For about ten weeks now we have been living in a madhouse. Well, the mass hysteria began much earlier, but in Australia, where I am currently imprisoned, the lockdown conditions were imposed about 10 weeks ago. In the last few weeks some of these conditions were somewhat relaxed, but we’re still told we’ll have to live with social distancing measures for a long time to come. 

The obvious question is: why? 

I always think it’s a good idea to go back to basics, and with everything that is now known about this virus, especially the manifestly obvious fact that its potency and lethality is quite limited (about that of other flu viruses) and negatively affects only those with serious pre-existing conditions, why are people still so scared of this virus? 

The answer of course is simple, but to me it is infuriating. Politicians, in cahoots with their subservient mass media, have managed to scare entire populations into submission through their relentless propaganda. The vast majority has readily accepted losing their jobs, have even welcomed their own incarceration, and the loss of their freedoms and rights, just because they blindly believed the official narrative. Many would now have welcomed with open arms the nanny state they previously so despised. To me, the ease with which people submitted themselves to this gigantic false narrative is the really scary thing about this entire COVID-19 saga. The governments now need to maintain the narrative. They cannot suddenly admit that it’s all been a false alarm or not as bad as they made it out to be at first. There are political and professional careers at stake here, and they must be protected at all cost, regardless of the facts. All of this we have been put through has to all have been worth the sacrifice.

Governments are already telling us the lockdowns worked because we’ve been such compliant citizens, never mind the fact that in many countries the lockdowns were only implemented when the infections were already in decline. This reminds me of the following joke:

A man walks the streets of the city, frantically clapping his hands. A lady comes along and asks him “may I ask you what are you doing there?” The man says “I’m chasing away the elephants.” The woman looks around and says “what elephants?” The man replies “see? It works!”

COVID-19 has already been successfully instrumentalised to bring about changes that would otherwise have taken many more years to implement. Admittedly, some have been positive, for example flexible work practices. But the end surely doesn’t justify the means, especially when it is already abundantly clear that the economic and social impact resulting from the complete lockdown measures imposed practically worldwide will be much greater than the relatively few COVID-19 cases and the even fewer deaths COVID-19 caused, compared for example with many previous influenza outbreaks and pandemics, over which no country ever imposed any kind of generalised lockdowns. 

Locking up the healthy population is just lunacy and hugely counterproductive. Humanity has lived with viruses and bacteria and learnt to deal with them for millennia, and humanity will have to continue to do so. To believe that we can come up with vaccines that will forever protect us from COVID-19 is not only pointless, because viruses will simply continue to mutate, but the obsessive measures taken now will result in us having weakened immune systems that make us more vulnerable. Also, will we have to stop our lives every time a new virus comes around?

What does make sense is to try our best to protect the vulnerable sections of society, to isolate the sick, and for the healthy population to exercise common sense and caution during such outbreaks. 

The “help saves lives” slogans that were bandied about in support of these unnecessary measures, which quite obviously resonated with the vast majority of the population, are a further indication that something is fundamentally wrong with our societies.

We now seem to think that it is worth shutting down our entire society to save for example a 75 year-old with a litany of health issues. That is just beyond any sense of proportionality.

Outrageous as this might sound to some, dying is, and will forever be, part of being human, and nothing will change that fact. On the other hand, it now seems to be quite acceptable for that same 75 year-old to die all alone and in the most undignified way in a nursing home without his loved-ones by his side. That is the height of hypocrisy and absurdity.

The travesty is that during our ridiculous quest to overcome death we have left our humanity behind us.

For me it was clear enough from the beginning that the measures taken by our hapless politicians were entirely disproportional to the threat that this particular virus posed, and it is frustrating for all those who have said this all along, but who have been ignored, ridiculed, or even silenced and censored by this tsunami of madness, fear, hysteria, and irrationality.

The untold human suffering to come as a result of all this madness will reverberate through our societies for years to come.

All the talk about the “new normal” or “next normal” started so quickly that I cannot help but think that this crisis was at the very least not unwelcome to the hard to define but powerful and very real forces that are steering us swiftly towards a technocratic, totalitarian, 1984-ish type of brave new world, where concepts like democracy and freedom are even more of a farce than they already have been. 

It seems the die are cast, these forces are unstoppable, and massive popular uprisings against them are highly unlikely. There was practically no resistance to the most blatant violations of humans rights and civil liberties, quite on the contrary. The propaganda machine of the states and the most influential media worked in perfect sync, and the people swallowed the message hook, line and sinker. Even though the cracks, inconsistencies and absurdities are becoming more obvious, the next crisis will come and keep the blinded and silent majority distracted from what’s really going on. 

The only thing that could break through this veil of deceit which has been spun around us for many decades now is widespread awareness and sound, rational debate about what is really happening in this highly complex world of ours.

But how is this even possible now ? This can only happen when critical thinking becomes the norm within our societies and cultures; when reasoned, respectful, vibrant and open debate replaces the primitive tribalistic, black vs white, left vs right, virtue signalling, divide and conquer culture we currently live in. 

Alas, our education systems and our economies are based on the premise to churn out docile automatons that are useful and faithful tools to the ruling elites, so it doesn’t look like a paradigm shift is likely any time soon. So, standing right at the precipice, we need to educate ourselves and each other. We need to point out to each other that things are often not at all what they seem to be, and that we need to be vigilant and take care of our rights and freedoms and responsibilities, or lose them forever. 

I for one will do my bit to encourage everyone to think for themselves, to be curious, to look at every issue more deeply, to inform themselves broadly. I will advise everyone to do their own research, to make up their own minds and to speak out when they do not agree.