yes many people just laid down but humanity has a history of doing that!
How I kept my inner rage against our Dear Leader
What I learned during 200+ days of Victoria’s Covid lockdown
Paul Maguire
https://www.spectator.com.au/2022/11/how-i-kept-my-inner-rage-against-our-dear-leader/
In the early months of the Covid pandemic panic in 2020, I read Anna Funder’s excellent book Stasiland. The central theme of the book is the attempt to understand how a large proportion of the German citizenry of the German Democratic Republic were willingly co-opted into the socialist dystopia brutally enforced by the likes of Erich Mielke, founder, and head of the East German Stasi.
It seemed incomprehensible that entire sections of civilised society could willingly surrender independence, dignity, and self-respect for so long particularly after the horrors and indignities of Nazism and the humiliations of the second world war. That is until one finds themselve strapped in a society gripped by fear and panic. This is where I found myself in late July 2020 when Victorians were confined to home under threat of arrest and financial penalty for any act of disobedience. The legal authority for this extraordinary action was an administrative Direction issued by the Chief Health Officer pursuant to the previously innocuous PublicHealth and Wellbeing Act 2008 (Vic).
The audacity and arrogance of the 200+ odd days of lockdown imposed on Victorian citizens without warning by the Victorian state government, seemingly with the accord of the government of the Commonwealth of Australia was truly astounding. Without wishing to stretch the analogy of East German communism too far, the experience taught me how fragile and easily basic human rights can be taken away without objection if enough fear can been gendered, and in Victoria’s case, perpetuated with daily sermons of the horror of the unseen but purportedly insidious ‘wicked’ enemy of the people.
During this period, I learned a lot about my own resilience, family, neighbours, and in particular, the dangerous nature of unchecked state authority on a fragile democracy. Of course, with the benefitof hindsight, the dark signs of this ‘new authoritarianism’ were already evident for anyone willing to open their eyes within the state of Victoria. As much has been written about the continuing failures of Premier Andrews, I donot intend to repeat them. I would, however, offer several personal observations from the inside, so to speak, to illuminate my contention that the failed attempt at elimination of the virus has on any objective measure, not been a good experience, as lives were not saved, nor the public health protected. On the contrary, the draconian measures exposed the dark side of human nature and the ease by which the citizenry will embrace the new authoritarianism.
Having followed closely the decisions of the Victorian and NSW Supreme Courts and the High Court of Australia, I learned that long-standing Constitutional rights of freedom of movement and in particular, the Victorian Charter of Human Rights is not worth the paper it is written on. Worse, human rights advocates, academics, and officials are not interested in universal human rights. They are cultural relativists who gladly welcome the control of the state over individual freedom and liberty.
rest at:
https://www.spectator.com.au/2022/11/how-i-kept-my-inner-rage-against-our-dear-leader/
