May 2020 – sillysocksonfriday

Nothing but the truth

…so help me, God!

Presumably that is tacked on because God sees and knows everything. That puts Her/Him in a pretty powerful position. As we will recall from the repeated advice in our schooldays: Knowledge is strength!

I had a sort of epiphany just as I cycled across the creek on my early morning ride. That is how we know about right or wrong, because God can see everything and is not fooled by our rationalised, exculpatory bullshit.

What is more, he keeps the score, so he can direct traffic at the end of the line: for every one going up 40 go down, even more if you are fat and rich (remember the eye of the needle?)

But I digress. I think that the Man (dated I know, but it includes the Woman) should be entitled to the truth. We should have to answer the Police truthfully, we should not be able to hide from inquiry and the Man should be able to track our movements, hear everything we say and see everything we do.

I do not say all this should be public knowledge; what I mean is that properly constituted authority should have access to that information for the purpose of effective government.

That means that the Man could have the same power as God as far as knowledge of the Truth is concerned.

So if we have a chip that enables us to be tracked wherever we go, all our conversations and movements are recorded and truth serum is administered when we are being questioned by authorities, we will be unable to deny any wrongs or rights that we have done.

Sadly, Satan clearly demonstrated the fallibility of those who aspire to be too much like God and he was an Archangel! We are too frail, corruptible and weak to be able to handle the truth.

But it is getting worse… can anyone actually tell us the real truth about coronavirus statistics and impact?

Sing out loud

My earlier blog today was unoriginal and bleak.

I cast about for a happier note and was rewarded with a memory of The Happy Wanderer https://youtu.be/UPfGL0tDP30

We were taught it at Primary School and it filled us with glee, especially as we exaggerated the faldera ah-ha-ha-ha-ha bit, every time.

Our little gang sang it when we played pirates in our wonderful pirate ship HMS Avocado Tree

Just a thought…

When faced by the threat of a mythical monster, we ask our historians and our priests how we should deal with it. When it comes to a plague, we ask our medical scientists for advice. That’s what our governments did when the Corona raised its horrible head.

Now doctors think in scientific terms and they rarely pronounce unless the numbers are compelling.

Like most husbands accept everything a nurse, midwife or doctor tells them about childbirth, so politicians accept everything medicos tell them about plagues and how to handle them. After all this is about life and death, lots of it.

The medical advice, almost unequivocal, was that citizens keep isolated and to close places where people gather including workplaces. Notwithstanding the cost to the Fiscus, individuals and businesses this was the most effective way to ensure that the most vulnerable were protected. Strong, unquestioned politicians implemented this swiftly and citizens complied with few exceptions.

My thought was a lazy what if? What if the most vulnerable were not especially protected and died? These would mainly be the infirm and the aged – the people who place proportionally higher demands for costly care on society, few of whom are productive. In New Zealand to date, the youngest person to die from the disease is 62.

What if the politicos did the Swedish thing and said to the electorate: This is on you – take appropriate measures to avoid contagion, we are not going to require specific actions.

So maybe quite a few more people than usual die, but the economy is not that badly affected and fewer people are driven to despair by isolation, job loss and fear of penalty for failing to comply.

In my mind and I am close in age to being on the Corovid red list, the latter is the sounder decision. I would go further and suggest the intensive care should only be afforded to under 70 year olds.

I would vote for a politician that made those sort of decisions, but then I have always believed the interests of the majority trump those of the individual.

That is not politic these days!