We’re publishing an original piece by former university teacher Sean Walsh today about the Government’s war on pubs. He sees this as a puritanical crusade intended not just to make sure no one’s having any fun but also to suppress dissent. Here’s an extract:
The Lockdown Sanhedrin, the SAGE clerisy, is itself infected with the virus of puritanism. It’s impossible to look at Chris Whitty without concluding that other people’s enjoyment presents itself to him as a sort of personal Kryptonite. Boris’s self-announced “libertarianism” seems to amount to little more than the thesis that he gets to do what he wants and the rest of us can go hang. But I think it goes deeper than that – the Government and in particular its advisers are in thrall to a metaphysics of joylessness.
At the start of this crisis, the Government decided that it was qualified to make a distinction between those activities which are essential and those which are not. The latter were consequently eliminated from the list of what was permitted. To put it another way, it took upon itself the right to decide what counts as work, and what counts as mere “play”.
But it is not clear that any such distinction exists, and if it does then it does not follow that we should prioritise work over play, even in a pandemic. Aristotle claimed that the “first principle of activity is leisure”: that we work in order to play; that play is a more valuable activity than work because it is something that is done for its own sake. The vulgar utilitarianism which has shaped SAGE’s pandemic response is a crude sanitisation of our understanding of the human soul. Not every worthwhile thing that we do as human persons can be reduced to the requirements of a Downing St data slide.
Worth reading in full.
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That picture is a latter day Guardian Headline.
That picture is Hogarths Gin Lane which illustrated a serious 18th century social problem created by government policy to make distilling gin cheap to bolster grain prices.
Out of shot are the prosperous undertaker and pawn merchant.
The corollary was ‘Beer Steet’ which showed well fed men and women prospering from work and trade with the pawn shop derelict.
Thank you for your learned explanation!
In other words, the terrible social ill of drunkenness in Georgian Britain was the result of a basic policy failure, rooted no doubt in a government in thrall to the landed aristocracy.
Puritans against Joy, have to say, it looks that way, did they switch Boris Johnson when they took him off at the beginning
I’m not sure that ‘puritanism’ quite captures it, beyond a superficial level. The alternative is in the last paragraph of the item : the concept of ‘control’ is the beating heartlessness – the need to use permission as the expression of a psycho/sociopathic need.
Control derives from puritanism, from mysticism, in fact
What?
I am a secular puritan but I am also a devout sceptic.
In what way a secular puritan?
I lead a very simple uncomplicated life (under the circumstances) without having to believe in Gods, religious beliefs etc.
A simple uncomplicated life isn’t enough to qualify you as a puritan.
Indeed, in order to qualify as Puritan you would have to be dedicated to imposing the lifestyle you enjoy on those who really don’t want it.
FAIR POINT.
I must admit that is something that I haven’t thought about.
Whilst looking po-faced and “holier than thou” at the same time.
I take your point.
I don’t drive, rarely take holidays and believe that if you’ve got enough (food,shelter,basic clothing) then you have enough.
This article misses the purpose of the intention to destroy hospitality. Kill dissent, yes partly, increase mental pain, yes. The real intent is control, social engineering and the need to destroy our social bonds.
At some point the elites wish to take over. Pubs are tokens of freedom and individuality and as such are a threat. Furthermore the process of The Reset is to destroy the small and medium sized businesses so hospitality ticks all the boxes for destruction.
Quite simply we are in a war.
Spot on. The plan was always to scupper social interactions in which the narrative could be questioned whilst at the same time taking a nod to the anti-alcohol brigade. We are heading for Zero Covid now hence the plan to devastate the aviation industry. Just wish that people could see all this.
Pubs have mostly become ‘gastro’ and devoid of character and atmos. but the trend to micro pubs is growing as the old , locals, disappear.
Isn’t “gastro” just the latest manifestation of the commercialization of pubs?
From David Timoney’s High Street Not Dead, Just Resting:
Yeah, really old characteristic alehouses had floor singers, dancing, nothing forced or ‘commercialised’ just real working folk letting off some work grind with proper booze and human contact… sob!
