The Revolution Won't Die of Covid

By Nathan Giede

Aired April 8th, 2021: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGF6ItDDO80

What do a nun, a vegan yoga instructor, and the chamber of commerce president all have in common? The answer: an enemy. As Easter slowly recedes behind us, the resurrection of anti-lockdown fervour only grows stronger. Rallies are being held even in those places where fear of the virus is more prevalent, and who’s showing up at those rallies is even more shocking: blue suits, black habits, and tight yoga pants, or far less, clad the growing corpus of resistance.

They say the revolution will not be televised - I suppose they meant it would be streamed live instead. As the seasons change and the looming possibility of another lockdown summer is becoming apparent, the people are finally losing their patience. The first echoes came over our Easter weekend as from Poland to Calgary, pastors and parishioners pushed cops back out of their houses of worship: they simply turned the tables and shamed these new karma police.

At restaurants, after a debilitating year from an illness that caused more indirect deaths than primary fatalities as well as far too many tiktok dance videos by healthcare staff, both the clients and the staff are beginning to shutdown covid inspectors, demanding they leave their premises and let them eat in peace. Contempt for the lockdowns is spreading like wildfire as it takes on the distinct markers of all other failed government policy: bloated obtuse intransigence.

In the spirit of Eastertide, let me drop into biblical language for a moment: verily, verily I say to ye, it taketh not many mistakes by Caesar to ensure the whole world suffers inordinately. My Grandmother went through the last world war on the losing side; in the years that followed, in order to facilitate peace, the belligerents created pen pal programs; when she went to visit the “victors” just five years after the war, they were still rationing, while her home was prospering.

Failed government policy turned Detroit into a dystopia, and Venezuela into a banana republic. There are real life consequences to forcibly ending people’s means of earning a living or picking winners and losers through policy decisions. By some estimates, more than half of the business that closed at the end of March in 2020 are not coming back. Meanwhile, deaths by suicide and overdose have skyrocketed, which is directly linked to the economic downturn.

Everything that isn’t a big box store or the government is suffering. The wealth transfer from the least of these to the oligarchs has been in the billions. You can’t go to church. You can’t go for coffee or dinner. And for the business you are allowed to enter, the protocols are strict and the inhuman element of mask wearing while standing but not sitting, or while behind plexiglass, or even after being vaccinated is becoming too much to bear. The dam is about to finally break.

My advice to governments everywhere is to be at the front of the parade, not left behind. People’s freedoms are not optional, and the truth is that countries with a far longer history of big government and direct interference in the lives of citizens are returning to normal while Canada and BC get tighter restrictions. There is a path out of this malaise and the leaders who prove that will be rewarded in their political future. Those who don’t will be tossed into the dustbin of history.