Probably because I read rightist newspapers and watch mostly rightist news media, I have repeatedly heard calls asking for an end to any and all elements of the current lockdown. I personally find so much of it extremely hollow, as precisely because Australia has taken appropriate action and coupled with the fact that we are an island fortress which is surrounded by a massive moat, as far as I am concerned, we have done well.
Also, because we don't live in cities all huddled together, like New York, London, or Rome, we haven't actually been placed in as complete lockdown as everyone else. A while back I saw a chap doing sports style commentary for the impending arrival of the local vicar; who was at the time the only person allowed outside if they weren't actually going shopping. The fact that that was the most interesting thing happening in town that day, gives you an idea of the real kind of lockdown that other people have really had to suffer through instead of our pretend sort of lockdown in Australia, relatively speaking. I have heard tales of kids in Spain for instance, who were inside their apartment and hadn't left it for eight weeks.
Not only do have we not had anything like the severe kinds of restrictions on movement in Australia that other countries have had but the people who are complaining the loudest about the restrictions that we have had, are also the ones to have actually suffered the least. Remember, when they talk about wanting people to return to work in the name of the economy (praise be) they aren't particularly concerned about the welfare of the people who have to do that front line work; as evidenced by the fact that hospitals and schools are worryingly underfunded and under resourced in terms of protective equipment and perhaps most worrying of all, have staff who are the most likely to be underpaid relative to the responsibility which we are currently placing them under. It is people's own personal inconvenience which appears to be driving calls to end lockdowns rather than any actual public health concerns.
It seems to me that the people who we expect to suffer the most, are the most vulnerable. The people who own capital are also the ones to be the most openly cruel, as evidenced by the number of landlords who suggested that their renters dip into their superannuation funds early; rather than extend any sort of rent forgiveness.
The curious thing about suffering, is that it tends to produce a work of changes in someone. Just like a mind that has been expanded through education and experience can not and will not snap back to its original dimensions, a heart which has endured some kind of suffering is generally also changed forever. It must be said though, that suffering which produces a defensive work in a heart, occasionally results in a heart which is older and colder and retains possession of the hurt.
From a generational standpoint, we saw that the people who had endured the Great Depression and the Second World War and even the First World War, set about on the grand project of building the welfare state; in some cases in stark contrast to their general political standing before the Second World War. Generations which had suffered together, had developed a sense of community and wider empathy; which explains why Churchill of all people, who was a Conservative Prime Minister, proposed the establishment of the NHS.
Conversely generations who do not have to suffer, have on the whole developed a lesser sense of community and wider empathy which has translated into governmental policy. To some degree this explains why the United States which also went through the Second World War, did not establish the same kind of welfare state system as Europe did. At the time, no state of the Union actually heard the sounds of war¹. The most vociferous objections to the current lockdowns in the United States and here in Australia are being made by older people on the whole² and by sections of the media which act as mouthpieces for the monied classes, which have personally had to bear the least of the load.
This isn't to say that suffering is something which people necessarily like to go through. Almost by definition, suffering is unpleasant. On a repeatable basis though, people who go through suffering are on the whole more resilient and develop either coping strategies or outright strength.
I have no idea how a block of marble feels about being turned into a sculpture of a lion, a god or goddess, or some great statesperson but I can not imagine that it would be happy about it; assuming that a block of marble can feel the feels. A sculptor chips away at the block of marble, which I imagine would inflict pain upon something if you are having bits hacked off. Nevertheless, after the sculpture is finished, it is celebrated for its beauty and may even be preserved as a thing of great cultural significance but nobody ever asks about the marble left on the floor of the sculptor's studio.
My great hope for this current suffering which we are all going through is that it produces a work of greater community and wider empathy than we had previously. The products of kindness, patience, joy and even civic philia generally do not spontaneously arise out of nothing.
I do not know if you have religious leanings and see this as some kind of divine work, or if you see this is as just the long game of history playing out in an impersonal universe³, but surely those things which together make up the broader altruistic framework for a commonwealth of humanity are desirable at the very least. There is no shortage of holy men and prophets across a bunch of religions who have made statements which are variations on "treat other people how you wish to be treated" and yet when it comes to actually carrying this out, we are all collectively terrible at doing it.
As for the general question of "who is going to pay for this current moment of civil kindness?" with regards policies like the JobSeeker and JobKeeper allowances, it certainly isn't going to be the people who already object to paying wages and taxation. It is almost as if the people who do the least actual suffering, are the first people to whinge about doing any kind of suffering at all.
δυνατὰ δὲ οἱ προύχοντες πράσσουσι καὶ οἱ ἀσθενεῖς ξυγχωροῦσιν
"the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must"
- Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War c.404BCE
¹Pearl Harbor is in Hawaii, which didn't become a state until 1959.
²The very oldest of the Baby Boomers will be turning 75 years old later this year.
³I think that theism, deism, atheism, are all reasonable viewpoints but all of the people who hold any of them have to remember that from inside the system, the only real way prove any of them is to leave the system. As they are all kind of a priori, you will not shift people. Be kind instead.
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