Same goes for the destruction of what Cameron called Civil Society; amateur sports fixtures, the Womens Institute, activities in Village Halls, whist drives (showing my age), choir practise, childrens playparks where mums can natter, morris dancing, brass bands, music and other live gigs, post funeral Wakes, parent-teacher evenings and all manner of social interactions where chat is as much the object as the activity itself.
In a recent interview on France Soir, Mike Yeadon says something like “If I’m right, we’re in World War Three”.
But Sage’s response to the pandemic was not crafted to serve the common good, if that’s what the author means by vulgar utilitarianism. It was conceived to destroy health, social interaction, education, livelihoods, familial relationships, culture and worship. To take away our freedom. To cloud our reason and smother our souls. Observing this has had a very clarifying effect. We are in a struggle for the survival of humanity. It’s as simple as evil versus good.
nice article… but will it be good enough to stop this madness?
The onward march towards biosecurity fascist totalitarianism is gaining speed. Zerocovid and zerocarbon are lockstep.
As long as 60% or more of the population are either paid off or want more schadenfraude , then the bloodless victory will be complete.
The frightening truth is that a majority of people are joyless, their lives are without meaning. This is what we have created.
If we meet in Pubs we have debates and “put the world the rights”. You can see why the government thinks pubs present a danger.
Same goes for anywhere with public seating that have alternate seats taped off because Covid.
It’s been apparent for months that restricting face to face contact in a social context has been essential to maintaining the narrative of fear and any kind of meaningful discussion of the events of the last year. I guarantee that there is absolutely not a chance that the way people feel it is appropriate to speak to each other online (which is effectively the main means of communication many of us have been reduced to) would never happen in a face to face setting. I’ve been ‘unfriended’, ‘blocked’, personally attacked when people can’t back up their arguments factually and called all manner of insults on social media for sharing what I would consider to be pretty innocuous questions/opinions/articles in the grand scheme of things about the lockdowns – by people I once called good friends and who would have, under normal circumstances, cheerfully spend all night debating in the pub over a few pints. I gleefully look forward to bumping into some of them again in ‘the real world’ providing they’re not too scared to leave the house. It’s also unlikely that casual discussion and sharing of opinions about lock-downs/vaccines etc. are going to occur in a workplace – people… Read more »
‘Forcing any attempt at social contact to retreat online . . .’
Where, of course, it can be tracked and any dissenters monitored for other seditious activity.
Stalin used to persecute his victims contacts randomly, now he would have proof that they had been ideologically contaminated.
Of course it is a moral panic. Look at how the obese are not only pointed out for their virus risk by the health panjandrums but are also widely mocked and treated as almost expendable by sceptics because obesity, like alcohol consumptuous , smoking or simply enjoying oneself are now moral failings not simply health problems. These moral failings are about the only things left in society that can be legitimately mocked without incurring the wrath of the hate speech mob.
Clearly you haven’t undertaken any ‘body shaming’ on social media. Call a fat person fat and you’ll be attacked by rabid do-gooders calling you all the names under the sun.
A friend posted a picture of fat dieticians at a conference and was called out for “fat shaming”. I pointed out that actually it was “diet shaming” – these people who tell us how to eat and get fat don’t notice the contradiction.
When I was young there were few obese people and fewer fat children and it was blamed on “glands” ie. hormones. Then high carb low fat diets were invented and it was blamed on gluttony and sloth. Actualy it’s still hormones
Isn’t it more that eating fat makes you feel full far quicker than eating carbs, meaning that high carb low fat diets make it easier to overeat?
This Government and the SAGE committee only get away with it, because we allow them to get away with it.
These joyless psychopaths need to be shown the inside of a cell and the rest of us should get on with life. How much longer are you going to put up with this cr@p?
Well said
Fuckin, A! well said…
And I would argue that the fact that a handful of countries (no need to name them here) were able to eliminate Covid, was absolutely key to giving this moral panic legs.