Is anyone else finding it difficult to go out into public these days? I find myself sniping at everyone who tries to enforce Covid rules, some of which are the corporation’s and not the state’s rules. The majority complicity in these nonsensical rules does not give me hope for the future. On the other hand, I find that locally run franchise stores and small businesses are more inclined to leave people alone and not enforce restrictive rules, which has caused more people to shop at these stores. One example is a local supermarket that I rarely shopped at prior to Covid that now gets almost all my business. I go there because they don’t enforce rules and have made a huge effort to keep their store stocked during shortfalls. Because of their new sales volume, they have added fancy gluten-free foods to their product line. This was one reason I didn’t shop there regularly before. I’m spoiled these days and no longer want to make homemade gf tortillas and bread for my children (who have bonified wheat allergies; no it is not a fad for us).
This has made me wonder again about the emergence of parallel economies thriving alongside the corporate taskmasters… because you and I both know that it will be our corporate taskmasters that will try to force even greater restrictions on us. I know this because they already have, e.g. closing down dressing rooms. Last weekend, we went to an underground concert that was an astonishing parallel economy. I won’t give the name of the bands or venue, for that reason. I simply want to note that we stumbled across it unwittingly — the entrance was at the backside of a building. Nobody wore masks, and everyone danced. The bands (or venue owners, perhaps) provided their own security with metal detectors, etc. By contrast, a more conventional concert venue that is hosting a band we’d like to see has a list of Covid restrictions a mile long. We will thus not be attending that concert, even though we were willing to plunk down over a hundred dollars for the bands at the alternative venue.
For all those who claimed a holier-than-thou it’s-all-just-temporary attitude, I would like to remind you that there are pastors and priests being jailed in so-called free anglophile nations more than a year after these temporary restrictions were put in place. I don’t like getting apocalyptic, but there are at least negative echoes of a fascist future in what is happening now. For heaven’s sake, I was joking a year ago that they would soon invent technology that will prevent us from leaving our homes if a virus is detected at too high levels in our bodies. Guess what? They’ve invented it: Covid chips. Again, I don’t go apocalyptic. I’m not a nutjob, but I’d be a fool if I didn’t pay attention to this nonsense. Did you think a year ago that our respective governments could indefinitely shut down businesses, including grocery stores and churches? It’s been a year. That’s it. Let that sink in.
I want to quickly add an addendum to this post. One of the reasons the “underground” concert I attended was successful was for its reliance on word of mouth advertising, as well as not advertising where the venue would be until the day of. It’s pretty hard to get the state police to investigate a moving target, and the local boys won’t do it. I just read about another concert that popped up suddenly in Albuquerque during their Art Walk event. The Art Walk planners did not know it was happening; however, the concert was loud and outside and landed in a news article. Look, journalists are twatheads. If they find you, they will write a tattletale article about how you aren’t following teacher’s rules (or, as my dad would say, “Mommy Grisham’s rules”). By contrast, successful parallel economies will tend towards being very quiet in their disobedience. I used to be more American in my “stand up and shout about it” manner. I no longer think that works. Maybe you have other ideas.
Jill Domschot 