Anyway, perhaps if I'd gone to see It's a Mad, Mad World, I would have internalised sooner the message of the title. Instead, I continue to go through life saying, "The world's gone mad" with increasing regularity.
But, seriously, this time it actually has - or the western part of the world at least, where we are facing a pandemic involving an unusually infectious and contagious virus and have been warned for months by all those who claim to know about medicine and science that it is very important, if we want to save as many lives as possible, that we stay away from other people, avoiding all crowded places. Those who have broken these rules in even the smallest way have been pilloried in the press.
And then, following the killing somewhere in America of an innocent, (until proven guilty) man by a police officer, herd immunity became the new weapon of choice - at least I'm assuming that was the central motivation in the minds of the individuals who took part in the subsequent herd stampede. Despite the fact that the police officer involved has been charged with the innocent (until proven guilty) man's death and faces trial, and therefore the system is working exactly as it should in such a case, large numbers of people in America and elsewhere have decided this is precisely the right moment to pour onto the streets and launch a revolution against racism. Racism, they argue is endemic in all countries where white people are the majority indigenous population and it must be destroyed now. No matter how pressing the problem of the virus, or anything else for that matter, this is the precise time when it must be addressed as the first priority of the governments and societies of all countries where white caucasians are the majority inhabitants. It simply cannot wait, (although it can wait for as long as you like in China, the Middle East, India and all other countries where the majority population is not predominantly white caucasian, apparently).
Of course, with an alacrity unknown hitherto, local authorities in Britain responded by launching themselves instantly into persuading the participants of rallies that this was not the right time to launch a revolution, however much their cause might or might not have right on its side. The representatives of medicine and science enjoined the population to wait until the virus that was picking off the old and frail had subsided before going out to voice their concerns. The law courts understood the paramount importance of getting rid of the virus and ruled that in the circumstances the right to demonstrate needed to be judged as secondary to the right of citizens to protection from the chance of a rise in deaths via an increase in the spread of disease that demonstrations might cause.
Oh.
No, I've just checked that isn't what happened. Instead, medical experts advised that it was in the interests of public health to go out and demonstrate, provided people only went out to demonstrate against racism:
While local authorities did indeed act with unprecedented speed, their activity was not designed to protect the public from the immediate health crisis. Instead, it was decided that the possible damage done to the mental health of a small sector of their constituents by statues was of the most urgent importance. During an epidemic of a dangerous virus that had led to a lockdown that was destroying the economy, the conclusion was reached that it was time to work out which statues, street names and building titles might remind people that there was a shameful period during which Christian societies strayed from their values and decided that, if everyone else was practising slavery, they would too. Such reminders were so hurtful that the Mayor of London even went so far as to set up a committee immediately to look into the problem. Clearly in his view this was not only a more urgent problem than tackling the epidemic of coronavirus but also more urgent than tackling the epidemic of knife crime in the city he rules - an epidemic that leads annually to the deaths of far, far too many mainly black people. Black lives matter anyone?
I have to admit that there was absolutely no surprise in the fact that the UK police stood about while the mob ruled, given they've done that for years. Ask girls in Rotherham and Rochdale and Telford, to name but a few. My impression for a long time is that nowadays the only time the British police force ever shows any energy is when learning to do pathetic bits of break dancing, accusing people of hate crime (a category that ought not to even exist - either you have been insulted in which case bad luck, take no notice, or you have been physically attacked, in which case it is assault) or using drones to pursue people who are clearly no threat to anyone, least of all themselves, as they stroll in the Peak District National Park.
But that was all in the United Kingdom. I did expect better from the other country I am a citizen of. While I wasn't surprised that the Australian equivalent of the BBC chose to end its version of Question Time with a monologue from the son of a children's book illustrator and a native title bureaucrat, who spent his childhood comfortably in Perth, the city where he studied for his first degree, before moving on from there to Sydney to one of the best drama schools in the world and then acting in a widely syndicated and very popular (no, I don't know why it is either) televison soap opera. This young chap is full of anger that he isn't treated properly. He identifies as an indigenous person, but he is angry because he is given acting roles where he plays indigenous characters and he is furious about an incident involving an indigenous sporting hero who was racially abused, an incident that this young chap (and many others) has taken to be a sign that racism is widespread and, presumably, all white Australians would like to be racially abusive - an interpretation of a single incident that I would argue is in itself racist. Anyway, this young chap is very angry and he's not afraid to demonstrate how angry he is and one reason he is angry is that he believes that white Australians don't like to see "blackfellas" being angry. The trouble is not liking to see people angry has nothing to do with skin colour. It has everything to do with finding anger a worrying precursor to physical violence, particularly if you are a woman
As I say, that didn't surprise me. Public broadcasters everywhere are entirely hostage to whatever the prevailing politically correct wind happens to be - and they also love adding to the strength with which it blows. However, I did expect more from the Australian judicial system. Therefore, when the NSW Appeals Court made a lightning fast decision last week, (bearing in mind that most plaintiffs experience a speed of process that could charitably be described as snail like) which, with five minutes to spare before a demonstration was scheduled to begin (amazing that), allowed people to pour into the streets lawfully in packed, sweaty numbers to shout that black lives matter, I did feel a moment of despair.
But then I remembered my five-year-old self clattering up and down the front hall in our house all those years ago and I realised that all we are witnessing is the pervasive human impulse to make a lot of noise.
PS The revolution may end up eating itself
PPS Meanwhile Christians wait:
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