This personal anecdote is symptomatic of how the system of tyranny persists. Someone close to me works in health and education. This person contacted me last night in a distressed state asking for advice. I won’t go into all the background and detail because I neither want to prejudice their position, nor embarrass them.
They’d been asked to commit to a 12 week programme of constant COVID self-testing twice a week. It was introduced as being voluntary but when this person refused (politely), they were told to go away and think about it. Whoever was seeking to persuade them to change their mind laid out all the reasons why it was a good idea to agree to it; in reality, the subject of this story is being subjected to emotional and bureaucratic blackmail and bullying, the details of which I won’t reveal but will explain how these COVID regulations are being enforced.
As Blackadder explains to the unfortunate Baldrick in the video clip above, the abused always kick downwards.
We see examples across society. Money power bribes and bullies government, government bribes and bullies local councils, local councils abuse businesses, their employees and residents. Businesses, in turn, bully their customers and employees. In order to obscure the malevolent intent, money (that appeared miraculously from nowhere) is being liberally showered on victims of abuse in the form of loans and furlough payments.
The only way to stop bullies is to stand up to them in sufficient numbers – when confronted with righteous resistance, bullies capitulate.
First followers are more important than the early resisters who can be seen to be eccentric and dangerous but the first followers validate the resistance, thereby encouraging the more hesitant and circumspect people around them. So if you can’t face being the “nutter” who stands against the tide, find someone who will and follow them, others will join in.
As I suggested to the person asking my advice, the anticipation of what might happen if we refuse to comply is far worse than the reality of doing so. We haven’t got long to reverse the tide of tyranny. I should point out, this person referred to in the opening paragraph is not one of the “awkward squad”, unlike the wayward person from whom they sought advice but they are instinctively resistant to what is unfolding.
Meanwhile, I learned from UK Column on Wednesday that the UK government has purchased some 340 million doses of COVID vaccines from a number of pharmaceutical companies. As I observed on Twitter, that is Enough COVID vaccine doses for the UK population to play Russian roulette five times each.
Needless to say, I won’t be accepting a flu or COVID vaccine and so if anyone wants mine, they can have ten goes, if they feel lucky! 🙂
* Update: From Richie Allen. An email received from Emma. “I will not be consenting to this new vaccine under any circumstances. So to anyone worried about the prospect of mandatory vaccinations at work, these are some pretty water tight arguments to use. I really hope that they can reduce some of the anxiety that I know many people are feeling right now around the prospect of this kind of further encroachment into our lives”