The New Normal - Eternal Halloween

I saw another government minister today saying something about masks and social distancing being here to stay, and that large weddings and Cheltenham style events will be off the table for the next few years. I say saw, but it's another one of these things I've just caught through osmosis from tweets. I haven't actually watched anyone say anything, or made an effort to see what was fully said. So it's just more "new normal" background noise I'm reporting on.

None of it surprises me. The narrative is pretty obvious, and we're all having to wade through it like treacle. So we may as well relax a little. Whatever was said it's all much of a muchness.

What got me thinking though was the masks. Apparently we can keep wearing masks and social distancing because it "costs nothing". I'm guessing they mean it's economically cheap, but it also wouldn't surprise me if they genuinely mean there's no downside at all. After all, they do seem to really love their masks (at least when the camera's on). Anyway, people on my side of the argument have been pointing out the obvious social costs to endless mask wearing.

It occurs to me that something that always gets missed though with the masks is vitamin D. Our bodies produce vitamin D naturally when we're exposed to sunlight, and in the winter months when we head outside it's normally only our face and hands that are exposed to the sun. Thanks to Covid however we now have people that barely leave the house, and when they do they're covering most of their face. Like weird not-so-cool vampires. Terrified of daylight. Not building up their D in the process.

You really have to wonder what the health cost is. It can't be good.

This got me thinking further about some of the other lifestyle changes that are currently being pushed. For instance veganism. (Apparently there's a "meat tax" on the horizon?? I think? ..another thing I must've picked up via Twitter osmosis). The vegan diet is pretty low in vitamin D, so you do need that sunlight if you head down that route (I'm guessing Dracula got his vitamin D from human blood, no wonder he could stay home all day). Now however we're encouraging young people to turn vegan, but to also walk around with their faces shrouded up. From now until forever. It's almost like death by a thousand cuts.

Personally I'm vegetarian myself, so my freckled face is my primary source of vitamin D. I definitely don't want to wear a mask outside for the rest of my life. Maybe I can use this excuse next time I don't want to wear one.

Of course, the answer always comes .."take vitamin D tablets!", but it's a poor substitute for my sun-kissed God-given face. Also let me know what the carbon footprint of those pill bottles is, because my skin is a self-sufficient, net neutral walking vitamin D factory :)

This is the thing though with the entire lockdown lifestyle. Everything is a poor substitute. Everything's a cheap knockoff of natural human life.

Can't get sunlight ..take vitamin tablets

Can't play sports outside ..exercise with an online trainer in your front room

Can't visit a museum ..visit a virtual museum

Can't hug a family member in person ..Zoom call them

Can't find love and romance ..watch porn, or order a sex bot

It's all a bit meh.

You really have to pity the people who love all this new normal stuff. Culturally and emotionally they're basically semi-comatose. It's not that they can't enjoy the higher meaning in life, it's that they can't even see it. When you mention to these people that we need our freedoms and human interaction, that life isn't worth living without these things, they're like "What?! What the hell are you on about?". Like those things are just pointless extras.

They got the monkey-brain. They experience life on a lower frequency. Though that's unfair on monkeys. Monkeys are quite expressive and vivacious. Zombie is probably a better term. Ahh, wait, NPC. I forgot, we have a meme for these people.

This is why they're happy to shut down our entire culture for years on end. No gigs, no concerts, no sporting events. Those things don't mean anything to the Borg. Basic soviet will do.

And this is the telling thing with the "New Normal". It's not the misery, or the lack of privacy, or the communal trough-like hygiene that illustrates how bad it is. It's the sheer ugliness of it all.

You can see it similarly in the US capitol. All that grey fencing. They've came in and instantly made America look more ugly. You don't even need to make an argument. It's past politics. Anyone with an ounce of aesthetic taste can see it instantly. Okay, this looks grim now.

The people pushing the new normal all look and sound ghoulish too. Bringing the spectre of death everywhere they go. Frightfulness. Like they've risen from the dead. They spook ya.

"Look into the eyes of the dead and dying ..you'll end up on a ventilator toooo. Wahahhaaaa!"

The fear and desolation in their own eyes peering out from behind a creepy mask. Even in their avatars.

And it's never noble, or natural, or peaceful death. It's always bloody and murderous death. If you question the masks, or the lockdowns, or the figures they'll come at you; literally shrieking "Murderer!".

Am I in Macbeth?

I'm getting a bit poetic now in my description of them, but I think we can only really describe these things with poetry ..even my awful poetry. We can't argue our way out of this, we're too crowded in by zombies, we have to paint our way out. With pretty brushstrokes, offering a richer vision of life. Richer in every way. Then hope enough people come over to the brighter side. Dazzled once again by freedom.

Leave these half-dead creeps in the shadows.

This morbidly brings me back to the poor old folks of earlier, masked-up and forbidden sunlight and human warmth. We may as well be wrapping these people up in bandages like Egyptian mummies, ready for the crypt. It's all macabre. A long lonely funeral service for the individual. All in the name of 'safety'.

These masks and lockdowns are burying people. Alive.