Are Lockdowns Coming Back?
What should we do?
Lately there has been increased media coverage of new Covid variants and rising case numbers. So-called medical experts have been advising people to wear masks and get the updated booster shots when they become available, even though both methods have proven to be ineffective. It seems we are being primed for the reintroduction of Covid restrictions. Here are three reasons why I think this is possible.
1. The Covid regime never really ended
In 2003 George W. Bush landed on aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf and declared “mission accomplished” in Iraq. Since then, the intensity of the conflict has waxed and waned, but twenty years later, the US still has troops in Iraq. In 2003 the unpopular war was far from over, but the establishment wanted to redirect the public’s attention. In September last year during a CBS interview, President Joe Biden officially declared that the pandemic was over. And in May this year, the WHO declared the global Covid emergency over. Authorities have declared “mission accomplished” in the war against Covid.
Even though most countries began easing restrictions in early-to-mid 2022, the Covid regime has continued. Sure, it is no longer on a rolling boil, but it has been kept on a gentle simmer all this time. The WHO is busy preparing its accord on pandemic prevention. Many employers in Australia still require job applicants to be Covid vaccinated. Legal challenges are still being heard, and legal precedents are being set, upholding the legality of Covid measures. An “independent” review of Western Australia’s Covid response published in August praised the government’s actions during the pandemic and recommended that it do much the same for future pandemics. Former health secretary Matt Hancock testified before the UK Covid-19 inquiry in June that the government must be prepared to impose more stringent lockdowns during future pandemics. Tamara Lich and Chris Barber are expected to face trial next month over charges relating to their involvement in the Canadian Freedom Convoy. Tamara Lich is living under strict bail conditions and faces the possibility of a prison sentence.
There were no temporary restrictions. People lost businesses, lost jobs, changed careers, dropped out of university, emigrated. Anticipating vaccine mandates that could severely restrict my right to work, I sold my house in early 2021. I am currently renting, and after seeing how the Canadian Government froze — and attempted to seize — the assets of protestors, I doubt I will ever have enough faith in the system to own another home. Repealling legislation can’t reverse the damage. And, of course, loose monetary policy during the pandemic continues to erode our wages and savings.
Take Brexit as another example. 52% of Brits voted to leave the EU, but seven years later, the British establishment is still fighting to rejoin the EU and may even succeed if Labour is voted in next year. It’s never over with these guys. They never let anything go. Whenever they want you to think it’s over, you can be assured it’s not. It is a moral failing to believe the people who lie to us, gaslight us and forever shift the goalposts.
In 2020 I was a moderator of an anti-lockdown Facebook group. After the first lockdown ended, the page went dead and the administrator considered closing it down. A few months later, however, we were back in lockdown and the page became active again. This cycle recurred several times. When lockdowns were in force, people were outraged. When lockdowns were lifted, people became complacent. How quickly people have forgotten what it was like to live in 2020! We are in an inter-lockdown period now, and people are complacent.
Our leaders want lockdown to be the rule rather than the exception. Whether it is called a lockdown or a 15-minute city or something else doesn’t matter. And the pretext doesn’t matter either, whether it is a new strain of Covid, or a new strain of flu, or another disease altogether, or climate change, or a natural disaster, or the threat of a nuclear attack, or an alien invasion, or the threat of a terrorist attack. The pretext is just a placeholder.
It is also worth noting that in Australia, no major political party has repudiated lockdowns. Why not? Because they plan to use them again. I would go as far as to say that the effort to make us believe lockdowns are over is a psyop.
2. The masses won’t rise up
I have heard a lot of people say, “They wouldn’t get away with bringing back lockdowns. People wouldn’t stand for it.” If you think that, you have learned nothing from the last three years. Most people have demonstrated that they cannot think for themselves. They will go along with anything. Worse, they will zealously enforce the orthodoxy. You cannot rely on the majority to do the right thing. The majority doesn’t learn. Many of the people who swore they would never be duped again after the scandal of the Iraq war are now clamouring for war with Russia. It’s different this time, apparently, if you ask them. The war in Ukraine is proof that the establishment can recycle the same propaganda and censorship tactics and get away with it.
Look at China. China was the first country to introduce lockdowns in 2020, but within a few months, they lifted lockdowns and lived relatively free of restrictions until early 2022, when the CCP decided to pursue a zero-Covid policy and reintroduced harsh lockdowns. In 2020, when China first imposed lockdowns, people in the West thought, “That’s China. Our governments can’t do that”, yet our governments did. If the Chinese Government could bring back lockdowns after a two-year reprieve, so can our governments. If the past three years have taught us anything, it’s whatever the Chinese Government can do, ours can do too; whatever Chinese citizens will go along with, most of our fellow citizens will go along with too.
3.) The Covid narrative has not collapsed
I often hear people say, “The Covid narrative has collapsed.” But the government doesn’t need a coherent narrative. It didn’t have a coherent narrative in 2020 when it first imposed restrictions. It was known, for example, that masks were ineffective and that Covid had a low infection fatality rate and mainly effected the elderly. There was no reason in 2020 to believe that lockdowns would prevent the spread of the virus. There was no reason in 2021 to believe that the vaccines would prevent transmission, and plenty of early evidence from Israel, Iceland, Malta and Gibraltar to suggest that they didn’t. There isn’t a coherent narrative around the war in Ukraine. The government doesn’t need a coherent narrative to push its agenda.
What should we do?
I doubt we can prevent a return to Covid restrictions if authorities are determined to bring them back. I think the best thing you can do is order your life so that you are as self-sufficient as possible. You should arrange your life based on the assumption that lockdowns, in some form or other, will return and invasive restrictions will be reintroduced. The less dependent you are on the system, the more you will be insulated from the impact of these developments.
