> Our status as a free society rests, not on laws, but on convention, a “collective instinct” about what we ought to do, rooted in habits of thinking and feelin

> Our status as a free society rests, not on laws, but on convention, a “collective instinct” about what we ought to do, rooted in habits of thinking and feeling that develop slowly... If enough people in a society believe freedom is less important than the alternative, laws don't really matter. People had a collective instinct that a threat was more important than freedom. It was rare, at least in the US for example, for courts to step in during the pandemic to correct blatant violations of Equal Protection. The US Supreme Court took months to declare the California ban on religious assembly unconstitutional. For months you could assemble in a Costco or a Target but not a Church. While some might argue it was for the best intentions, public health, etc., I think Pandora's Box is wide open. If 9/11 and the War on Terror taught me anything, it's that we will never completely go back to what life looked like before this thing.