Time To Become Visionary

After the very mild loosening of the lock down restrictions announced yesterday I saw many people on the left threatening essentially strike action. Stating; "people can't go back to work, it's not safe enough! we must organise resistance". Being against the lock down my first response was to chastise them. However, that got me thinking. "Back to work" is never going to appeal to people on the left. It sounds too much like the status quo, and people on the left generally aren't happy with that. They want something better. Some progress.

This ain't anything new of course. It's the standard dichotomy in politics. Conservatives want to conserve. The left want revolutionary change. It's quite easy to forget this though when you find yourself entrenched on one side of an argument. As I've found myself on this lock down issue.

So I'm now thinking that as I continue my organic political schema I need to make sure I offer a vision. So that it isn't just simply a defence of our all important rights and freedoms. It'll be hard to marry both impulses though.

Labour Losing Muslims

Also, given that I'm planning on stealing left-leaning Labour voters it's perhaps worth mentioning this article I came across yesterday.

Over 100 mosques threaten to boycott Labour over Kashmir

Obviously I'm no expert on the Kashmir situation. So I have no real idea where the blame lies - it seems complicated. Perhaps I should buck my ideas up and actually do some research. Either way though I only share it as it looks like a harbinger of something I feared would happen were Labour to go the Starmer "centre ground" route. They've already lost a chunk of the working class vote thanks to Brexit - as per the election. Now with Starmer leader they're potentially disenfranchising the socialist Corbyn-left block. The Muslim and the black vote are the two other big block votes that Labour have always taken for granted.

I started worrying about the Muslim vote back in the summer of last year when we had the issue in Birmingham over the teaching of LGBT+ sex ed in schools. I remember watching Jess Philips argue quite assertively with some Muslim protesters and thinking at the time "this potentially will push Muslims away from Labour".

(Jess Philips debating protesters last May)

Of course, the saving grace back then was Corbyn, who has always been very publicly on the side of Muslims. So there wasn't an imminent danger of that back then. However, now he's gone it's a more real prospect. The question then is, where will this huge Muslim vote go if it does become estranged from Labour?

(My tweet from last year, pointing this out

- ignore the silly avatar and name xD)

I do think this is an important thing to consider though when it comes to the overall social cohesion of the UK. Excluding groups by simply taking them for granted, whether it be white working classes or Muslim voters, creates a huge groundswell for alternative parties. Ideally it will lead to good parties, but there's always the danger it can lead to problematic parties. For example, with the white working class vote you could give the Brexit Party as a good example, and the BNP as a bad example. The disenfranchisement can go in both directions.

The Message is Changing

Apparently this weekend we're moving away from "stay home" and towards "stay alert". Of course, the pro-lock down crowd are claiming it's incredibly irresponsible to do this. Whereas people like myself are complaining that it doesn't go far enough.

The colours are pretty ugly, no doubt for some desired psychological effect. Out of boredom, and a vague sense of patriotism, I changed the colours to something more British last night when I first saw it.

The way simply changing the colours changes the feel is quite fascinating really.

Also I saw someone share this on Twitter. From Sweden's public health authority. It's interesting as it also uses "arm's length" as a good rule of thumb for social distancing.

"There are currently no studies that show any exact limit for what distance is safe, but considering how the drip center spreads, a benchmark could be at least one arm's length distance."

Again, nature and common sense mean we're well designed to deal with these things.

Is the novelty wearing off now?

We've started to reach the point where a lot of normal people are getting sick of lock down. This has been curious to watch. For most people the lock down came pretty much out of the blue, so they've been on a different emotional trajectory to me. I had my little panic attack in the months leading up to the lock down, and have since moved to a stoic acceptance of the situation. Consequently my feelings are quite different to most other people's.

Over the last week I've noticed a definite change in people's attitudes however. I live in quite an earthy, working class area. So it's normally quite noisy, busy and chaotic. In the month or so after lock down was announced it was deafeningly quiet though. For the first two weeks in particular there seemed to be no one outside at all. Apart from the occasional dog walker, or family cycling in their little family group to get their hour of daily exercise. However, the last week has been quite different. It's starting to get noisy again. I can hear people outside. It's heading back to something approaching normality.

I'm now wondering if the novelty of lock down has began to wear off for a lot of people. This is quite important in regard any "second wave" and "second lock down" we may have. As if there's a novelty factor it will play into how people respond next time - i.e. they'll get bored of it more quickly next time.

It'll now be interesting to watch to see if the sleeping spirit of the "free nations" kicks back into overdrive. Or if we'll be slowly subsumed into a more eastern way of living.

Accelerated Arguments

Well I actually got a chapter finished last night. C'est super. If I can just keep this effort up for a few consecutive days I should be sailing.

As for today I've had another morning so far of mild arguments on Twitter over "lock down". Again, I don't really enjoy it. Plus it's annoying when you get another notification on your phone just as you think it's all over and you can get on to other things. However, I feel like I need to keep chipping away at the lock down mentality.

(A little image I shared on Twitter in the hope it

would reminds Scots of their ancient liberties)

It's actually slightly worrying how poor the pro-lock down proponents are at arguing their point. They seem to just shout out insults ("you want to end the lock down!! how selfish!! etc). Following which they then just tend to scurry off, unable to respond to any specific point. The issue of civil liberties in particular seems almost like a new concept to them. As if they'd never heard of the idea until you'd mentioned it. Which I guess shouldn't be surprising really given how little the media and politicians have discussed it.

"What? You want to leave the house and risk the lives of other people!! Just so you can go to the beach or see your friends!!"

When you then point out that you may choose to take even more precaution than the government recommends for all they know, and that the broader point is that it's the right of the individual to decide, not the right of the state, they seem thoroughly bamboozled.

