In the war with Covid, rebels who risk spread don’t command respect – Stuff.co.nz

Supplied

We tend to love those who don't play ball, such as Tom Cruises Maverick in Top Gun. But how do we respond in the Covid environment?

OPINION: Most of us love rebels and underdogs. Begrudging the conformity that's necessary to survive in any human community, even a liberal democracy deluding itself with buzz words like 'diversity', we make heroes of those who don't play ball. It's no coincidence that Tom Cruise became a star playing a Maverick, that Clint Eastwood's Harry turned him into a 'dirty' icon of Nixon's 'silent minority' or that the most famous figure in 20th century popular culture was Charlie Chaplin, an outsider tramp vilified on-screen and off.

Movie star rebels tend to lack specific causes. They operate more as escape valves than flash points. In the social and political arena, the stakes are higher. Immortality beckons for martyrs. Che Guevara had a face that launched a billion t-shirts. John Lennon imagined a world beyond the one that shot him.

Arguably, no rebel is as brave or as a foolhardy as the conscientious objector in time of war. To stand against the collective effort of your country to combat a force identified as a common foe requires reserves of strength well beyond that of those willingly conscripted. In World War I, New Zealanders who took such a stance were often declared insane. Looking at transcripts of their trials today, over a century later, the opposite seems true. The Waikato didn't lack for clear-headed farmers capable of reading the international situation, of identifying a meaningless, European, colonial bloodbath and wanting no part of it.

Those whose refusal to take part in a conflict is grounded in genuine pacifism hold a special place in the history of civilisation. The clearest New Zealand example has unfortunately been obscured by politics and murky denials. When the Moriori met in 1835 to debate a response to the invasion of the Chatham Islands by Taranaki Maori, they elected to remain true to the pacifist ideals of their ancestors, declaring "the law of Nunuku was not a strategy for survival, to be varied as conditions changed; it was a moral imperative". Enslavement and genocide followed.

READ MORE:* Worse than Covid: The effects of past disease outbreaks still being felt* Covid-19: Two arrests and more likely at anti-lockdown hkoi * Formal complaint against anti-vax lawyer lodged with the Law Society* Covid-19: Dozen complaints to IPCA over police not making lockdown protest arrests

STUFF

There are 10 ingredients in the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine. A microchip is not one of them.

Today, the world is at war with Covid-19. Medical and social advancements in the fight ensure that the future of our species is not at stake but it is still a matter of life and death. Case numbers rise by the day. Vaccinations will dull the impact but more fatalities are inevitable.

In this context, how are we to respond to those opposed to vaccination and/or those who gather in large prohibitive numbers to express resentment against social restrictions designed for the common good? Are these rebels free spirits, worthy of our admiration, the equivalent of conscientious objectors? Should we politely agree to disagree, a response all too rare in today's divided political landscape? Should we take our lead from a constabulary more than willing to accept dissent, who would rather stand around taking photographs of a crime than act to prevent it?

Christel Yardley/Stuff

The very act of gathering in large numbers for Covid-19-related protests imperils others, Swainson says. Pictured are protestors at Claudelands Park, Hamilton.

I would argue there is an important distinction to be made between respecting the right to protest and respecting the protest itself. The former is essential in a free society. The latter requires a judgement call. It is exactly like religion. A democracy must enjoy religious freedom but don't ask me to respect religion itself, two centuries or more after the Enlightenment. Let us progress on the strength of science and rationalism, not continue to be mired in superstition and idolatry.

Superstition and idolatry and an unhealthy dose of social media paranoia inform protests that reference high concepts like 'freedom' but only on the most superficial of levels, ignoring any sense of collective responsibility. Protesters are like petulant children, throwing their toys around after being made to go to bed early. Judging by one recent photo, they are children who have overdosed on the cult film V for Vendetta, wearing Guy Fawkes masks, either playing out anti-authoritarian fantasies or celebrating November 5 somewhat early.

RICKY WILSON/Stuff

Brian Tamaki has been charged over his involvement with recent protests. Hes pictured leaving the Henderson Police Station after his arrest for breaching his bail conditions.

Brian Tamaki ranks as the biggest child of the lot, even if his preference for black shirts and aggressive rallies and demagogic rhetoric brings to mind a certain Italian dictator who was always on top of the train timetables. One can only assume that our judicial system is carefully avoiding making this antipodean Mussolini a martyr to his meaningless - or rather self-serving - cause. How else can we explain a wet bus ticket response to sequential offences and bail violations?

A unique problem of Covid-19-related protests is that the very act of gathering is at once an act of defiance and behaviour that imperils the existence and well-being of others. To rally in large numbers verges on the suicidal. If protesters were just playing with their own lives there would be a certain Darwinian poetic justice to it all: let them literally die for their convictions, improving the gene pool. Unfortunately, super-spreader protest events threaten the rest of us as well.

It is also dismaying how debates around the Covid-19 response have spilt over into a wide range of other political issues. Sensitivity to historic injustices has somehow informed a contrary determination to ignore contemporary expert advice. You wonder at the sanity of a Murupara kaumtua who refuses Pfzier on the grounds that it must inferior to other vaccines because the Crown recommends it. Might not it be more useful to recall Mori lives lost a century ago and use the vaccine that is at hand to prevent a recurrence? And what of the hkoi that set out from Rotorua, somehow travelled through level 3 Waikato, only to force a stand-off at the Auckland border? Whatever grudges and grievances this lot harbour, no cause is advanced by such stupidity.

New Zealand proved itself big enough in time of war to countenance those of conscience who resisted the martial spirit. If it proves itself big enough again to accommodate those who selfishly detract from efforts to suppress Covid-19, these rebels command no respect.

See more here:

In the war with Covid, rebels who risk spread don't command respect - Stuff.co.nz