According to various media sources and personal sources on the ground over there, nobody is allowed to leave their apartment buildings, except for small groups that have been assigned the task of doing the grocery shopping for the entire complex, and sometimes even that is not permissible. There is a heavy reliance on government and private company (some of which are locked down themselves) deliveries to keep the 25 million population of Shanghai fed, which no doubt is a much harder task than it sounds like.

Videos on the internet have started circulating of people locked in their apartments screaming out windows, wailing and crying that they are hungry and starving to death. I don’t know if it’s an exaggeration or not, but if people aren’t allowed to leave their apartments and must depend on other people to provide food for them weekly, there’s a possibility that it may not be, at least for some. It’s not easy to know since the media is heavily censored over there, and there are harsh consequences sometimes for getting the truth out. How efficient are the government and the delivery companies at delivering the food, and is it enough?

According to CNN’s David Culver, who lives in Shanghai, the local government delivers food once every few days and it isn’t enough to feed even an individual for more than a day or so, and even less so for an entire family. Clearly, this situation cannot afford to endure for the people’s sake. Here in the U.S., where the lockdowns weren’t as serious, people still suffered immense psychological trauma, and that was WITH the ability to buy food. Confinement alone is enough of a psychological burden. Add that to starvation, and we not only have a burden, but also a serious humanitarian crisis. Some videos I have watched even show people jumping out of their apartment windows to their deaths, although I cannot verify the time and place of the recordings, but it is believable to me considering the seemingly hopeless and indefinite situation.

How far will the Chinese government, or any other government go to protect us from ourselves, since a lot of them seem to believe we are incapable of taking care of ourselves which may be true in some cases)? Since limits can always be pressed further, it’s hard to develop a solid answer to that question. I think the question does strongly depend on two factors — How bad will things get? How much will the people tolerate?

With the middle-class shrinking due to inflation, unemployment, and other problems, we’ve also seen an increase of theft and violent crime, which was already on its way up anyway. We’ve also got food and supply shortages as well as a war that could potentially pull in a large number of participants, but is already enough to significantly disrupt grain production and distribution as it is. Russia halting fertilizer exports doesn’t help food production either. Then there’s bird flu, which is making a resurgence, causing millions of birds to be culled and putting even greater pressure on the food supply.

Interesting how all these problems are happening simultaneously like some sort of great culmination in human history. We’ve all read about significant periods in history books, but how many of us have actually lived through one before? Just about every week there seems to be another problem to add to the list, so to answer the first question about how bad things will get, there doesn’t appear to be any abrupt end in the foreseeable future. We’ve been gradually sinking for the last two years, if not before.

How bad things get can directly influences any government’s response to a crisis, which historically has resulted in government overreach in some cases, even here in the U.S. A lot of people think we are protected by the U.S. Constitution in some divine, impregnable way, but I’d like to remind those same people that the Weimar Republic also had a constitution before it fell to the Nazis.

Unfortunately, in China, the people’s will has been broken to such a degree that they are almost incapable of resisting any of the government’s crushing policies. Any resistance seems to be quickly and mercilessly put down. After living in China my first year, I likened the CCP to the Borg in Star Trek. The individual is not valued, and total compliance is mandatory. As time has gone on, I have seen many others make the same comparison. One person even jokingly called me Locutus Captain Picard after he was assimilated by the Borg). For most Chinese, it really does appear that resistance is futile, but I don’t think that’s actually true. In today’s world, doing the right thing will often put us in opposition to the system we live in. Doing what’s right regardless of the consequences can be a very liberating thing. When we are able to step out of that collective programming as individuals with our own unique purpose in life, it certainly is a victory and isn’t futile even in the least amount.