The lockdowns, loss of freedom of movement, attacks on free speech, the threat of a 'covid passport' advent of a group of Secret Police in South Australia threatening businesses and customers over the QR/sign in surveillance - all " came to pass" because Australians are too dumb and lethargic to do anything about the fact we are transitioning from a democracy to an autocracy.

Australia is becoming more like China everyday day, without any help from China. Although the author suggests that "the Chinese pull(ed) off the destruction of the Western economy and way of life", they could have had no influence if they didn't have the cooperation from the enemy within: politicians (particularly the Victorian sort), academics, businesseses benefiting from trade, and Leftist activists

As always, most Australians are getting what they deserve, and the rest of us have to wear it. All concerned Australians can do now is, keep our mouths shut, not attract public attention, and take the 'Benedict Option'.

We don't want Big Government protecting us; we need protection from Big Government.

ttbn. Yea and Amen.
David

This is horse manure? Not rational thinking, Paul.

People like you, if given your way, would have us follow India and the US with a hopelessly overwhelmed health system and the prospect of mass graves?

That said, reopening the borders are now in prospect far earlier than envisioned due to 2 new therapeutics in play.

One, an injection that seems to have little if any side effects, that is administered as an injection that kills 99.99% of all coronaviruses, variants, including the common cold.

The other a nasal spray that provides significant protection against covid-19 and also doubles as an anticoagulant.

Left to me, get as much production happening of both as is possible and shipped to all points around the globe. At a price, the richer nations could afford to in effect, subsidise it for those who need subsidised prices to make it universally affordable for all!

This is not a time for the usual prevarication, just action that represents our best option for getting the borders open and the economy turbocharged on the back of MSR thorium and energy prices as low as 1 cent PKWH.

Don't just do something real, stand there flapping your jaws, Mr smirk, why doncha? TBC.
Alan B.

Well that's so typical.. two responses.. one from each division of society..
Paul.. I was delighted with your article and plan to share it.

81 years old, three heart attacks & a resultant shortness of breath, I am one of the high risk folk.

However if they just free up access to the full range of Hydroxychloroquine, Ivermectin, Quercetin & Budesonide to be used as a prophylactic of my choice, under my doctors advice, I would be happy to see the borders opened, to some extent. Perhaps the virus with the side effect of stopping immigration has done us a long term great benefit.

If opening the borders means a return to rampant immigration, lets keep them shut for a decade or 2 to give us a chance to absorb the motley lot we have admitted over recent years. Then there's the foreign university students destroying what was once a great system.

On second thoughts, lets keep the international boarders shut tight. We can live without foreign university students & tourism, incoming & outgoing, & be a better place for it.

Yes Hasbeen, we don't need to open our borders to people, over the dead bodies of the elderly and disabled, just ramped up manufactured production we can export to the world.

Starting with massively increased green steel and aluminium. Then raw energy generated here and exported by graphene cored undersea cables.

Much of which could be produced by co-ops that just put our own people to work in jobs they are qualified for.

With our energy input costs massively reduced, we can restart the local car industry as fully electric and able to compete with all comers, on the world market.

Energy as cheap as 1 cent PKWH will allow quite massive desalination projects and the opening up of new food and fibre growing provinces!

And power up the new rapid rail that could be self-funded with the right funding paradigm via the later resale of resumed and rezoned land. Albeit to the roars of indignation of the white shoe brigade and their corrupt pollie mates?

Thereby massively reducing overland transportation costs! Which just has to support massively increased export production every which way! Along with jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities in overdrive!
Alan B.

Why is this NOT a Faustian bargain?

- Because Faust's devil is intelligent!

No sane person blames the lion for being violent - we understand that lions act according to their nature, they do not kill and eat other animals because they are cruel, but because their DNA dictates to them how to respond to hunger.

Likewise, a government does what governments do by their very chaotic and opportunistic nature: the author's comparison with Hitler, Lenin and Mao, is misplaced because these evil three knew what they wanted, they acted deliberately, they had principles - despicable principles all right, but still. The Australian government does not have any, by which they could sort out which decrees are legitimately acceptable and which are not.

Nor do the majority of voters have sound rational principles to act on.

I do no blame the government nor the people who voted them in - I blame the era we live in, the harsh age of Kali Yuga, the age of iron, the age of strife, the age of moral instability. Yet there is one ray of hope: in this terrible age, while society as a whole is doomed, individuals who make even a small effort to rise above the chaos and live a principled life, gain merit and blessings well beyond what they could get in better ages with similar efforts.

Great article.
I used to think we were a freedom loving people. I now know we are a safety loving people. Being the kind of person who actually looks at the data and makes up my own mind, I know this virus is relatively harmless to the vast majority of the population and we could have easily protected the small vulnerable group without overly impacting on the rest. So how did the population become so scared they were willing to give up freedoms that no-one a year earlier thought the government even had the power to do?
1) a totally incompetent press that failed to look at data and facts and spread fear willy-nilly.
2) incompetent academics who failed to do their job.
3) cowardly academics who knew the truth but did not speak out because of fear of being branded a "covid denier". (Note the link to holocaust denier)
4) Politicians who quickly realised that they could increase their popularity by keeping "the people safe".
5) The same politicians who became drunk on their own power. These people remain in power and will be highly reluctant to give up this power.
6) a population that has lost sight of the traditional values that made Australia what it is (or at least once was). A land of freedom where people rely on themselves and each other and want the government to keep out of their lives.
7) Rampant censorship by big tech and the mainstream media of any views that don't fit the "deadly pandemic" narrative.
8) Big business and other vested interests making an absolute fortune.
9) A failure to accept death as a natural and inevitable part of life. 75% of Australian deaths from covid were nursing home residents.

You can be prosecuted for spreading Hiv/aids! Even so, we have a suite of antivirals that will keep the infected relatively healthy. Now we would seem to have a couple of promising therapeutics for covid. with one, an out of patent medication that was approved ages ago. And can be safely retasked to prevent clotting. And provide some cover for covid as well. And applied as a thrice daily, nasal spray. And we could be making it here!

Because it's out of patent there's nothing but the missing political will to prevent it The other missing element is fit for purpose quarantine! And for mine, that's island quarantine! And because small islands population can be fully vaccinated and workers can be island residents.

after the island, another could be a transition centre that makes sure you really are negative before proceeding Meaning we can keep the virus out. Lockdowns only occur, because of inadequate, not fit for purpose, quarantine!

And because those at the helm are just too dumb to understand that? Believe we need to learn to live with this killer virus and accept a level of death toll among the old and infirm! Even as they ensure it's not them or their equally callous cronies!
Alan B.