Unrecognized by your piece but - I sincerely believe - a very important aspect of what led to the flowering of government social control was the onset of the "Spanish Flu" during World War 1. It vastly consolidated government power in a very personal way to most of the country (via legally enforced quarantines, among other things) and at the same time helped elevate the standing of the expert class - the heart of progressivism - in the perceptions of the average American. When COVID-19 was still novel to the world in early 2020, I was in the middle of reading a very informative recounting of said influenza's origin and how our country responded to it. To my dismay, most of the public didn't push back too hard on this round of overreach, either.
Thanks for the comment — this is a sharp observation.
You're absolutely right that the Spanish Flu (and the quarantines that came with it) acted as a real catalyst. It brought government power directly into people's homes and daily lives in a very personal way, and it helped elevate the "expert class" in the public mind at a vulnerable time. The parallel to 2020 is striking.
I framed World War I itself as one of the primary drivers because the war powers, economic nationalization, speech suppression, and Wilsonian progressivism laid the structural foundation. But the Flu arriving in the middle clearly accelerated the cultural shift toward trusting centralized experts.
Your point got me thinking about a parallel track: how health crises and medical expertise became one of the strongest pillars of the Fifth Branch.
The polio scares are a perfect example of why this track is so powerful:
It was genuinely terrifying and visible (iron lungs, children in braces).
Medical experts and the vaccine really did solve one of the biggest public health problems of the 20th century.
That genuine success created deep, long-lasting trust in medical authorities and public health institutions.
That earned trust became cultural capital that later got extended — sometimes wisely, sometimes far beyond what was justified.
Appreciate you bringing this up. Comments like this are why I enjoy writing the series. It helps me see the gaps.
Unrecognized by your piece but - I sincerely believe - a very important aspect of what led to the flowering of government social control was the onset of the "Spanish Flu" during World War 1. It vastly consolidated government power in a very personal way to most of the country (via legally enforced quarantines, among other things) and at the same time helped elevate the standing of the expert class - the heart of progressivism - in the perceptions of the average American. When COVID-19 was still novel to the world in early 2020, I was in the middle of reading a very informative recounting of said influenza's origin and how our country responded to it. To my dismay, most of the public didn't push back too hard on this round of overreach, either.
Thanks for the comment — this is a sharp observation.
You're absolutely right that the Spanish Flu (and the quarantines that came with it) acted as a real catalyst. It brought government power directly into people's homes and daily lives in a very personal way, and it helped elevate the "expert class" in the public mind at a vulnerable time. The parallel to 2020 is striking.
I framed World War I itself as one of the primary drivers because the war powers, economic nationalization, speech suppression, and Wilsonian progressivism laid the structural foundation. But the Flu arriving in the middle clearly accelerated the cultural shift toward trusting centralized experts.
Your point got me thinking about a parallel track: how health crises and medical expertise became one of the strongest pillars of the Fifth Branch.
The polio scares are a perfect example of why this track is so powerful:
It was genuinely terrifying and visible (iron lungs, children in braces).
Medical experts and the vaccine really did solve one of the biggest public health problems of the 20th century.
That genuine success created deep, long-lasting trust in medical authorities and public health institutions.
That earned trust became cultural capital that later got extended — sometimes wisely, sometimes far beyond what was justified.
Appreciate you bringing this up. Comments like this are why I enjoy writing the series. It helps me see the gaps.