So if you meet me
Have some courtesy
Have some sympathy, and some taste
Use all your well-learned politeness
Or I'll lay your soul to waste
IT HAS been pretty clear for some time that the political leaders of the world can stick their New Normal where the sun doesn’t shine.
Today, at least for a while, Belgium returns to Normal. Not New Normal, mind you, but Old Normal. While this will be a major disappointment for some, most people have embraced Old Normal like a long-lost friend - exciting for the first few minutes, and then you forget it was ever gone.
This morning, when I dropped off my sun at the school gates (usually a traumatic experience after one week of holidays), I could see the faces of his teachers for the first time. And so could he. I was expecting a hesitant re-opening, a mix of masks and no-masks, a polite sign at the entrance of the school, “we still ask you to respect the basic…” etc. I found none of that, and the smiles on the teachers’ faces looked relieved as much as they were happy. I could see the traces of two years of mask wearing around their mouths and noses. I could only imagine how much easier my son’s first three weeks at the school would have been if he had been given smiles.
The fog has lifted, at least temporarily. What happens when the fog lifts? You can see what lies beneath it.
With every minute of Old Normal, the fear among those who restricted our lives must increase. In a few months’ time, it will become completely unthinkable that we ever hid our faces from each other, that we isolated our loved ones and let them die painful, lonely deaths.
Belgium announced the ending of most restrictions last Friday, in a low-key press conference, followed by a lot of news about Russia and Ukraine. Apparently, this is what will kill us next, for those of us who weren’t killed by Covid, that is. Today, on something like Freedom Day (the easing of restrictions is tied to a rather clumsy “barometer” which in theory could see stronger measures reinstated if numbers go up), the major newspaper HLN ran one article about it, the fourth on its home page in mobile view. In terms of prominence, this bit of news features about as strongly as a football result would, or the week’s weather forecast.
Where’s Covid? Only two weeks ago it was everywhere - variants, mask studies (lab studies focused on how they prevent droplets from falling - completely irrelevant mostly), gloomy predictions - it was all there for the gullible population to be swallowed up .
And now, it has all gone. As quickly as Covid arrived, it’s disappeared, cancelled.
So while Freedom Day should have been the news highlight of the day and celebrated in style, the failure to do so is perhaps good news. There is an interest on both sides to pretend the last two years never happened. The civil population, for the most part, moved on a while ago (politics follows popular opinion mostly, rather than the other way round). When the government announced we could now gather freely and drop masks, it made no difference because we had been doing just that for many months.
So when they declared that one would no longer be in grave danger of dying if not wearing a mask from Monday, 7 March - but you would in the two days leading up to it - of course people did not wait. My family, friends and I went to the zoo last Friday and there was hardly a mask in sight. Though in theory still needed indoors before Monday, almost everybody ignored the signs.
The Old Normal is back, and New Normal seems a distant memory. Clearly it was never going to happen in the first place and you know why? Because governments don’t determine Normal, they rule over an environment that is much stronger than them, and New Normal never stood a chance against hundreds of years of natural life.
So while the UK is quickly, quietly dismantling Sage, NIH is starting to pretend Fauci never happened and Austrians are talking themselves out of mandatory vaccinations, the following things will now happen:
The vaccination hype will disappear completely. Quietly, further jabs will be offered to the vulnerable before the autumn season, as they should always have been.
The vaccines themselves will probably be redeveloped and redesigned, and with little publicity, will replace the current ones.
The mRNA vaccines will gradually shift their technology towards more traditional methods.
Isolation and testing protocols will change completely, to the testing of only the vulnerable and only if they have symptoms.
Many people will fall down dead, unexpectedly. I had an appointment with a salesman for a new kitchen last week, and he cancelled to say his father in law had died. “Unexpectedly?” I asked, “Sudden heart attack?”
The numbers won’t be big enough to make the case that the vaccines kill more than they save but with each celebrity death, a few thousand people more will vow never to take the vaccine again.
I know what you will say. These are indeed the recommendations I and many others have made for two years. Protection of the vulnerable, as advertised in the Great Barrington declaration.
Where will the perpetrators of the crimes flee to? Or will we let them off the hook and show them some sympathy, assuming they acted in our best interests?
Today, I don’t really care. Enjoy Old Normal, also called Life.
Sympathy for the Devil?
No sympathy for the devil, none.
We cannot allow the perpetrators of this attempt to annihilate our world to go unpunished. Now is not the time to breathe a sigh of relief that we can live normally again. They’ll be back if we don’t stop them.