Wallace Stevens. COVID zero fanatics. The Novel is dead. Saint Galgano. Louise Glück. How democracies die. Solzhenitsyn.
coronavirus
Letter from Melbourne: mirror to the post-democratic world
Things are very serious here in Australia. There is a mental health crisis. We have endured a state of emergency since March 2020. Normal rules of government decision making have not applied. We have pursued a medical utopia of COVID Zero at stunning cost. It is really something that should never happen again, and hopefully, at the right time in the right way by the right people, will be deeply investigated and reflected on.
Dr Cogito endures Melbourne’s fifth … and sixth and seventh… lockdown
I am reposting this post from maybe May or June. In Melbourne now all the weeks bleed into one. Do not forget us, world - we were a people with soul once, and a few of us can still find the courage to resist. **** Dr Cogito, a persona I know who inhabits the ghost … Continue reading Dr Cogito endures Melbourne’s fifth … and sixth and seventh… lockdown
Report from a besieged city (Melbourne)
And again, now in September, I repost this act of refusal to submit to despair. ***** Alas three months later, another report from the besieged city of Melbourne - locked down, its people "fleeing the Qin." **** Today 12 February, Melbourne and all the citizens of Victoria have been thrown, with eleven hours notice, again … Continue reading Report from a besieged city (Melbourne)
Cease the endless war against the virus
Generals, Winston Churchill said, are always prepared to fight the last war. Their early experiences of combat, their intellectual training, the received wisdom interpreting the most recent conflicts - all shape how they read the battlefield. These decisions and the interests of the institutions, which were built during the last war - the war machine, … Continue reading Cease the endless war against the virus
Dr Cogito endures Melbourne’s fifth lockdown
And so it seems, the people of Melbourne again must endure this impoverished choice in their lives, as they endure another siege by public health. But such infinite possibility is there in those choices: of attitude, of gesture, of a last word.
The plague year
One year ago posted the post below on the likely effects of the coronavirus on our lives, our health and our governments. Like most people I think I over-estimated the health impact of the virus, and under-estimated its social and political impact. I certainly did not predict the sapping of democratic culture by expert elites. … Continue reading The plague year
Report from a besieged city (Melbourne)
Today 12 February, Melbourne and all the citizens of Victoria have been thrown, with eleven hours notice, again into a futile, fickle lockdown that is not founded in evidence of effectiveness. The reason? Five people who have tested positive and are assumed to have acquired the traces of the virus locally when over 24 000 … Continue reading Report from a besieged city (Melbourne)
The year of fear: 2020 in review
The year of fear 2020 has been the year of the Great Fear. This Fear has locked us down in safety. This Fear has opened the gate to soft totalitarianism. This Fear has sabotaged the freedom, responsibility, associations and independent thought of hundreds of millions of citizens. This Fear has shed the aged liberal skin … Continue reading The year of fear: 2020 in review
Fragments from my diaries – the year in review
Throughout the year I have kept a diary in a an A5 black notebook of 200 pages or so. I have followed this practice for quite some years now, and when I write the first entry in the notebook will give it a title. This year's notebooks I titled , "The view from Thucydides Tower" … Continue reading Fragments from my diaries – the year in review
Viral Meltdown – Year in Review
As part of my The Kaeleidoscope of 2020: Year in Review post I have updated with my reflections on the pandemic and lockdowns in this section, Viral Meltdown Viral Meltdown How could the year in review not begin with the pandemic and the virus? Since January I have followed the story of the coronavirus and … Continue reading Viral Meltdown – Year in Review
The kaleidoscope of 2020: year in review
A tradition that I have embraced on this blog over the last few years has been to write year in review posts in December. In 2019 I reflected on walking through the desert, notes on my reading, the democratic rebuff to progressivism, and walking through the circles of hell. In 2018 I reflected on ambiguous … Continue reading The kaleidoscope of 2020: year in review
