Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
SO ASKED Edgar Allen Poe in A Dream Within a Dream, a poem which could easily have been written today. The last decade has brought a tide of lunatic ideas and policies which in the past would have been termed as science fiction, dystopian ideas jotted in a book and lapped up by an imaginative audience. ‘That could never happen,’ would be the rebuttal of many a reader, where now many of us are wondering what else might rear its ugly head. I thought of this a couple of days ago, when I flicked up the Hodgetwins on YouTube and watched a man running for the highest office declare that eight-year-olds should be allowed to have gender reassignment surgery:
I doubt if I’m the only person who has perused the news over breakfast and wondered whether I’m awake and not still dreaming. Notwithstanding the crazy lockdown and the insane measures that have come from it, every other bit of Leftie lunacy that popped up pre-lockdown has managed to make an appearance during this time. It’s as if a dystopian novel has been taken up by government and used as an instruction manual. It’s been like that for some time but since March it has become stranger, maybe because this lockdown has given many of us a feeling of being wrapped inside an oppressive barrier from which there is no escape. The worst thing is that there is another four years of this government to go and we don’t know how much more damage they can do in that period.
In the last few months we have seen a government, at odds with common sense and logic, impose measures that have kept loved ones away from their families, destroyed businesses and made hundreds of thousands unemployed. These restrictions have ensured that many patients awaiting treatment for non-Covid illnesses have been kicked aside, some of them dying from their ailments. Despite this, we have been asked to clap like seals for the organisation which has ignored people with heart problems, cancers and many other health issues. Not just that but give these ‘heroes’ a pay rise. MPs too, despite the terrible job they’ve done. We’ve been asked to follow these rules without question and inform on our friends, family and neighbours if they do not adhere to them and to wear masks so we don’t kill our grannies.
Lockdown aside, we are still being treated to a cacophony of insanity from the imported Black Lives Matter movement, keen to educate the people of Britain that we are inherently racist and ensuring that government, media and business fall into line with their diktats. We have all read about MPs volunteering for unconscious bias training to identify and tackle their white privilege, and the publicly funded BBC committing £100million to increase diversity on their programmes.
A host of businesses leapt onboard to declare their own support for BLM, some even stating that they didn’t want customers using their products if they didn’t back the issue. Sainsburys took this to the next level by declaring that their stores would have separate areas for their black and white employees to create a ‘safe space’ for the former.
This madness continued this week when BBC’s Countryfile presenter Ellie Harrison declared that ‘the countryside is racist’.
There seems to be no end to this perpetual nightmare, and when you think you’ve reached peak lunacy, another piece of craziness comes along to dissuade you. Even throughout a period in which an entire country is closed down, there are groups who can find something in whatever ism to be triggered about. In the United States, things are far worse, with cities being burned to the ground by groups of thugs encouraged by Leftist politicians.
We have found ourselves trapped in a time where black is white, up is down and anything you ever thought or believed to be true is attacked on a daily basis. There are times when I wake up, get my morning tea and sit down to the news fearful of whatever new hell will face me. If it’s not race, it’s feminism. If it’s not feminism, it’s gender identity. If it’s not gender identity, it’s illegal migration, it’s quotas, it’s political correctness and so on and so forth. Sometimes I feel emboldened and other times I feel depressed. A few weeks ago I told the TCW commenter Audre Myers that I feel politically bi-polar. Despite needing to know what’s going on, half the time I wonder whether I should be checking if it brings me down this much. I think all of us need a break once in a while. We are all facing our personal hells during this time, and despite how sad we may feel on any given day, we must all find a way to keep our spirits up, whether we distract ourselves with work, immerse ourselves in hobbies or find like-minded people to talk to. Whatever we do, we all have to hope that things don’t continue as they are. I don’t think any of us could deal with another year like 2020.
