Thanks for the piece - It’s a really interesting in Australia how we are struggling with this idea of responsibility and freedom. Was told of a friend who refused to get vaxed because he just hated the Idea of being told to do it by the government. When his wife told him he’d need to move out if he was not prepared to do this to protect his 2 under 10 year-old children, he sulked but he got jabbed.
The French have always been proud of both National and regional identity. Maybe that sense of belonging makes you care more about your fellow residents and happy to protect them.
The USAs biggest cultural export has been a mythical self image that the individual right subsume the collective societies. At the same time, they lament the decline in social standards & opine about the good old days when community was valued - love thy neighbour
Universally we care about our nearest and dearest, we will make sacrifices in our personal freedoms to protect them and what COVID has reminded us is we live in villages. In the case of Melbourne every village has a 5km radius.
Australians are conflicted thinking we shouldn’t accept those constraints because the ideology of the individual is meant to be our personal philosophy. It’s a cocktail of the reds under the beds of Menzies, the Hanson xenophobia, recent migrants running from authoritarianism even our recalcitrant convict heritage. We want to think we made our own decision to do the right thing, not that government made us do it.
Excellent piece Tim, thanks. I can really relate this to what seems to be happening in Melbourne which looks to me like a lot of people have decided to ignore the health orders when these interfere with their daily lives too much. This is a view gained from walking around the area
I’m living in - St Kilda East/Balaclava - which has slowly rising case numbers but no exposure sites. Lots of people aren’t wearing masks and there’s a lot of “dick noses”. Many large groups of people ( > 6) in the parks socialising and not wearing masks.
Thanks for the piece - It’s a really interesting in Australia how we are struggling with this idea of responsibility and freedom. Was told of a friend who refused to get vaxed because he just hated the Idea of being told to do it by the government. When his wife told him he’d need to move out if he was not prepared to do this to protect his 2 under 10 year-old children, he sulked but he got jabbed.
The French have always been proud of both National and regional identity. Maybe that sense of belonging makes you care more about your fellow residents and happy to protect them.
The USAs biggest cultural export has been a mythical self image that the individual right subsume the collective societies. At the same time, they lament the decline in social standards & opine about the good old days when community was valued - love thy neighbour
Universally we care about our nearest and dearest, we will make sacrifices in our personal freedoms to protect them and what COVID has reminded us is we live in villages. In the case of Melbourne every village has a 5km radius.
Australians are conflicted thinking we shouldn’t accept those constraints because the ideology of the individual is meant to be our personal philosophy. It’s a cocktail of the reds under the beds of Menzies, the Hanson xenophobia, recent migrants running from authoritarianism even our recalcitrant convict heritage. We want to think we made our own decision to do the right thing, not that government made us do it.
Great piece Tim. The positives you highlight in the Australian experience are real and we should recognise them more often.
Excellent piece Tim, thanks. I can really relate this to what seems to be happening in Melbourne which looks to me like a lot of people have decided to ignore the health orders when these interfere with their daily lives too much. This is a view gained from walking around the area
I’m living in - St Kilda East/Balaclava - which has slowly rising case numbers but no exposure sites. Lots of people aren’t wearing masks and there’s a lot of “dick noses”. Many large groups of people ( > 6) in the parks socialising and not wearing masks.
Well said, Tim. Very well said.