When people talk about the intolerable conditions under "lockdown," I wish I understood what they meant. Compared to what civilian populations had to put up with during past global calamities, like WWII, this is nothing.

Forget Europe or Asia for a minute. In the mainland U.S., thousands of miles from the front lines, there was rationing for _years_. My grandfather owned a tire store -- rationed rubber, so no tires.

Moved to a farm no indoor plumbing. My mom grew up there.

Travel was restricted. Men were drafted and sent to far-off lands. The entire economy was redirected to the war effort.

For years.

It was hard. It wasn't what anyone wanted. Imagine if memes existed in 1942 ...

There are real economic implications of the COVID-related lockdowns. Millions of people are out of work. Fixing damage will take years.

But it seems like most of the people yelping the loudest about all this are people who actually aren't impacted, except maybe aesthetically.

And ironically, by forgoing the aesthetic changes -- by not wearing a mask, by crowding into strangers, by trying to force things to normal when they aren't -- folks are prolonging the disruption.

Hunkering down would work if we stuck with it, and if we tested and traced.

Unlike WWII, we can contain/defeat COVID in months, not years. Instead, people want to surrender at the first sign of battle.

It's so haaaard. Tell it to the WWII generation.