Men and women can be very nasty when they see someone enjoying a freedom they haven’t themselves the courage for.
Hugh Walpole - Vanessa (1933)
It is worth suggesting that a minor political purpose of coronavirus masks is to accustom susceptible people to the idea that it is okay to be an unofficial police informer. Seems too cynical but it may not be. From what we have seen of the lockdown so far, the possibility is creepy enough to be plausible.
5 comments:
I think you have hit the nail on the head here. The evidence that a lot of people around us would have applied to work for the Gestapo or Stazi is something that makes you wonder what has gone wrong. Back in the 60s, Kevin Brownlow made a film called "It happened here" (available on DVD) which showed British people happily joining up with the forces of the Nazi invaders. It was controversial at the time. Now it seems merely factual. Most of our compatriots are happy to embrace Big Brother. Brownlow was/is a typical Guardianista and was horrified by the sort of people who turned up to play SS guards. I wonder what he makes of the undercurrents coming out of the Corbynista movement
I've worn my mask twice to brave Budgens. Everything seemed quite normal, really; just people shopping wearing masks. I tried to work out from gait, body language and ironically raised eyebrows who was for or against. The natural maskers and the would-be barefaces who are reluctantly complying.
Online, the ideological battle rages more obviously, and it is this that I find most interesting. There seems to be a very vocal contingent who are absolutely certain that masks save lives ("You've got to wear them properly, mind!") and that the barefaces are killing ma and pa and should be locked up for a long time. There seems to be another contingent who are convinced that this is all a massive conspiracy by Soros or the CIA or somesuch, and is a precursor to compulsory vaccinations and internment, and who have scientific evidence that masks just make you more infectious. Both sides seem to have very rapidly mastered virology, epidemiology, and fabric technology to a very high level in a couple of weeks.
Me, I think it's probably more likely that we are covering our faces so that Boris can save his. I need to pop out to get bread and milk from time to time, so to avoid the fine or being publicly berated by some zealous masker, the blasted thing has now become part of my personal effects. Wallet, dog-poo bags, keys, and mask. I'm sure it enjoys the most stringently hygienic conditions crammed with those into my pocket.
Theodore Dalrymple covered this as well:
"Political correctness is communist propaganda writ small. In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, nor to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is to co-operate with evil, and in some small way to become evil oneself. One's standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to. ”
Snitches were the only way they could do it in the USSR.
Graeme - interesting thanks, I've bookmarked a YouTube video of the original UK trailer. You are right - to assent to obvious lies is to co-operate with evil and many of us would do that whatever we may think now.
Sam - I'm sure you are right, we are probably covering our faces so that Boris can save his. Perhaps also to fade the thing out naturally as official advice tries to stay ahead of mounting indifference.
Nessimmersion - that angle bothers me too. The purpose of much of our propaganda does not seem to be about persuading, convincing or informing but more like a kind of benign humiliation where what is being taken away is adulthood.
James - and that will be the case here as the official net tightens.
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