Woke up with some further clarity of thought on the Cummings issue and will try to articulate why the approach being taken does not sit well with me.

1. Orchestrated email MP campaigns lose potency quickly, even if justified, because they become inauthentic in appearance.

The upshot being that it allows strategists to identify patterns, attribute the source to actors with political affiliations, brief MPs that the campaign is inauthentic, and then slowly deploy a strategic communications strategy which dampens the original campaign publicly too.

2. Petitions shouldn’t be used against individuals. In fact, most petition platforms have specific rules around this with good reason.

Petitions are a valuable resource for influencing social change and legislation. Their overuse reduces their impact for everyone.

Additionally, where petitions are subject the same managed tactics as email MP, they fall into the same inauthenticity trap.

3. Position, wealth, and influence should really be used in a time of crisis to reach people at risk and keep them safe.

Presently, this isn’t happening.

So we have a situation where those with the privileges are focusing on a relatively minor issue in the grand scheme, centred on pleasing and provoking a relatively small segment of society.

Something else should be happening though in a safety vacuum.

We know that jobs are at risk, so the focus should really be on warning people and advising them on contingencies.

We know the second peak is coming, so wealth and influence should be stepping in to fund whatever is neccessary to keep even the hard to reach safe.

The Cummings issue, at heart, is about the government failure to keep the public safe. The point about him has been made.

But huge resources are tied up in pursuing it while a short sandtimer runs out on the two much more important issues.

So what really separates either side?

If that wealth and influence was turned to a national safety campaign, putting the government to shame without even needing to say it, it would not only be significant but would change the dynamic.

Instead all the resource is in political point scoring.

It serves no one.

I suppose, really, it boils down to a waste of wealth and influence on what isn’t much more than short-termist, gimmicky crap with an agenda, versus the beneficial use of wealth and influence to keep society safe and put it back together better.

Cummings is a symptom not the disease.

And everyone is focused on treating him while the actual problem will tear through society unchecked over mere weeks.

That’s my bones with it all, at least as near as I can to complete clarity right now.

It’s a failure to look up.