Normalized Lockdown Lingo

... even by those who should know better

Lately in these supposedly post-covid days, I’m hearing this sentence starter: “When we were in lockdown ...”. It appalls me to hear that word used so casually and matter-of-factly, as if equal to “when we had that snowstorm and had to stay indoors.”

“Lockdowns” happen in PRISONS; they are PRISON-SPEAK.

But the once free world embraced imprisonment and shamed and snitched on those of us with the honest instinct to reject the PSYOP.

Here in BC in mid-March 2020, one “covid-related” death (of an elderly, already ailing gentleman) in our population of five million green-lit the sudden government take-over by previously unknown, unelected bureaucrats. Overnight, these NPCs were to be obeyed as lawmakers via “Public Health Emergency” mandates.

We British Columbians were now subject to a mousey but fashionably dressed civil (“snivel”) servant whose softly modulated— we could say, hypnotic— voice came to be so adored and celebrated by the body-snatched citizenry, that our little Bonnie Henry (who once served under Fauci) was promoted and celebrated (for her mass-subduing talent) in the New York Times. And it even came to pass that iconic shoemaker Fox & Fluevog designed a pair for what must surely be the cloven hoofs of that public princess. Today she hides somewhere in the shadows while lawsuits drag on in the courts.

But I digress. Here we are, three years later. Our world as we naively knew it, forever and significantly altered in terms of public discourse, individualism, self-actualization and above all, human freedom. We should have known what was coming, decades ago with, for example, the ban on public smoking, even outdoors. For sure it was bad news for anyone’s lungs, but that was their business. When’s the last time you witnessed anyone smoking a cigarette, anywhere at all? I did about a year ago, and wanted to hug the guy. I saw him as a hero staring down the Goliath of behavioural micro-management.

Recently I had the opportunity to hear Jordan Peterson speak in Vancouver. He alluded to this hostile takeover of the smallest details of our lives, with a quick story of being backstage in the otherwise empty washroom, about to use the cloth towel dispenser, upon which a notice instructed the wet-handed to limit their length of towel use. Jordan had us howling with his out loud response to the mute machine, repeated for our listening pleasure; “FUCK YOU!” Given his habitual oration style, that moment’s visceral honesty struck an appreciative chord in the mostly thirty-something, (very racially and ethnically diverse, by the way), male audience. It was wonderful to soak up their awake vibe in that completely non-masked crowd.

I guess my point in writing today, is to entreat you to be on high-alert for the words, signs, instructions, suggestions, let alone laws or mandates, that covertly or overtly curtail, control, correct or chastise you. Because as we’ve learned, the little things add up to the unthinkable; namely, the phrase “when we were in lockdown” which has no place in our conversations in a free society. Not that casual, normalizing reference, no. It must be named for what it was: the day we shamefully, shockingly succumbed to our would-be Overlords.

Never again, they said.