03-26-2020, 10:00 PM
(03-25-2020, 08:55 AM)beechnut79 Wrote:(03-24-2020, 11:53 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: Should it lead to mass death it could be the defining moment. Wars usually are, but death and social disruption ordinarily mark the climactic moment of a 4T. After the Anglo-American capture of central Italy, the D-Day invasion, Operation Bagration, the July 20 plot on the life of Satan Incarnate, and King Michael's coup in Romania any further military actions by Nazi Germany were anticlimax.
Some of us are finally getting a taste of the economic realities of a Crisis as much of what we used to take for granted is no longer so. 24-hour shopping? It's over, folks! Leisurely, casual dining? Done for the duration -- and I do not mean overcooked. Shortages have been happening in sto res. You might want to stock up on dog food if you have you know what.
But don’t you think that we will have 24 hour shopping for the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas? Don’t believe we will ever return to the days of non-essential stores being closed on Sunday, do you?
If COVID-19 abates by Thanksgiving and the economy isn't tanked, then the late-year retail frenzy will be back.
People are going to find out what they can live without, and what they absolutely must have. Much brick-and-mortar retail will die because it was on life support and the plug was yanked.
So far, impulse shopping that makes retailing profitable is over. If COVID-19 lingers as a communicable disease, then it will dictate changes -- like appointments necessary for visiting an auto dealership or a shoe store.
In my case I have become less chatty in person out of respect for the need of social distancing -- at least for the duration.
The people most likely to have enduring effects upon their attitudes will of course be children of the time.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
