In ‘A Christmas Carol’, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come transports Scrooge to a Graveside:
The Spirit pointed from the grave to him, and back again. “No, Spirit! Oh, no, no!” The finger was still there. “Spirit!” he cried, tight clutching at his robe, “hear me! I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been but for this intercourse! Why show me this, if I am past all hope!” For the first time the hand appeared to shake.
As we all know, Scrooge mended his ways and Tiny Tim lived.
Where am I going with this? Well, quite simply for the first time in my life I find myself fearful of the future, instead of optimistic (which is my natural-born disposition). Why? Because we appear to be knowingly and willingly creating a two-tiered society.
The Ghost Of Christmas Past
Earlier this year I found the time to rewatch the definitive TV series on World War II, ‘World at War’, narrated by the incomparable Sir Laurence Olivier. I recommend it to anyone since I consider it so important to know, remember and learn from history so we can avoid making the mistakes of the past. The first episode, a New Germany (1933-1939) jumped out at me since the parallels with 2021 were as obvious as they were horrifying. (You can watch it on Youtube here).
What I found horrifying was how seemingly civil and Christian society could so quickly reach a place where the segregation and de-humanisation of one sector of society were not just acceptable but actually considered correct by the majority of people.
It started with small things – not being allowed entry into shops for example. It was then accelerated with the story that these people – and these people alone – were responsible for the spread of Typhus. From that point, it was perfectly natural that they should be segregated, after all, they were unclean and therefore a danger to the rest of the population. At that point, they became second-tier citizens, dehumanised, and thereafter it was relatively straightforward to intern them.
We all know what happened to the Jews after that, and not just the German Jews.
The Ghost of Christmas Present
Fast forward 80 years or so. Does any of the above sound familiar? No? Allow me to spell it out.
- Long-time journalist and former editor of the Times Andrew Neil: ‘It’s time to punish Britain’s five million vaccine refuseniks: They put us all at risk of more restrictions. So why shouldn’t we curb some of their freedoms?’ He calls the unvaccinated ‘ignorant, irresponsible and stupid’. He ends by saying: ‘By all means exercise your rights. But beware of the consequences.’ Full article here.
- Journalist Karren Brady: ‘Make the unjabbed face their own lockdown so we can live our lives’ Full article here.
- Health Secretary Sajid Javid: ‘Sajid Javid blasts anti-vaxxer Brits for ‘taking up hospital beds’ as more than 5 MILLION people still refuse Covid jab’ Full article here.
Anti-vaxxers. Refuseniks. It’s all their fault that the rest of the population are being subjected to these restrictions. It’s all their fault that the hospitals are overflowing. They’re selfish.
I hold a First-class joint honours degree in engineering and a Masters degree – with distinction – from two leading UK Universities. Many of you know me. I took one jab and will take no more. Do I strike you as ignorant, irresponsible and stupid?
40,000 care workers in the UK lost their jobs in November 2021 for refusing to be jabbed. At least 100,000 in the UK National Health Service will lose their jobs in April 2022 unless they get the jab (which now means 3 at the moment, by then it may well be 4 – Javid has stated it will likely be 3 boosters a year).
Take the jab or lose your job. They chose to lose their jobs and livelihoods. They are brave and principled people.
Take the jab or be restricted in your daily life. At the moment it’s Nightclubs and large venues (eg football matches). What next? Cinemas? Gyms and sports clubs? Supermarkets? Where does it end?
And that’s my point. Once you start imposing restrictions on one sector of society, there is actually no end to what can be imposed on them.
I asked a friend recently that surely he would agree that Apartheid in South Africa was wrong on every level. His answer was ‘you can’t catch being black’. And therein lies the problem. The narrative that the ‘anti-vaxxers’ (I prefer pro-freedom-of-choice myself) are responsible for the spread of Covid and the strain on healthcare and all the restrictions on society is taking hold.
Let me be clear. THEY ARE NOT. Anyone – vaxxed or unvaxxed alike can catch and spread Covid. Even Boris Johnson has said this. The people actually responsible for the restrictions on your life are the Government and their Advisors. No-one else. As Neil Oliver so eloquently put it, we are in an abusive relationship with our Government.
‘Do it to Julia! Not to me!’ screamed Winston Smith at the end of 1984, when the rats were within millimetres of his face.
‘Do it to the anti-vaxxers, not to me! Anyway, THEY DESERVE IT’.
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.
So, when you are sitting down for Christmas dinner this Christmas Day, I ask you to consider this. How do you want Christmas Day in 2022 to look? It seems to me there are two possibilities:
- We will have returned to civilised and sane society. We will have rejected the curbs on our freedoms in their entirety for everyone in society.
- We will have allowed this to continue. Austria is mandating vaccinations for all from February 2022. Germany seems likely to follow-suit. Those who do not comply will be asset-stripped (through punitive fines) and jailed. The irony of the this would be hilarious if it wasn’t so horrifying. The countries that were the birthplace of the Holocaust are creating a new underclass. The problem this time around is that Britain isn’t standing in opposition. Britain is going along with it. Australia is quarantining – in camps – aboriginals who refuse the jab, with reports of forced vaccinations taking place. What will Britain look like once the narrative that ‘the restrictions are all the fault of those anti-vaxxers’ has taken firm hold?
As C S Lewis puts it in his chapter on Charity in his superlative book ‘Mere Christianity’: ‘The Germans, perhaps, at first ill-treated the Jews because they hated them: afterwards they hated them much more because they had ill-treated them. The more cruel you are, the more you hate, the more cruel you will become – and so in on a vicious circle forever.’
So how do you want next Christmas to look? It isn’t up to the Government, or their advisors. There were 100,000 Germans who turned a blind eye for each Oskar Schindler.
It’s actually up to you.
I wish you and your loved ones a blessed Christmas and Happy 2022.