The Slog - Why getting out more broadens the perspective
[SLOG] I tried an escape route last week. For various (and nefarious) reasons, it failed. But – as always – one learns far more from failure than success. A lot of the failure was at an intensely personal level, whereas the learning came from observing the behaviour of a broad spectrum of national cultures through the medium of their citizens. Nothing this year has so effectively demonstrated to me the insidious effect of insistent propaganda and planned demonisation in play throughout the risibly defined First World.
This is how the totality spans out:
There are millions of Little Hitlers out there just gagging to tell you off. The alternative to mRNA messenger poison in your arm is still (just about) being made available…but there are no special offers, incentives or clear explanations to guide you. If you want a Covid test and you’re “vaccinated”, it costs €5 and you go to the front of the queue: if you’re a swine too selfish to think about “other citizens”, it costs anything from €15-98 and attracts 3rd class service.
At the Gare Montparnasse TGV departure station in Paris, there is but one pharmacy; it’s at the back of the third level, and there are no signs directing you to it. Yet despite that – and I know this by having befriended the senior medic providing the service – this small centre is knocking out 275 rapid flow tests during an average day. Multiply that by the seven days of the week, imagine how many pharmacies there are in France performing tests, and you will arrive at a very large number.
When given a negative result, you have 24 hours (in France) to get to the Moon and back. Nobody will serve you a meal indoors. At rail stations, they give you a cute little blue bracelet that grudgingly let’s you on the train…but is effectively a Judische Stern marking you out as Unclean. On the TGV from Paris yesterday, a young woman sat next to me, spotted the blue bracelet, and asked the Guard to reseat her elsewhere.
Posted by: BretRabbit 2021-12-19 |