You will be missed my friend. Yet I will choose to look at it as you getting to see what is on the other side of the divide. The next stage in the adventure.
With that said I hope you can write more as it permits. You always drop quite a lot of knowledge I hadn't heard of. This post was no exception. As a big Hendrix fan myself I hadn't heard any of this and found it to be a completely new direction of thought.
As to the new socialism. There is an old name from the early 20th century that describes effectively what this form of socialism is.
Fascism.
That is more or less what fascism was. It was socialist in design and enabled certain corporations to exist but they had to follow the orders of the government and while given some autonomy they were also puppets of sort.
What may be different today is that the direction of power may be more flowing in the other direction. Who is the puppet? Who is the master?
I suspect today the corporations are the master. They indeed are pushing socialism seemingly for exactly the reasons you described. I've thought on this a few times as well.
I've seen COVID as yet another power grab. Shut down the competition and allow a few select big corporations to dominate everything.
Corporatocracy? Plutocracy?
It seems like some hybrid of a lot of nasty and unpleasant things.
They have tools they didn't have in the past. These tools act as power/control multipliers and extend their ability to control.
(computers, smartphones, the internet, etc.)
These tools are so much more effective than the TV and the Radio.
As long as they don't lose control of the tools.
They have their government puppets to help insure that doesn't happen.
RE: A Personal Note -- The New Socialism, the Death of Jimi Hendrix, and More