ply toilet paper is now the hottest commodity on the black market.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the idea of power, and what it means, and I started realizing that this is the year of a redistribution of both external and internal power.

On External Power

Governments around the world have shut down almost all non-essential businesses and the stories of lockdown range from totalitarian military state to strict rules on social distancing. All borders have been locked down. Mass arrests have taken place. Society at large has lost a lot of their social and economic power, as governments shift towards policing their citizens and creating laws that they believe are right for them without consultation. Overnight, a dictatorship has emerged in many countries, for better or for worse, as people decide what is right for themselves in the…