The impact of lockdown has been more destructive, in my view, than that of the contagion it has sought to deflect, for it is a measure that has corroded the seams sustaining relationships, as well as removing the social outlets that ordinarily permit people to live both with and without each other in elegant and untroubled equipoise. Its prolongation has also been an error, insofar as it allows the notion to prevail that the mere avoidance of illness can constitute a valid vital purpose in itself, which, were it true, would entail a collective reflexive flight from risk and a spiritless retreat from the dangers of nature. LJ
