It might have taken 26 years more after 1984 but I fear that George Orwell was right.
Actually, I feared he was right from the first time I read 1984 which was when I was a school boy.
For a long time now we’ve had telescreens but the existence of which Orwell foretold, but at the time of writing no one could even appreciate how that could possibly happen. This was a flat screen on the wall of your living room which was able to speak back to you and see you.
This seems just run of the mill now.
The most important parallel though with the terror and horror of 1984 is how the state controlled the public with fear.
In the midst of 1984 there is a mini novel which is almost impossible to read but if you do; it explains the method by which the state controls the public with constant war and a constant enemy therefore allowing the state to use any means necessary to keep the public under control.
OMG, how willingly the sheep walk into the pen in the current climate we find ourselves in.
My friend refers to the group of the population who seem to never lift their head up and look to see what’s happening as ‘sheeple’, more and more are starting to agree with him sentiments.
So, lets look at things and add things up or imagine we were back in 2019 in the summer with no sign of a pandemic on the horizon.
Imagine at that stage that the conservative government (it’s important to know at this stage that I’m not blue nor red, I’ve always considered myself apolitical) suggested that because of an external foe of some sort we all had to stay in our houses for 3 months without seeing anybody else or without working properly and for many of us it would lead to a massive and catastrophic drop in income.
What’s the likelihood of the population accepting that?
Imagine the same government suggested that we all put an App on our phones so that they can track us and then tell us what to do and when to stay in and for how long?
Imagine they enforced a curfew where everything closed at 10 pm and we had to be off the streets and that we were not allowed to meet our families or get married or go to a funeral or even see dying relatives in hospital.
Imagine they could use emergency powers just to implement this stuff without even a vote in parliament.
Imagine our MP’s disregarded the rules so blatantly in the face of public scrutiny that it was utterly unbelievable.
Of course, this has all come true now in the face of an overwhelming foe who it seems likes to pray on people over 75.
This writing is in no way designed to take away from the utter tragedy of losing a family member of any age at any time but the consequences of the situation that we now find ourselves in will only just start to begin to be felt.
Lift your head up and look around, everybody is physiologically damaged in one way or another.
The people who are ‘winning’ are utterly broken from trying to grab everything that they could possibly grab and as much as possible, as quickly as possible.
The people who are losing are losing their minds.
I’m told that the suicide rates for 16-30 year olds for May, June and July are devastatingly bad as the need for proper social contact for our young, bright things has been utterly devastated despite the fact that the risk to them from the virus is almost zero (and that is a fact).
I hosted a study club online the other night for some of our local dentists as we try to regain some sort of humanity within the profession locally (and I think we will), I just let the discussion go because the fantastic Anna Lawson has decided to be a co-host with me and she comes from another practice and then it’s not me speaking and then it’s much better.
I was able to sit back, as just a small group of people actually opened up to what they really believe and what they want to do and not what they feel like they should say they should do in a crowd.
I don’t think there was anybody on that call who would disagree with what I have said in this blog and I think that call was representative of our profession from younger people to older people.
There is a risk to this virus but there has always been risks and we have always had to mitigate those risk.
My daughter has a peanut allergy, but I've never called for the closure of all restaurants to stop serving peanuts or for a ban on peanut butter in society.
My daughter had to mitigate the risk of her peanut allergy.
There is a risk for me from Covid-19 but that risk tiny and it’s a risk that I’m prepared to take to live a normal life.
Blog Post Number - 2515