Going through the motions of my life, there’s nothing wrong it just feels pointless. I haven’t felt any real impact of the ‘lockdown’, what is this country coming to when an expression like that has become a thing that we accept? but it is getting too weird now. The streets are deserted because people are hiding from a fear that they have created.

Back in the old days the people were not privy to discussions of government, when leaders would talk about how many deaths would be an acceptable cost so the rest of us could carry on living as we do. Now, with decision by Twitter and Facebook, everything is held up for scrutiny and the people want their say.

This latest scare is a good example. Nothing has happened. People died, yes, they did. The reaction has been out of proportion, as if people don’t usually die in this country. The government, followers rather than leaders, didn’t tell the people that this is business as usual. They didn’t reassure us that although hundreds of deaths sounds bad, it is exactly what happens every day of the week in this country. Just because it sounds a bit like a war is going on, and we are counting bodies, that is only because usually we only encounter one death at a time in our lives.

Hundreds of deaths in a day sounds really bad. In fact, approximately 1600 people die every day in this country of assorted causes. Death is a part of life, when people get to a certain age, most of them die. Some go on a few more years, and some fall short for various reasons, but they all die. This scare has brought death into focus and the people haven’t dealt well with it.

The call to lock all our old people away so that death won’t find them is reminiscent of something from a fairy story. It is fanciful that we can stop them from dying. Sure, hide them from coronvirus, but if that would have brought on death for them, you can be sure that the next infection will do the job. They are going to die.

We are all going to die.

My mother is going to be 82 in June, if she makes it. She went to the shops the other day, flouting the curfew because she doesn’t really care whether she makes it to 82 or not. Her attitude is that she has lived a long time and has done all she wanted to do. She has met her grandkids, great grandkids, and there is nothing left to get excited about. It isn’t that she wants to die, she just isn’t full of enthusiasm at the prospect of more years of the same shit.

Honestly, the prospect of a continuous playing out of my usual days doesn’t fill me with excitement either, and I am quite a few years short of my mother’s age, obviously. The way society is now makes me feel jaded, the way decisions are arrived at sickens me, somewhat. The judgement of social media and the weight that is given to the opinions of people whose opinions are worthless, makes me fear for the world my children will inherit. I try to teach my children to think for themselves, to look at situations and decide what is correct, and not to be pulled in any direction just because the sheep are trending that way.

When I speak to people about the facts and figures of this current scare, they listen and then close the door and hide. No one seems to question the narrative, it is as if this imprisonment with no good cause has been arrived at by herd mentality. It is for the best, just in case. Can’t go out because everyone else is staying in. The hospitals are deserted, there is no stream of sick people going in, there are no refrigerated lorries full of dead bodies, no coronavirus has ever jumped from a dead body onto a living person, it is just not what they do. These organisms rely on the cough reflex to move from host to host, without that they are stuck. If the person next to you isn’t coughing you are safe, unless you’re kissing them or licking their snotty hands after they’ve sneezed.

Come on people, think for yourselves. Question what you are told, call them out on their lies. They are giving you what you asked for, your social media campaign started this, time to say enough. I read today that in Texas they are defying the government and opening their shops, they want to go to work and feed their families. They don’t see the situation as it is piped into their homes, and they have guns. I wouldn’t like to be there next week.

But, I have to say that for all the post-apocalyptic weirdness, it is nice driving around the quiet roads without all you people getting in my way. I will not do what I am told without a good reason AND SOME PROOF! Of that there is none, The Office of National Statistics has just published the number of deaths for the period covered by this baseless scare, guess what? For this year up to now, the number of deaths recorded is down by about 3,000 on the 5 year average. So much for overwhelmed hospitals, mass graves of infected corpses etc etc.

Let’s have a slow hand clap for the politicians who lied to us, for the police who tape up the parks and places where we can walk together, for the actors who pose for the photoshopped NHS heroes pictures, and most of all for those who will post on Facebook if they see us go out of our houses. 1984 is here, shop a neighbour and your community will love you.

My advice, get to love death because we aren’t about to defeat it soon.