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Would we have been as susceptible to Covid panic a generation ago? No. Because we didn't care as much back then? No, although the fact that we like to think of ourselves as more decent and caring compared to past generations is part of the problem. Here's what I think...
During the Blair era more and more people went to university, emerging with a belief that they were part of an elite, entitled to lucrative yet undemanding jobs (being too special to be troubled by accountability & hard graft) and deserving a greater say in the running of things.
The public sector and other havens of unaccountability (such as IT, the media & corporate back offices), became their places of work, and they wafted from job to job, believing that they were part of a new aristocracy. But unlike the aristos of old, they were decent - they cared.
Did they really? No, it was an affectation. Part of the Blair revolution involved turning our values on their head. Strength, fortitude and excellence were depicted as tools of cruelty and exploitation. Vulnerability, and sympathy for the vulnerable, meanwhile, became virtues.
The purpose was to undermine the old hierarchy, which discriminated against self-styled intellectuals with no marketable skills, and to create a helpless clientele for this ubermensch of educated, middle-class professionals to save and redeem.
The other purpose was to turn shows of weakness and faux compassion into marks of moral superiority - this having little to do with the old ideas of excellence and success, but being something the new elite could easily appropriate. Thus, a new form of snobbery was born.
The scene was set. The Blair era flattered and empowered these awful people, with their phony compassion, sanctimonious attitudes, towering entitlement and proudly nonexistent spines. They saw in the EU a gravy train that would ensure their supremacy for years to come...
Then it all went tits up for them. The proles and gammons struck back. These appalling ingrates had the audacity to demand a say in things. Brexit loomed and self-sufficiency - their kryptonite - made a comeback. Then, hallelujah, Covid hoved into view.
A public indoctrinated to believe in its own fragility, to believe that feeling vulnerable and addressing that vulnerability is a virtue, and to trust in the authority of educated professionals, was unable to offer much resistance to the alarmism that followed.
What followed was sadly predictable. Wondering whether the lockdown was necessary or whether the trade-offs were unacceptable became sins. Worshipping the NHS - that totemic symbol of attendance to our inate vulnerability by unaccountable experts - became a national religion.
The crisis was leveraged to encourage acceptance of everything Brexit had rejected. The Tories, for whom the Blair era was their 'Nam, were too scared of the 'nasty' tag being reattached to them. They capitulated to media and opposition pressure, and enforced the lockdown.
They know they've made a huge mistake, but they are victims of their own cowardice and a culture that eschews courage and reason in favour of timidity and virtue-signalling. They are playing into their enemies' hands, creating a state-centric society fit for all the wrong people.
At this point they might as well admit they got it wrong, lift all the restrictions and beg for forgiveness. They'll still be doomed, but at least they won't drag this country any further into the pit.
