Things are getting strange, very strange. Apparently a recent survey showed that almost half of us in the UK now hold some sort of conspiracy theory about this pandemic and I came up with one of my own. News breaking of Dominic Cumming’s unapologetic rule-breaking has had me wondering whether we’re being herded, dull as sheep. And like sheep, when we break loose we run aimlessly in different directions. Was that his intention, I’ve wondered - as a way to put herd immunity back on the agenda?
There is a ‘Matrix’-like quality about it all, too. I’m trying not to be too fanciful about it, but when my window on the world is TV and Social Media, the view out shifts occasionally and I catch a glimpse of something odd. When the Cummings episode hit the news, at the same time my Netflix menu of “because you watched....” offered me ‘Brexit: the uncivil war’ with Benedict Cumberbach playing Cummings. Was it because earlier in the week we’d watched the 2011 film “Contagion”, a story spookily similar to the current pandemic? In our splendid isolations, are we being watched and herded in different virtual directions? Of course we are.
Listless and aimless one day, my morning cuppa accompanied by a browse on Facebook and a few short Messenger chats, l see a post pop up on Facebook that has the black dog baying at my door. It’s a photo of surgical masks being fished from the sea. Our friend Nick tells me that it’s click bait, and so it is, but it had already plunged me into a pool of hopelessness, a feeling maintained by more stories of mindless littering now that people are venturing out more. Is my environmentalism being fed by Facebook? Undoubtedly.
The Net is reading us, watching us closely. At the time of writing this on my iPad working off-line, suddenly a notification popped up with reference to a Matrix. How spooky is that?
Ok, I’m getting a bit paranoid. I’m also getting shouty. As my equanimity is disturbed by some new shock via the media I am likely to spring into Facebook with BIG WRITING and show how angry or shocked I am. I’ve given up my mad clapping into the emptiness on a Thursday night for the NHS et al and taken to being indignant about something on Social Media instead.
There is an awful lot to be indignant about though, and I’m trying to figure out which things are worth getting my dander up for. A lot of people are talking about tyranny and oppression but if I let myself be herded into corners of indignation I could be letting myself be made a fool of. I am questioning what’s worth getting upset about, otherwise Gareth may as well sign me up for counselling when this is all over, adding me to the legions whose mental health has been impaired by this whole thing.
So what is worth getting on a soap box for? What about Cummings? It’s Boris’s handling of the situation that I am crossest about. I am informed by my Conservative cousin that whatever his inadequacies, Boris was the man for the Brexit job given his accurate reading of British feeling (not mine, I have to say). However, our PM’s lack of appreciation for how Cumming’s behaviour makes fools of so many is unforgivable. It is such a reflection of how little he does know about us Britons that the first unlocking was good news only for the affluent - gardeners, golfers, tennis players and car owners. Does he care about the others? It doesn’t look like it.
BUT! We live in a democracy, apparently. We all (I do anyway) cherish the freedom, like Cummings (though unlike him, I’m not the rule maker) to exercise our own judgement and whether to abide by a rule or to do what each of us personally feels is best, with the proviso that it doesn’t impinge on the rights of others. Unhappy as I am that Cummings believed himself to be an exception to the rules, being hounded by a mob of angry and aggressive protesters at his home is not ok to my mind. While free speech is a basic tenet of democracy we do need to keep it civilised. I will continue to make my feelings known about such issues, when I think it’s important to do so, but I will make an effort to address the issues, rather than attacking the person.
What else? Well, while I’m on the topic of free speech, there’s Trump and I’m thinking about the contrasting assessments of him. He’s as entitled to free speech as anyone else, I guess, though he is the President and I’ve been shocked, angered, dismayed and amused by some of the things he has said. All I know of him is what I see and hear in the various media - his Tweets for instance. Of course I haven’t had the privilege of meeting him in person, not that I’ve ever wanted to, but if I had, would I be as concerned about his proximity to machinery that could extinguish much of the planet? Would I be as concerned about his sanity as I am currently about my own? He leads (if that’s the right word) the biggest, richest country in the world (Sorry, but this line from the song ‘Ernie’ popped into my brain - “and he drove the fastest milk-cart in the West”). The US was built on the values of freedom and while historically those freedoms didn’t initially extend to everyone (slaves, women...) it has nevertheless been a beacon of freedom for the whole world as we’ve come through the years to today. BUT.....now the war between Trump and the Media is escalating. As I write, he’s threatening to shut down Twitter for fact-checking and obscuring his tweets that breach their rules (incitement to violence, for instance). What price ‘freedom of speech’ when it threatens harm? What a conundrum, especially when ‘harm’ these days can mean anything from murder to feeling a bit hurt by some innocent remark. I don’t want to be too ‘Woke’ and become fascist in my left-leanings, but I’m as worried about Trump’s often aggressive statements as I am about the mob outside Cumming’s home. Nor is the violence acceptable that has apparently exploded in the US following the death of a black citizen in Minneapolis, at the hands (knee, actually) of a white policeman, however much that anger is understandable. The death is a horrible story but if we are worried about tyranny and oppression we should not resort to being tyrannical ourselves or we just bring about further oppression.
Anger is spilling over, and it’s scary.
And now we have the ‘New Normal’ - all of us trying to move around the virus and get back to work, school, and being together. Rule followers need to know precisely what is and what isn’t allowed; others put their faith in common-sense, others are still in denial and others are flailing around looking for something to vent their frustration on (I may be one of those; poor blog reader).
After a lot of mooching about like a dark cloud one day, carefree the next, deep in anxious thought on another, so much of my activity has been pretty pointless. But, it has been the Hay Literary festival this week, “Imagine the World”. Being on-line this year has made it really accessible and how glad am I! The talks I’ve signed into have been very helpful in adjusting my balance as they have all been fascinating and inspiring. From watching a Ted talk I now also have a new mantra (did I have an old one?) - Tom Rivett-Carnac is a campaigner for the Climate Change emergency and worked for the United Nations. So many of his fellow campaigners are keeping hope alive in the face of so much obstruction to their agenda of creating a healthier planet. He speaks of having to maintain a ‘stubborn optimism’. What a perfect mantra.
There may be troubles ahead but I must avoid being herded off cliffs. I have a choice. I could flock with the angry, the disillusioned and the fearful or I can doggedly continue from where I am, making my way with eyes wide open and treating my world with respect and loving care. I stubbornly and optimistically hope that everyone else does the same.
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