It is terrifying to contemplate a government with the power to freeze your bank accounts at the click of a button because it disagrees with your political views.
Justin Trudeau senses a slippage in democracy towards authoritarianism.
“…Countries turning towards slightly more authoritarian leaders – countries allowing increasing misinformation and disinformation to be shared on social media turning people against the values and the principles of democracies that are so strong,” he said.
skynews.com.au/world-news/global-affairs/justin-trudeau-senses-a-slippage-in-democracies/video/
And I think he is correct – but not from the understanding of a ‘ski instructor and part-time drama student’ (nor working in a ‘fish and chip shop’).
Before Covid, it had been suggested that there is a direct correlation between parasitology and authoritarian governments. (Referring to microbiology, not necessarily the politicians). That is, the more and the more harmful the ‘parasites’ in your country the more likely it is that your government will be authoritarian.
According to scholars, in addition to our physiological immune system, we have a ‘behavioural immune system’: an unconscious code of conduct that helps us stay ‘disease free’, including an aversion and fear of the ‘possibly infected’, e.g. ‘unvaxxed’.
When the perceived level of risk, and we have the media to thank for convincing us that Covid 19 is a possible death sentence (especially for Granny), then ‘disease stress behaviour’ increases and can even manifest itself in aberrant behaviours, e.g. agoraphobia or hostility towards unmasked people.
These effects can be widespread, as a social contagion, and even influence voting patterns. New Zealand may have experienced that. There will be favouritism towards people who ‘appear’ to be managing the situation (when in doubt introduce ‘traffic lights’ because we are all so stupid that they might work) and an aversion to change.
This fear could lead to authoritarian consequences.
Hitler was a germophobe and given to pronouncements within the context of disease, using such metaphors to unite and galvanise the German people against an imagined enemy and hence establish a route to authoritarianism and ultimately totalitarianism:
“Anyone who wants to cure this era, which is inwardly sick and rotten, must first of all summon up the courage to make clear the causes of this disease.”
These words were used to stigmatise the Jews. It was a deliberate manipulation to tribalise the country and in doing so to “other” a particular segment of the population – to identify them (Jews) as the enemy and a disease.
Fast forward to 2022 and we have Justin Trudeau:
“They are extremists who don’t believe in science, they’re often misogynists, also often racists,” said Trudeau. “It’s a small group that muscles in, and we have to make a choice in terms of leaders, in terms of the country. Do we tolerate these people?”
A very authoritarian and intolerant statement coming from a democratically elected leader. He, like our prior example, then employed scapegoats, in this case the unvaxxed.
“When people are seeing cancer treatments and elective surgeries put off because beds are filled with people who chose not to get vaccinated, they’re frustrated,” said Trudeau. “When people see that we are in lockdowns or serious public health restrictions right now because of the risk posed to all of us by unvaccinated people, people get angry.”
When authoritarians such as Trudeau make such pronouncements, they are seeking to arouse a feeling of disgust in “their tribe” for those of the other tribe. However, Trudeau is not alone in his deliberate tribalism. The King of Empathy has a Queen of Empathy, Jacinda, and she also likes to create tribes to achieve her objectives.
In an interview, the PM confirmed that New Zealanders who are not vaccinated will face discrimination under the traffic-light system.
Derek (Reporter):
“So you’ve basically said, you probably don’t see it like this, but two different classes of people. If you are vaccinated or unvaccinated. You have all these rights if you are vaccinated… ”
Jacinda:
“Yep, that is what it is”
I encourage everyone to watch this video and to share it so that people in New Zealand can see her real character.
The callousness of her reply belies her “empathetic” PR status. It’s all fake.
Disgust is a very powerful and fundamental emotion that has been used time and again to excuse the most horrendous crimes.
Cornell University psychologist David Pizarro is an expert on the science of disgust and has uncovered connections between disgust and political persuasion.
RNZ and the NZ media must have listened attentively, as ever since the issue of the unvaxxed arose there have always been claims that the unvaxxed are a danger to society and are in many ways “unclean”. For example, following the dispersal of the protesters, hours of news time and many articles dwelt on the poor hygiene displayed by the protesters and the mess that the protesters left behind to an extent that was never the case when considering other protests, such as the protesters of Ihumatao.
Even following the resolution of the Wellington protest we still have the press pursuing the theory that the unvaxxed are a disease threat despite the fact that so many people in New Zealand have now been double vaccinated (90% accord to the NZH), boosted or have natural immunity.
The interesting thing about all this disgust and disease is that it provides a cover under which one can claim that to even approach and speak to the unclean could lead to either personal or community harm. Thus, Trudeau had an excuse to not even speak with the truckers or listen to their claims.
Jacinda employed a similar strategy, refusing to meet with and listen to the concerns of the protesters inside Freedom Village.
My belief is that we only dodged the bullet of the government employing measures such as freezing people’s bank accounts, and bringing even more force to bear, because Trudeau acted first, and the pushback was so universally critical that Jacinda was forced to rein in her authoritarian impulses.
It is terrifying to contemplate a government with the power to freeze your bank accounts at the click of a button because it disagrees with your political views.
In the months to come, the country will be opening again and we will be open to global communicable diseases from which we have, due to our Covid measures, been protected such as mumps, influenza, and measles.
Will we all be forced to update our vaccine passports for these additional ailments?
Will we be forced to be vaccinated for all of them?
Will there be lockdown measures for these previously tolerated diseases?
And will the ‘second class citizen’ and authoritarian measures again be employed?
Will some of us wake up one day and find we can’t pay the rent, mortgage, electricity or purchase food unless we comply with government directives?
Once upon a time questions like these would be considered far fetched in our sleepy little island democracy. However, after what happened in Canada, a so-called democracy, we can only hope that the slippery slope of authoritarianism will not slide any further under Ardern’s watch.