But that doesn’t absolve us from the moral responsibility to speak out. And the best time to speak out is before measures are introduced. If lockdowns are reintroduced, gathering for protests will be illegal, and you will risk being pepper-sprayed, arrested and fined. Politicians will be “too busy” to respond to your letters. You will be censored on social media. It will be too late.
Some are urging caution, saying, “They’re not going to bring back lockdowns. The media are just trying to wind up the conspiracy theorists so they can discredit them when their predictions fail.” This is a well-worn pre-emptive tactic deployed many times throughout the pandemic to try to lull us into complacency. For example, in 2020, if a freedom protest took place between lockdowns, the media would ask, “Why are you protesting? We’re not in lockdown!” Then when people protested during lockdown, the media would ask, “Why are you protesting? We’re in lockdown! You should be at home isolating!” They played the same trick with vaccine mandates. Since early 2020 so-called conspiracy theorists were predicting the introduction of vaccine mandates and vaccine passports. Politicians assured the public that these anti-vaxxers were getting worked up over nothing; there were no plans to introduce vaccine mandates. Vaccines hadn’t even been developed yet, so it was wild speculation. Then in 2021 the vaccine was rolled out and the Federal Government introduced legislation requiring every Covid vaccination to be registered with the Australian Immunisation Register. This legislation didn’t make vaccination mandatory, politicians assured us; it only made registration of vaccination mandatory. A few months later, predictably, the states introduced vaccine mandates. The idea that we should wait until measures are in place is absurd. By then it is too late. Better to make a pre-emptive strike than indulge in reactive indignation.
We must not be ashamed to make predictions. Our ability to anticipate events and predict the next move of potential adversaries determines our success in life. It would be very convenient for our adversaries if we stopped trying to predict their actions and waited until they implemented their plans. Be very suspicious of anyone who discourages making predictions and encourages inaction.
I don’t care if this is all a ploy. If the media are trying to bait us, they had better believe we will bite. They shouldn’t even float the idea of returning to lockdowns. It’s reprehensible. Any such suggestion should be met with strongest objections.
Take a look at some recent articles: “Global COVID monitoring is crashing as BA.2.86 variant raises alarm”; “Covid jabs can protect patients by giving them antibodies against 21 other viruses - including potentially fatal SARS and MERS”; “Political support for surveillance of Covid waning in Australia despite ‘waves of mutations’, scientists say”; “Lockdowns and face masks ‘unequivocally’ cut spread of Covid, report finds”; “New coronavirus variant has experts on alert and WHO is urging countries to step up COVID surveillance”; “Hector Saenz is one of just two Australians who needed a lung transplant because of Covid”. This is eerily similar to news from the height of the Covid regime. Such propaganda prefigured lockdown in 2020. I may not have been able to see it then, but I can surely see it now.
I am under no illusion that we live in a functioning democracy, but I think the first practical thing we can do is write to our local representatives, at every level of government. Write now, before measures are introduced and they are “too busy to respond due to the high volume of correspondence”. If you live in Australia, it is important to write to your Federal MP’s and Senators as well. If they try to fob you off and claim that lockdowns are a state matter, remind them how the states could not have imposed such harsh lockdowns for so long without support from the Federal Government. Remind them that:
The Federal Government subsidised lockdowns through schemes such as JobKeeper.
The Federal Government purchased vaccines and made the registration of Covid vaccinations mandatory, which enabled the states to impose vax passes.
The Federal Government engaged in censorship on social media, silencing those who spoke out against the harsh measures the states imposed.
The Federal Government imposed hotel quarantine and built quarantine camps.
The Federal Government prevented people from entering and leaving the country.
The Federal Government provided ADF personnel to enforce state lockdowns.
The Federal Government discussed policy with state leaders in National Cabinet meetings.
The Federal Government imposed Federal mask and vaccination requirements.
I have a petition to Federal Parliament pending approval, but that could take a few weeks, and I don’t know how much time we have. In 2020 things moved very fast. One minute, politicians were espousing herd immunity; the next, they were announcing lockdowns. So I have also started a Change.org petition.
I don’t have much faith in the power of petitions to change things. Politicians can simply ignore them. But if we have any chance to change the course of things, it is by making a noise now. And hopefully, some among the sleeping masses might hear the noise. We need to use whatever avenues are available. And we have a moral obligation to rob the government of excuses. If they reintroduce restrictions after being petitioned and bombarded with emails, then they can’t plead ignorance.
I know some people don’t like Change.org. It mainly supports left-leaning causes. I understand if you have privacy concerns. You need to decide for yourself what risks you are willing to take. You need to pick your battles. Personally, preventing a return to lockdowns is a hill I’m willing to die on. If you live in Australia, I invite you to sign the Change.org petition. And if you live overseas, perhaps you could start a petition in your own country. I would like to emphasise that I only used Change.org because I have a sense of urgency about this.
Speaking out puts us at a certain degree of risk. I see a lot of fair-weather dissidents lately, people who didn’t speak out when it was unpopular but, now that it’s safe, claim they always opposed restrictions. I remember a sermon from childhood. Our pastor was talking about how easy it was to be a Christian in the West and how Christians in other parts of the world faced harsh persecution. He issued a challenge to fair-weather Christians. “If being a Christian was a crime,” he asked, “would there be enough evidence to convict you?” That has always stuck with me. Let me rephrase it: if opposing evil were a crime, would there be enough evidence to convict you?