"'Of course,' said the Director, 'things might come to such a point that you would be justified in coming here, even wholly against his will, even secretly. It depends on how close the danger is--the danger to us all, and to you personally.'
'I thought the danger was right on top of us now . . . from the way Mrs. Denniston talked.'
'That is just the question,' said the Director, with a smile. 'I am not allowed to be too prudent. I am not allowed to use desperate remedies until desperate diseases are really apparent. Otherwise we become just like our enemies--breaking all the rules whenever we imagine that it might possibly do some vague good to humanity in the remote future.'" -- C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength
As I write this (Sunday, April 19, 2020) we are still under Shelter In Place (SIP) orders from our state due to the quarantine response over COVID-19. I listened to this discourse on audio book yesterday while on the treadmill and it immediately brought to mind our current situation. It's like Lewis' Director was reading our mail.
Desperate remedies should only be applied if desperate diseases have manifestly been proven and apparent. Without warrant, extreme measures were implemented. Clear rules have been violated predicated on vague, albeit violent, predictions.
All that is not to say that we should not have a disaster mode, but rather to say we should be sure we are only using disaster mode to prevent disaster lest we create a different kind of disaster by employing disaster mode without sufficient warrant to do so.
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