You may certainly read the middle if you want, but I think it will provoke more than illuminate. The opening and closing are good and worth considering, however.
Something Interesting With Which We Can All Disagree
This essay begins and ends well; the middle is all about Covid, and should be skipped lest it rouse the passions we have so often discussed. Begin at the beginning, and when you reach "Our society’s response to Covid brought this anachronism,,," scroll to "It has been said that, in its formalism and insistence...."
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I can't shake the tone of self-congratulation that he is one of the "spirited" one while those others are more timid souls, lacking in character. It may be true, certainly. If we shouldn't assume those who disagree with us are somehow lacking, we also needn't assume they are of elevated motive either. But if he is going to quote Lewis, he should be especially alert to one of, if not the major themes of his, that we can so easily deceive ourselves about why we are doing something and why others are doing differently.
Again, not that we must forever pretend that such inquiries are invalid. But I detect no caution in him here. It makes it hard for me to consider his point dispassionately. In his defense, not many people are stressing the point these days.
Systems need emergency modes. The trick is to define "emergency" carefully. It should be not only a dangerous situation but one that requires unusually swift action. Almost by definition, though, the swift action is short-term, unless it's irreversible by its nature, which is rare. The emergency powers should be sunsetted at the end of a period no longer than reasonably necessary to bring the usual decision-making procedures into play.
So, for instance, air traffic was shut down during 911, because there wasn't time to convene Congress while we made sure no more planes were heading for buildings that morning--but no one tried to rely on emergency powers to suspend air travel for years. That wasn't because it was immediately obvious how long air travel should be suspended for; it was because all we really need to do was suspend air travel for the few days it took to convene Congress and start addressing the crisis the normal way.
You can take comfort, AVI, in the rest of Platonic psychology. Thumos is the part I have heard conservatives pointing out is lacking in our society for decades; but Plato intended Reason to direct spirit, and those who were primarily driven by Reason to guide those who were primarily spirited.
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