Thoughts, in no particular order of importance:

• There is no "going back." Ever. Mankind is always moving forward, changing, adapting; thus what is considered "normal" is also ever changing. This pandemic and how we reacted to it is now part of the fabric of who we are now as a society, just as 9/11 was. Just as Desert Storm was. Just as the Vietnam War was. Think about how all of those events changed something fundamental about us, who we are, from which there was no coming back.

• In the U.S - and probably other Western countries - the response to the pandemic has been one of creating more dependency on government and on those who are willing to play ball with the government. There's no way to sugarcoat that. The more you are dependent on the government or one of its corporate proxies, the more you have subjected yourself to being monitored and controlled. Unfortunately, there's no turning back from that, either. As you have observed, it would cost you more to go find work than it would to stay on the dole; you at least have a guilty conscience about that condition. Imagine the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people who are perfectly okay with it.

• Our problems are not going to be fixed with either warfare or democracy. I know there's a lot of people rattling sabers and speaking in platitudes about where the next Fort Sumter is going to be, but that's a lot of empty rhetoric. For starters, people used to air conditioning, soft beds, wireless internet, GrubHub, and 600 channels of cable + streaming services are not going to go out, live rough, and put their necks on the line over an ideal. Some would, but not remotely enough. We are in the "bread and circuses" phase of our civilization's decline, and we have both bread and circuses the likes of which the Roman Empire could only dream of. It's the same reason democracy won't fix this either; who's going to vote to have the government take away their comforts? Their lifeline? Again, some would, but not remotely enough. And "not remotely enough" doesn't cut it in a representative democracy.

• We will survive. I suspect that for people like us, the people who come here to talk because there are fewer and fewer places to speak our mind, the transition will be tough. I would expect that many of us won't survive it. When one culture replaces another, there is seldom sunshine and unicorn giggles for the culture being replaced. We are entering hard times, as per the maxim: "Strong men create good times; good times create soft men; soft men create hard times; hard times create strong men." We are a soft society, and have been for quite some time now. The competitive advantages the U.S had over the world are long since gone and now many places are outperforming us. Worse yet, the more time passes, the less we want to compete. The less testosterone men of each generation have; the less competition is encouraged (if not frowned upon), the less masculinity is seen as a virtue (as opposed to labeled toxic). BUT...we as a society will survive, we will continue to move forward under our new normal, and each generation will adapt better to that normal. Maybe the U.S will rise again, or maybe we will be like the UK, or France, or Italy, or even Russia, and have to look backwards to see our best days. But they survived the collapse of their empires, and so shall we.