23 April 2020
Snowflakes All?
Lives for leading.
By Lynda Goetz
In the days before the news consisted of nothing but information about the daily deaths from Covid-19 or the shockingly remiss approach of the Government to sourcing PPE (wasn’t that Public Health England’s job?), there were, at least from some news media, weekly comments about the sensibilities of the ‘Snowflake Generation’. It seems now that the tag ‘snowflake’ could, with some justification, be applied to the majority of the population.
As a few commentators have already pointed out, we appear to have turned from a people whose mantra was ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ to a nation scared of its own shadow; not only happy to ‘Stay Home and Save Lives’, but reluctant even to come out if and when lockdown is finally declared to be at an end. The apparent resistance, not only in this country but in others, to the idea of a release from lockdown would imply that mankind in general has largely lost its appetite for risk. Granted, there are a few countries around the world where there has been some small rebellion against the current situation. In the US, France, Germany, Belgium and South Africa amongst others there have been demonstrations against the authoritarian restrictions imposed on personal freedom in order to ‘save lives’. In general, and certainly in this country, we have been surprisingly quick to comply with the burden of regulations, useful and meaningful as well as meaningless. (Who deemed shed paint, bathroom tiles, plants or flowers non-essential items – someone who doesn’t garden or do DIY and isn’t a builder? Who decided that surfing was a form of leisure, not a form of exercise – someone who had never tried it, presumably?)
Toby Young, journalist, educationalist and founder of The Free Speech Union, has set up a website called Lockdown Sceptics for the 6% minority who apparently question the severity of the current restrictions. Its motto is ‘Stay sane. Protect the economy. Save livelihoods’. He declares himself shocked at the rapidity and docility with which the British have complied with Government and police demands. I share his surprise and am equally dismayed at the preparedness of so many to ‘shop’ neighbours who appear not to be conforming. Where has this willingness to form a Stasi style network of informers come from? Has it always been a part of our national characteristic or is this something new? There have been campaigns to encourage people to inform on others whom they perceive to be ‘benefit cheats’ or ‘tax cheats’, but whether or not they have been as successful as this latest campaign is hard to know. It seems that in some areas the police were ‘inundated’ with callers reporting breaches of social distancing rules.
Are these reactions caused by fear and if so why, as a nation, have we become so fearful? Is it perhaps that we have increasingly handed responsibility for our well-being and safety over to government?* It certainly appears to be the case that as the generation who went through World War II is dying out (those who went through World War I are now gone) and the welfare state has assumed a growing importance in the lives of the nation, self-reliance is more and more a thing of the past. In an interesting article, Professor Bill Durodié (Chair of Risk and Security in International Relations at the University of Bath) points out that one of Government’s greatest challenges is going to be how to counteract such a state of dependence, unwillingness to embrace life’s uncertainties and acceptance of curtailed civil liberties and get the population to regain its sense of purpose. As he concludes, ‘We do not just live our lives, we lead them’.
If we are to lead our lives purposefully again once this coronavirus crisis is over we will need, to poach the slogan so effectively used by Dominic Cummings in the Brexit debate, to ‘Take Back Control’. For the duration of this pandemic, ‘unprecedented’ only in the sense that never historically has individual fear and the fear for individual lives had such global influence on government reaction and policy, we have looked to the nanny state to protect us in every way. In order to move on from that infantile state where we are happy or at least expect to be told what to do, when and how, we need to regain an adult acceptance of the risks entailed in leading our lives. Risk is an inherent part of life. As adults we need to learn to evaluate and weigh up risk. Death at some point is an inevitability; but the chances for most of us of that being from Covid-19 are remote.
The evening news on the BBC usually starts these days with a count of the number of people to date tested positive for coronavirus and the number who have died with it (not ‘of it’, please note). From these figures it looks as if the disease has something like a 10% mortality rate. However, since these figures do not include the general population who may have had the illness in any of its milder forms but have not and never will be tested, this gives a totally misleading impression. Whilst it is true that there have been a number of unexpected deaths of younger people or those without underlying conditions dying of the virus, the fact remains that the elderly with underlying health conditions remain the most vulnerable. The mortality rate is in fact estimated to be around 0.1%; meaning that 99.9% of the population have not died from it.
Lockdown cannot continue for too much longer without causing far more harm than the coronavirus ever could; its main purpose, to avoid a spike in cases which would have caused a breakdown of health services, would appear largely to have been achieved (although it will be interesting to evaluate this approach against that taken by Sweden where there is no enforced lockdown). Populations now need to conquer the fear, added to by government propaganda, and accept responsibility for their own health and safety. We will all need to continue to wash hands (when, by the way, did this stop happening as routine?) and to monitor family members or friends who might need to avoid others or perhaps even be admitted to hospital. There should be no question of imposing extra restrictions on those over 70. They are adults. They contribute to the economy, not always by working of course, but by looking after grandchildren and pursuing their lives and activities. Should they wish to continue to self-isolate until a vaccine is found then that should be their choice. It is not one I can see many taking. Schools need to re-open and the hysteria of teaching unions around the subject ignored. Snowflake attitudes should be one of the things a post-coronavirus world can leave behind.
*This is a view interestingly expressed by Yuval Noah Harari in Sapiens.
