Most effective way of making people do stuff they wouldn't want to do is making them believe it was their idea. Just because it's reverse psychology 101, doesn't mean entire populations can't be taken by such a simple ruse. I'd go as far as to say that social media has cemented the concept even as individuals have become increasingly uneasy about it, because the more you shout that this is the only sane approach in a public domain the more you are compelled to do so.
Even as we reach the point where all business is business as usual (which means no point in any lockdown measures because employers are way less interested in expensive and problematic issues if a member of their workforce gets sick than a friend or relative), we still have firmly in place social control measures. But most folk have already laid their cards on the table and it's too late to pick them up.
Right from the start dan was saying it was too late for a meaningful and controlled lockdown, but there were other (precented) measures that could be effective at actually wiping out disease. I know other health professionals who have said more or less that. So lockdown is self inflicted and largely pointless as an only measure, and we are seeing right now that it is effective as a social control measure more than anything else I've seen to date bar prison.
People aren't changing or modifying their tunes because they've been too loud already in shouting down opposition to it. I think pride and ego are largely to blame.
As far as mental health goes, from those I know with pre existing problems, it's going down the tube, in a massive way. Because people can see the disconnect between the idea we have done this to protect our elderly and the reality that we have been scammed a bit (to say the least!), and can't talk about it freely.
If you didn't believe what you believe you wouldn't be sitting where you're sitting (in your room in your house on your own).. To terribly paraphrase Chomsky
I can say all of this knowing that I don't want people dying unnecessarily of what sounds like a terrible illness . But one thought doesn't exclude the other. And if people are prevented from socialising (a primary need of humans), they will go bonkers. Worse, they'll stop being able to relate to anything except collective fear.
Btw my comment about letterboxes was just a light hearted joke at the ridiculousness of the directives. I for one am missing the company of others.