I always thought the End Times would feature more fire and brimstone than is proving to be the case. It seems the Dystopian Future is nothing but a drab conference room full of confused looking middle-managers and bureaucrats shrugging their shoulders. Rather more apologetic than apocalyptic, if you ask me. Behold the new Four Horsemen cantering around in circles astride broomsticks while making neighing sounds: Paranoia, Incompetence, Greed, and Apathy.
Of course, these are not really the End Times, merely another False Start of the Beginning of the End Times. Once more we have moved recklessly Knight-like across the chessboard of civilization from a square of relative safety to possibly checkmating ourselves. However, we've been cornered in this nose-pickingly difficult position before. Quite often as a matter of fact. Usually a pawn is sacrificed and our King remains reasonably secure. Alas, the pawn relinquished during this pandemic might be the freedom of the average person to move around the world at whim.
I suppose activists of a certain stripe won't care too much about a general loss of global mobility. The less carbon footprints traipsing through the sky the better, as far as they're concerned. But it so happens that I enjoy my brief interlude in foreign climes each Spring or Fall. So if there's one single reason why I'll be joining the long lines of patients waiting for a vaccine, it will be to obtain a vaccine passport should such a document be required of tomorrow's tourists. I hope to collect many stamps on mine.
