W hen Kris Kristofferson wrote the chorus to ‘Me & Bobby McGee’ it is unlikely he had in mind the Covid19 pandemic. Nonetheless, here we are and his lyric “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose”, may yet turn out to be prophetic.
One hundred years since the Spanish Flu pandemic and the anti-mask protests of that time, it seems we prove ourselves as resistant to learning as we are unoriginal. Both unnerving and sad in equal measure, the marches in western cities protesting the imposition of masks and lockdowns are further reminder of the gaps in our defences that the virus exploits with ease. People who have no apparent sense of solidarity with anyone but those who subscribe to their world view, claim to march in defence of freedom whilst effectively guaranteeing the imposition of tougher and lengthier controls.
Among the numbers who make up these potential super spreading vector marches are those who vociferously claim almost anything that inconveniences, displeases or simply confuses them is a government plot to control the population. Armed with a cherry picked smattering of internet fuelled nonsense they walk among us, normal in most regards until they open up and share. Sharing for them invariably means subjecting one to their views with complete disregard for any counterpoints of fact. At their politest, one is fobbed off with a stream of ‘yeah buts’ though they are impervious to reason and square circles all day long in defence of disproven nonsense.
The assertion made by marchers is by and large, like all their other assertions; fallacious. They present a false dichotomy of civil rights against encroaching government controls with each protester curating a simple good versus evil world view. However, the question which none want to address is simpler still. If they protest as a question of principle to argue infringements on our freedoms are unjustifiable, then the same would hold true were the virus faster working and more lethal. Imagine the same marches taking place if the threat were an airborne, aerosolised, Ebola type virus that saw victims bleeding internally and from every orifice with a mortality rate over 50%. Were that the case and it was proven as now that mask wearing reduced contagion measurably, the numbers attending would soon become negligible with even the most conspiratorial minds promptly grasping reality.
However, just a glance at the political landscape in the west shows a worrying tendency towards an individualist freedom that will end up enslaving us. With words hollowed of their meanings and moulded to the needs of populist rulers we career precariously towards a truly Hobbesian state of nature. Eschewing any social contract of coexistence we face the “war of every man against every man”.
For Hobbes, the state of nature is characterized by the “war of every man against every man,” a constant and violent condition of competition in which each individual has a natural right to everything, regardless of the interests of others. Existence in the state of nature is, as Hobbes famously states, “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” The only laws that exist in the state of nature (the laws of nature) are not covenants forged between people but principles based on self-preservation.
The enforcement of short term measures embedded with time limits is probably the best way to ensure we don’t face more draconian impositions further down the road. Paradoxically, only by not marching for ‘freedom’ can we strive for a return to freedom. Such marches all but guarantee the very thing they purport to oppose and they need to be opposed as a matter of urgency.
In an age in which ignorance is celebrated and puff-chested halfwits are cheered for steering us into the ditch, the alarm bells are not being heeded. Our own diminishment is in its own right a concern, but so too is the kind of totalitarian single party rule that awaits us if we confuse ourselves over our freedoms and protest our way to something altogether different. Marching as unwittingly foot soldiers on behalf of forces that don’t have a stake or interest in our wellbeing is a freedom we have; it isn’t however one worth fighting for.
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