Standards are slipping, it’s time to wise up
HOW do you think you’d fare in a fight against our Taoiseach? Not a pre-arranged bout under Queensberry rules but a proper scrap, a no- holds barred street fight? Personally I think I’d struggle. Although he doesn’t strike me as a chap who spent his formative years going toe-to-toe with local ne’er do wells, Leo is a fit man, a young man, he swims a lot, probably has good stamina and, as we’ve seen, has excellent survival skills.
Therefore I’d like to avoid such a confrontation if at all possible. However, I mightn’t have much choice in the matter if things keep up.
One would assume Mr Varadkar’s tongue was firmly in cheek when he responded to a tweet posted by @darren_conway which read: ‘If you go outside 2km Leo Varadkar jumps out of a bush and starts swinging digs’
Showing that fun side which we all know and love, An Taoiseach replied: ‘Great idea, but I’ll resist temptation for now. Please stay home and abide by the restrictions’ So we may rest easy for now.
But while he’s promised not to ambush us if we accidentally stray too far from home, Leo has issued a stern warning for those who wilfully flout the rules, advising the nation that failure to comply will lead to a further, extended lockdown, possibly lasting until the end of May.
It wasn’t delivered with any great menance, wasn’t any more terrifying as your mother’s vow to ‘come up those stairs to ye’ if you didn’t stop messing, but the message was clear: Behave yourselves and I might bring ye for an ice-cream later on.
The real question here is why our leader feels the need to talk to us like this, why we have to be coddled like little children, promised a reward, something nice, if we do as we’re told.
Given the stakes, the risks, he should be going into full trash-talk mode, pitying any fool who has the temerity to defy him.
But because a few of us are getting twitchy, because economists are predicting record levels of unemployment, everything has to be coated in sugar, sweetened lest we take offence.
Look, I know people are losing money, that the thousands of SMEs which provide so many jobs throughout the country are in danger of going bust.
And I know how hard it is to sit and stare at the same four walls day in, day out with no end in sight, believe me.
But what do we want to do? Do we want to weigh the cost of human life against that of the economy and decide that sacrificing a few old people is worth it in the long run? Decide that our own mental health, our bank balances, take priority over the lives of the weak and vulnerable?
More than 50,000 people have died in America and they’re easing restrictions, their beaches are full of people, landmarks reopened for tourists. They haven’t overcome the virus, or in anyway flattened the curve.
They’re just fed up. They want to get back to work. And because Donald Trump is their President that’s what they’re doing.
The public response in this country has been admirable from day one, save for a few idiots spoiling it for everyone we’ve knuckled down and done as we’re told.
But now we’re slipping. I’ve seen it, you have too. The longer this goes on, the more risks people take, the harder it becomes. Where once we tentatively strayed from our doors and furtively hurried from one essential task to the next, we’re now blasé, taking risks, forgetting ourselves as the danger levels gradually decrease.
The fact is, for most of us, the coronavirus hasn’t presented a direct threat. Yes, it’s impacted our lives, but we haven’t been infected, nor have our family members.
We’ve heard of people in our communities who’ve caught it, died from it, but it hasn’t visited our homes. And because of that, because we’ve made it this far, untouched, we’re beginning to feel invincible.
Yet that feeling of invincibility has come from following the rules. There’s a reason why 99% of us have no direct experience with Covid-19, a reason why this terror has visited so few of us, relatively speaking.
Right now the threat is an extra two or three weeks indoors, more frustration, anxiety, money lost. That might sound scary. But it won’t be half as scary as the alternative.