By all means, follow the rules. But after hundreds of years of fighting for our rights, we must fight for the freedoms they won’t give back.

Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.

Theodore Roosevelt

In 2019, Beijing went hard on the emerging COVID-19 strain in Wuhan. The world watched in horror as apartment buildings were welded shut. This was the lockdown of our nightmares.

Beijing celebrated the success in bringing the virus to heel, suggesting it could only be extinguished through lockdowns.

Inevitably, as the virus spread across the western world. governments rushed to import the Chinese strategy. Lockdown hard and fast, and the virus will disappear for good.

Omni-present threat

As I write this in Melbourne, 18 months later, and 200 days of lockdown later, I feel that no one with any commonsense could avoid asking whether China was telling the full story.

One of the key architects of the Wuhan lockdown is now warning about the strategy working against the Delta variant, which has emerged in Wuhan.

Zhang Wenhong is a leading Chinese epidemiologist and he’s now questioning the country’s zero tolerance approach.

Like the rest of the world, the Delta variant has now breached China’s defences, with record local infections in dozens of cites.

Authorities are now deciding whether to reintroduce travel restrictions, mass testing and hyperlocal lockdowns. Even though right now, millions of Chinese are in lockdown.

Living with the virus

“The world needs to learn how to coexist with this virus,” Zhang wrote on his social media Weibo platform, where he has three million followers. “What is really difficult is whether we can have the wisdom to coexist with the pandemic in the long run.”

Needless to say, that hasn’t gone down too well with his Chinese masters.

The suggestion of a softened approach to China’s zero-case approach to virus control enraged nationalists.

Zhang has found himself accused of “pandering to foreign ideas,” while an apparent witch hunt is targeting his academic credentials.

But just like in China, anyone who questions the ongoing tough lockdown restrictions is at best bullied, at worst silenced.

The will of the people

In the background, nervous governments watch closely as their multi million dollar public polling rolls in, showing whether or not they still enjoy support of the people.

So any dissent from one of the key architects of China’s original lockdown isn’t going to go down well here either, because they’ve risked the political careers on China’s lockdown strategy.

It’s true – a pandemic makes public protest dangerous. But protest we must, in whatever way we can without risking our health. Governments and bureaucracy must be held accountable, especially during a crisis.

The west often points fingers at totalitarian states for their grip on the people, because of the freedoms they take away.

Australians, and in particular Victorians right now are being warned our “freedoms” are only earned through compliance. This is very dangerous territory.

It’s far from over

Just like the lockdown debate in China right now, the other inconvenient truth for Australian politicians is the situation in the US. Despite the vaccine rollout, masks are back. Partly because not enough people have been vaccinated (though that figure is many many more times higher than Australia at this stage).

On top of that, Australia has had a dangerous public debate about the safety of its most commonly available vaccine, Astra Zeneca. No wonder people are hesitant.

It’s the perfect recipe for ongoing restrictions. Lockdowns in the most populous state of New South Wales could extend into next year. Melburnians are being told that to get out of a longer lockdown, they need to remain in lockdown indefinitely.

A week after Melbourne emerged from its fifth lockdown of the pandemic, it entered its sixth, with no end in sight, and no evidence the restrictions are bringing case number down. So they just impose more restrictions.

Police are roaming children’s playgrounds. It’s now illegal to remove your mask to drink alcohol outside. It’s illegal to leave the house after 9pm, not that there was anything to do anyway.

Worryingly, in Western Australia, the Premier Mark McGowan is holding firm on life with lockdowns even after 80 per cent vaccine rate is met. His public support is at 78% – it turns out the people of WA love the idea of being cut off from the rest of Australia.

After all, Western Australia had been reluctant to join the Federation in 1900.

It is not the function of government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.

Robert H. Jackson

Protest movements often begin with the young, and so it’s no wonder younger people are flouting the rules and contracting the virus.

Some refer to the Delta variant as an epidemic of the young.

While restrictions and lockdowns have kept the virus low, it’s just one set of statistics.

Lessons from September 11

Twenty years after the attacks on 9/11, we are still reeling from the horrors of that day.

But we are also still living with the freedoms we lost as citizens because of that day.

Passed just six weeks after the attacks, the USA PATRIOT Act was created to strengthen domestic security and broaden the powers of law-enforcement agencies.

The act gave the government unprecedented power to indefinitely access and detain immigrants. The FBI was given the freedom to search telephones without a court order.

Facial recognition is common at airports. And data on millions of Americans are being collected and stored.

Trillions were spent on wars against an enemy that couldn’t be defeated.

The hangover from this pandemic is yet to be seen. Restrictions will be in place for a long time – not to mention the constant threat they will return should just one case be detected.

The bigger threat

The biggest threat isn’t the pandemic we see today. It’s the erosion of our freedoms and the acceptance that governments can do as they please with no consequences.

All while our inner-fight is being worn down by the length of harsh lockdowns and the sense that “we can’t do anything about it”.

But make no mistake, this pandemic is going to last a very long time. Restrictions will be in place for a long time – not to mention the constant threat they will return should just one case be detected.

That’s a very dangerous place to be in for a liberal democracy.

Public servants are just that.

“The best lightning rod for your protection is your own spine.” 

― Ralph Waldo Emerson