The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H. L. Mencken

Bad officials are the ones elected by good citizens
who do not vote.

George J. Nathan
(colleague of H L Mencken).

"For almost half a century, fear has dominated the outlook of Western societies. One of the distinctive features of this outlook is the tendency always to think the worst. And it is this tendency that has exerted an all too powerful influence over policymakers and experts during the Covid pandemic". (Frank Furedi)

According to Furedi, the decision to suspend the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine because of a possible link to blood clotting is a clear example of worst-case thinking. The imperative to avoid taking a risk, no matter how small, triumphed. And, as a result, risk-averse officials undermined the credibility of a life-saving vaccine.

Just one example in the China virus/ lockdown case. But the "precautionary principle" - AKA fear - has now invaded every aspect of our lives. We are made to feel discouraged and fearful about the future. We are suffering from the "deleterious impact of safetyism", particularly in the area of childhood, which is increasingly "organised around the anticipation of the worst possible outcome". Children have come to see themselves as fragile and vulnerable.

In particular, the climate change scaremongering has incited children to feel hopeless about their future: the media delights in showing us sobbing, hysterical children in front of mobs of activists waving placards about a doomed planet.

Furedi describes the fear as being " socially dominant". It is not fear "as an emotion" but rather fear as a "perspective", a "cultural orientation towards the world". We interpret everyday experience through it. It feeds risk-aversion, a heightened sense of vulnerability, a preoccupation with safety, and a lack of confidence towards the future.

As from Monday, anyone arriving from India will face 5 years jail or a $66,000 fine.
ttbn,
I heard that anyone who tries to hide the fact that they came from India by boarding flights to Australia from outside India are the ones targeted.
Apparently, some have flown to Doha & then booked to go to Australia, trying to give the impression they didn't come from India.
Totally different scenario !

A couple of cricketers took the Doha route I believe, but they did quarantine, and they did it before the jail threat. Still sneaky and putting themselves above others. It was made clear by the PM that there would be no special treatment for cricketers. It was probably their action that brought on the decision about jail and/or fines.

Interesting thread.

When the pandemic hit I was not long out of heart surgery. I became very afraid, to my shame, because I had occasion many times in life to say 'Now I can die happy', and 'Life owes me nothing'. I was afriad to die, even though I have been to graveyards and seen the graves of guys who were born after me and died before, and had relatively small and uneventful lives, or even fulfilled lives, whereas mine has been a teeny tiny statistical minority for extreme leisure, pleasure, freedom, wealth and security: a baby boomer who took most advantage of the times. I feel very fulfilled, but yet when old I disgracefully feared death, when just about everyone has had it harder than me and perished sooner with less complaint. Through my fault, through my fault, through my mosgt grievous fault. Amen.

Now, where was I? Ah, yes.

So this just goes to show the power of the machinery and engine of life that drives us on, as living things, to avoid death and seek life for it takes either a significant force, or a sweet oblivious antidote, to carry us off.

About fear and the pendemic, there is indeed an endemic symbiosis between the state, and the promotion of fear and conflict. The book title 'Crisis and Leviathan' explans it all in three words.

it is certain that the mainstream and political narrative has been contradicted over and over again, on all major premises, since the very beginning by reality, science, reason and ethics. Policy has been a disgrace.

We are reaching the state where every single thing they have said and done is flatly incorrect, has made matters worse, and justifies the name of totalitarian fascist tyranny.

At that stage, these political criminals and those who aid and abet them, put themselves out of the pale of civilised society, just as Mussolini earned the end he got.

They have become criminals and outlaws against all humanity for their enormous abuse of human rights, and they belong on the gallows.

Fact