She forgot to clap
The following is just about the creepiest news story that I ever heard. It’s hard to believe, but true.
Someone–we are not told whom–started this custom in Britain: at 8:00 every Tuesday night, everybody–and they do mean everybody–is supposed to come outside and “clap for the carers.” National Health Service workers fighting off the epidemic, and all that.
Recently a woman, tending her sick child, was unable to get out the door to join the neighborhood clap. (Yes, I know it sounds icky.) Her neighbors promptly “named and shamed” her on Facebook (https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/uk-news/tired-mum-named-shamed-facebook-18143150), going so far as to say that since she didn’t come out and join the–ritual? can we call it a ritual?–she and her family “don’t deserve” health care if any of them catch the Chinese Wuhan Communist Death Virus From China. That’ll learn her, they said on Facebook, “for showing the street up.”
Hello! Hello? Did we just blunder into The Hunger Games? Or into one of Ray Bradbury’s cautionary tales? I mean, whoa! This is conformity with a vengeance! You’d almost think you were in North Korea.
Maybe the woman was lucky they didn’t bash her door in and drag her outside.
Magna Carta. A country that cherishes eccentrics. P.G. Wodehouse. Rumpole of the Bailey. Alice in Wonderland. None of that great stuff seems to fit in Britain anymore. Suddenly That Hideous Strength, by C.S. Lewis, doesn’t seem far out at all.
We have noticed in recent years that even the most tepid criticism of the National Health ignites a wildfire of near-hysterical wrath. It’s not really that great, you know. Just socialized medicine. There’s a reason why they sell do-it-yourself tooth-pulling kits over there (https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/399032/Now-we-pull-out-our-own-teeth-Boom-in-DIY-dental-kits-as-patients-cannot-afford-NHS-fees).
But fail to turn out for the weekly cheering fest, and see what happens to you. Go ahead, I dare you: say “The National Health could use some improvement.” Walk into any British pub and say that.
This, by the way, is one of the chief reasons why our country’s founders were so against trying to create a democracy. In a democracy, the majority devours the minority. That’s why they created a republic instead.
Some of you reading this must be in Britain. Please tell us–what’s up with Britain? Is your country going full-throttle Fahrenheit 451? Are they going to start eating people who won’t clap for the National Health? Has Political Correctness gobbled up all your liberties? I only ask that because I’m an American and we might be next.
God help us.