Here We Go Again
COVID-19 case numbers are rocketing again but some are more focused on defending the indefensible
It’s hard to believe that we’re not that far away from the two year anniversary of the government instituting the first COVID-19 lockdown. We’ve learned a lot about how the virus is transmitted and what steps we can take as individuals to limit its spread and save lives.
But what makes the entire situation even harder to believe is that the government and an assortment of the commentariat appeared to have learned nothing. Aside from a callous indifference to those particularly at risk to the consequences of contracting the virus, the government is once again walking us all into a scenario in which countless deaths are all but inevitable. The rush the get things “back to normal” took precedence. And that normal involved an underfunded and understaffed health system, classrooms with too many students, and rented homes packed with too many tenants paying too much money to ever-absent landlords.
Defenders of the status quo view any challenge as childish, for they are the “grown ups” who must govern for the politically naive. But for all of their posturing there is no critical thinking or grand plan. They like things as they are. We live in the kind of society as described by Thucydides when he wrote that “The strong do as they can, while the weak suffer what they must”. In Ireland the economy reopens so that profit can be made and thousands needlessly die.
What the commentariat and the government are panicking about, however, is the rise of Sinn Féin. Nothing sends some of Ireland’s most widely read journalists into a frenzy like the realisation that Mary Lou McDonald could very well be leading the next government. It’s difficult to understate how monumental this would be as the old politics of the Civil War are finally thrust aside in favour of something different. Whether that difference ends up being better for all of us is another question. But it’s one worth taking a chance on given what successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments have wrought.
Defending the indefensible
Perhaps this explains the consistent defence in the mainstream press of the government’s failures around COVID-19. We’re looking at the exact same scenario we faced this time last year: The health service is on the verge of being overwhelmed because the government wanted to reopen for the sake of lobbyists. It means more people are going to die and the reintroduction of some form of restrictions are all but inevitable. It’s as if the last 18 months never happened and the government is reacting to an entirely unknown and unpredicted scenario. But it’s had 18 months to learn, adapt to the situation, and put in mechanisms that would ensure we could have a secure Christmas. Now everything is once again uncertain.
Meanwhile Leo Varadkar has had the benefit of multiple broadsheets coming to his defence over the weekend by. He’s not corrupt, just stupid according to the learned scribes. To be able to pronounce this with such certainty — before the criminal investigation into his leaking of information to a friend has even finished — is an impressive display of clairvoyance. If only these skills could be used in other areas where they could save lives.
It’s just one example in a tedious pattern of deference to the government that we’ve seen over the last two years. As its influence and power wanes defenders of current administration will become increasingly hostile to any challenge coming from the left. The last general election was rife with scaremongering about Sinn Féin. With another one coming sooner rather than later, the irrational screeds about the party currently topping the polls will only increase in intensity. There’s plenty to criticise about McDonald and her party. Members tweeting pictures of Tom and Jerry at journalists is not one of them.
The pandemic gave those in charge the chance to shake up the media, politics, and Irish society. All they’ve done is reinforce already-existing power structures and biases. Given what we’re currently facing and will face in the future, more of the same isn’t ethical or sustainable. But since when has that mattered?