I keep trying to make the comparison with sexual freedom;

"Just because I believe individuals should have the right to choose who they do or do not sleep with that doesn't mean I believe there's no risk to sex, or indeed that I think it's a good idea to risk your health by sleeping with lots of people. Still, in a free society it should be a personal choice, and people should be free to make their own decisions. Don't you agree?

...or do you want the state to govern this aspect of our lives too?"

By which point they usually slink off.

I keep hoping that I can get into a debate about why the Soviet Union failed and why the west succeeded, but it never even gets that far.

#FBPE

It reminds me quite a lot of the arguments I used to have with the #fbpe crowd. Though in a way it's much, much worse. At the start of that long battle it was actually quite difficult. After all there were good arguments on both sides, and intelligent people could make very good, intelligent arguments for remaining within the European Union. In fact, at the beginning it felt like something of a David and Goliath battle, with leavers in the role of David.

As the argument progressed though and the remain side began to lose. Predominantly because they lost the democratic battle, then proceeded to trash democracy and the population in general in frustration. That's when they started to get quite irrational and emotional; and the insults began flying. "Stupid; racist; gammon and so on."

By Christmas gone you may remember I was feeling guilty about even arguing with them. In a way their frustrations were only expected. It was a long, drawn out battle (still going on now it seems too) and when you invest so much time and emotion into something. Especially if you feel it's a just cause. Then it's highly unlikely you're simply going to let go and say "Oh, well". So I do have a lot of sympathy for people on the other side.

With the lock down debates though it feels like the pro-lock down side are already in the emotional final stages. It worries me a little as it can't be good for democracy. When you have governments wanting to lock down their populations, and a public emotional and frenzied then it's quite dangerous in my view. People demanding that their neighbours be arrested for visiting the beach or having a barbecue, with no logical underpinning or understanding of their now strongly held beliefs. Not even weighing things like civil liberty in the equation.

So I feel I have to at least try to keep popping these little bubbles of emotion. Though it may look something of a lost cause at the moment.

No Tetris Today ..so far anyway

I'm doing very well with my Tetris detox. Not a single game since yesterday's post 😇. My eyes are beginning to recover. I might finally get some work done.

Anyway, this afternoon I watched a few Yale lectures about disease. Very interesting. The one below in particular had especial resonance with today's situation. Well worth watching.

(Contagionism versus Anticontagionsim

- Yale Courses)

This whole event has really pushed me down a new avenue of interest. I would've never paid this much attention to diseases, and the science and history behind them, had it not been for all this. It's been a real crash course. Certainly one of the few positives to come out of this situation. I'm sure it's been the same for many people. I wonder what impact this will have on our wider society over the next few years as all these newly educated people start offering their opinions. Perhaps it might lead to some new health paradigms.

Tetris Eyes

I've been incredibly lazy over the last few days. I really need to get cracking and knuckle down a bit. The work of fiction has once again taken a back seat. At the rate I'm going I'll need about 5 years of lock down to get it finished. My main problem is that I've developed a mild addiction to the game Tetris. It's so easy to play casually whilst I'm listening to music or podcasts. Plus it's something to do to alleviate the boredom of being stuck inside endlessly.

(Boredom in Lock Down)

I've spent so much time looking at a screen playing it that my eyes end up positively aching by the time it gets round to doing anything worthwhile. If I had an ounce of self-discipline I'd do the worthwhile stuff before playing games, but it's too easy to put things off.

On the plus side I did get the other book updated. That was fairly easy actually. So that's one job out the way. I'm also starting to think about possibly doing a third non-fiction book. Though that will be a long way off if I do decide to do that.

As for lock down politics in general I'm feeling a bit more relaxed about things now. It's a relief to finally see more and more people come out on the anti-lock down side. There's also a gathering feeling that countries may be finally heading towards some kind of exit. I'm still expecting a long drawn out back and forth battle. Much like the Brexit saga. So I'm certainly not expecting us to instantly full-exit. In fact, even if we do come out in some way I'll still be constantly on "wave watch". As I'm sure we'll have "round 2" before the US election.

I also need to carry on with the "organic political party" idea I was toying with a week or so ago. Ain't gonna fix the world's problems sat playing Tetris for hours.

Are the blame games beginning?

I listened to an interview with Jacob Rees-Mogg earlier - it can be found here;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5gvOlTlABI&t=0s

In it he seemed to be making the argument that the public wanted the lock down, and that the government were in lock step with public mood. There is a lot of truth in this to be fair. I witnessed it firsthand as I watched people demand that football games be called off, in spite of the fact that the green light had been given for them to go ahead.

However, in the interview no real mention was made of the media role, and I would argue that it was the media that largely drove public opinion.

Obviously I would argue that the lock down was wrong whatever the general public opinion was - if that can even truly be measured. You can't just suspend fundamental rights because of mob outrage. It's interesting to watch though. It seems like we're now reaching a point where people are trying to frame responsibility. Usually framing it away from themselves to some degree. Whether it be politicians, scientists and advisers, media or members of the public themselves. In a way this is good. It's certainly better than the government proudly championing such measures.

Reading some of the comments beneath the above interview, and also when it was shared on Twitter, it seems like the base Conservative support (or rather the Brexity-type people I should say) aren't too pleased. It seems they see it, like me (I guess I'm one of them really), as a civil liberty infringement; and something that should be reversed asap. Which seems to be quite different to the broader public mood. Much of whom still seem to be too sacred to even leave their own homes. So there's a balancing act politically speaking.

Personally I'd be more worried about losing the core support - though I guess I would say that. The general public mood will dissolve over time I would imagine. It's an emotional response to a crisis. Not a thinking one. However, the people providing criticism of the lock down tend to be making their arguments from first principles. Or at least arguments based around their core values. So this could shape where they place their hopes and support for years to come.