One of the most intolerably endearing aspects of Democratic dogma is transforming the impossible into procedure, by marginalizing vacuous improbabilities for ulterior motives in constructing a reinforced and unjust straight jacket bounding the societal freedoms. The “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” approach to governance has been perfected across the islands of New Zealand, as the abominable fusion of stifling bureaucracy coalesces with disheartening surrender, as citizens have permitted Parliament to chase a pipe dream in a zero sum response to the Coronavirus, leaving Randle McMurphy to weigh the fate of chewing gum flavor over the course of a sleep cycle against the exploitation of a global crises.
With just shy of 5 million residents, the Scandinavian phenomenon is often applied to New Zealand, where an ilk of US politicians teeming with a viral YouTube video of envy and liberal guilt, attempt to impose unfeasible policy on constituents, thus the metaphor of a mental institution is apt in exploring the myriad of obliviousness, and statistical discrepancies afflicting certain elected officials. As ultra-progressive Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern unleashed sweeping lockdowns and reforms conducive to a thunderous applause from a typical “Hamilton” audience, along with the cast members, Kiwis must face a volatile future of being denied their basic liberties until the virus is eradicated. Included within her maniacally banal leadership style and economic-hating response in postponing tourism, is lockdown after lockdown of chief city Auckland, a tantalizing performance worth repeating for those in the Capitol adverse to inherent gifts of constitutionality. Though the surface numbers substantiate a surface level of success in the country having the lowest Covid-19 case and mortality statistics outside of the US and Northern Europe, the high subjective metrics of accomplishment have to be properly weighed against data accumulated over the course of a calendar year.
As propaganda has reached deplorable new heights of relentless subversion, and according to government economists the recovery has been miraculous, in reality, things have actually gotten so bad that residents are being asked to take “staycations”, a curious development considering the nation is notable for battling the pandemic with all the subtlety as what critics call a “police state”. When local travel is hampered the domino effect is not realized immediately, but when small businesses being to gradually shutter, the high margin on Covid-survivability is obscured by time-delayed reaction. It’s like captaining a 747 and making a turn, the results from yoke will be delayed as it takes time for the prodigious stately aircraft to execute the maneuver, just as the irrefutable damage caused by the immediate and reckless policy will not be noticeable for months or even years. In the meantime, the government fat cats knowing that financial repercussions are are beginning to cascade, spent tax dollars on a moderately desperate call to action in pathetically covering their own tracks. The token gesture simply reaffirms that liberals worship burgeoning government in their agnostic prognostications regardless of the costs or systemic disassociation of free society. The mentality of “it’s okay because the wealthy deserve to cover the tab” in shaping equality pervades across the Pacific ocean.
The cute, yet destructive title of the “Do Something New” campaign and related video (featuring a Lesbian couple traversing the countryside) is an odious reminder to residents that they are living in a breathtakingly picturesque prison, and share the blame for relinquishing fundamental rights with the reelection of Ardern in a landside. In the pre-Covid world, the leader of the nation’s Labour party shockingly conjured herds of tyranny by implementing some of the strictest gun control laws in history.
While extremist Nepotism is a bit of a stretch in describing the current environment of the leadership, the blatantly implacable approach to adopting over the top policy worthy of a King or Queen predating the Magna Carta, is both an improbable accomplishment, and an equally amazing failure. Unsettlingly, selected US want-to-be autocrats are watering at the mouth at the opportunity to parrot Ardern’s untimely masterpiece of subjugation. The West coast governors are a testament to cult of a nanny state spawned by guilt, and the antithesis of leadership.
The idea of recalibrating tolerance to a new normal under the stifling umbrella of a public health crises in the style of New Zealand, has been tested in California, Oregon, and Washington and in other Democratic majority states nationally, with “mandates” skirting potential Constitutional conflicts. The infamous Seattle city council allowed and encouraged protestors to congregate in groups measuring thousands during the initial viral spike, and doubled down by facilitating an eviction moratorium, and demanding that grocery store employing 500 or more fork over hazard pay. As usual, the progressive directive lack sense, and are laden with “feel good vibes”, which do the opposite when it comes time for somebody to pay the bills of government printed money. On a country-wide scale, a plan echoing Ardern’s the scope of objectives in the US is not possible, but pockets of dictators here and there casting submissive stipulations cumulatively can add up to similar scenarios, thanks to the complexities, breadth, and shear amount of framework in existence. Vaccination has become both a badge of honor and taboo within the vernacular of UN sanctioned sensibility.
Does a lockdown actually work to accomplish any tangible goals?
Understandably, New Zealand leadership has taken the overtly cautious approach in reacting to the outbreak against a cavalcade of unknowns considering the potential detrimental impact on population figures, while a similar sized country Sweden, opted for a contingency of herd immunity of the results that speak for themselves, as lives and livelihoods hang in the balance. The one of two ways in responding to the virus spans the spectrum of the extreme in fighting against the unknown. In comparing the rate of Covid-19 deaths and general mortality rates during the pandemic, the figures in New Zealand represent a thought provoking picture of the ramifications of Big Brother ruling imperative versus the classic application of republic philosophy.
Magnifying the vital statistics yields a very interesting conundrum. Between the years of 2015-2019, the average death rate in New Zealand peaked at around 150 per million, but after the first official lockdown, the striking figures illustrate the following. In 2020 mortality rates, including the nations’ miniscule Covid-19 fatalities dropped by 20%, and peaked at 125 per million, according to a study published in the medical journal, The Lancelet.
At least in the short-term, less universal mobility in the country overall has equated to a reduced magnitude of deaths, albeit the lower quality of life due to the plethora of restrictions forced on citizens, and detrimental economic wounds from a reduced amount of transactions, as individuals are vulnerable to stay home order. So, superficial props have to be handed out, as the instant gratification of the news cycle is a vested audience. Conversely, comparing death rates in South Korea over the same time period, mortality rates actually rose. Of course, the South Korean government imposed a similar bevy of severe lockdowns on its population, and is a fair comparison in making sense of the applications of totalitarianism. The US mortality rate increased by 23% in 2020 compared to 2019.
While the immediate results of Ardern’s societal engineering experiment from a mortality perspective are somewhat favorable, the long-term consequences of defying the basic instincts of humanity through procedure, have yet to be imagined. As temporary isolation has been thrust upon the majority of the globe, mental health has been constantly bombarded by the rigors of solitude, and the inability to socialize has taken its toll on livelihood and leisure, two key components at the foundation of a free will. As Ardern, and those with a similar mindset in US politics strive for an increase in government infrastructure, and ultimately it all boils down to control, Covid-19 has been a live audition not to the horrors of a plague, but the frightful audacity of megalomaniacs, who strive to barter freedoms on the open market, for a perpetual Wikipedia page etched with social justice warrior slogans. Unfortunately, with the lower university admission standards and with affirmative action in attendance in every 100 level course, financial thermodynamics is a concept that is not offered to impressionable minds, or the current leadership of career politicians lacking any sort of job related skills for a career outside the confines of the high security chamber of Parliament or the Capitol building.
The unattainable goal of completely eliminating the virus from existence, or whatever fate non-living matter endures in being wiped clean from reality, is sending New Zealand back to the Stone Age. That being said, Democratic lawmakers in the US armed with statistics and the apparent gold medal performance of New Zealand in taming the pandemic, are sure to try the same thing here in all levels of government affecting 330 million souls.