Freedom suffers for freedumb in the wealthy West

The F-word is used too often and applied too liberally now. Worse, it has become justification for the inexcusable.

Anti-lockdown and anti-vaccination protesters march near the Botanic Gardens in Melbourne. Picture: Alex Coppel.

In this small, tight-knit community, on the outskirts of Melbourne, there is a local deli, owned by a nice lady; a seller of fancy cheeses and the like.

Throughout our various lockdowns, the place has been open for takeaway but, according to locals, operated without masks. This was not of much concern to anyone, really, until recent events blew everything up.

Out of the blue, the business closed. Announcements on its Facebook page said the owner and others had Covid. People in other small businesses nearby were either infected or exposed, and had to close as well.

Customers, including those that know the owner socially, accused her of attending a lockdown protest. The infection had been brought back, they said, from there.

People posted on the page about this, and asked who worked while infectious, so they could test and isolate. Someone else posted they had bought goods off her when she was serving maskless, and clearly unwell.

The owner denied going to the protest on a specific date and, in response, was accused of being tricky.

The freedom movement is a US import. Picture: AFP

Another asked whether she would be vaccinated, as per a public health order, which requires vaccination for all “authorised workers” on premises, by October 15. Yet another uploaded the owner’s social media feed. Uh oh, all was revealed.

The page was soon overwhelmed and a moderator stepped in to turn off all the comments. Not soon enough though, to prevent a picture emerging. We have a “freedom movement” supporter in our midst caught up in an anti-vaccine, anti-mask, anti-restrictions mindset.

It was this lady who I thought of this week, when footage aired of US protesters marching in the streets to “free” Australians. Protesters here use the F-word too, and some of our fringe politicians and commentators talk about it all the time.

It is true that border closures and restrictions are draconian impositions on freedom. But the F-word is used too often and applied too liberally now. It is an insult to people in societies around the world, that aren’t genuinely free.

Worse, the F-word has become justification for the inexcusable. The word is bandied about by reactionaries and those belligerently entrenched in oppositional ignorance. Think of our deli owner, for instance; freedom, or freedumb? I say the latter.

The freedom movement is a US import. American author Andy Slavitt writes on the topic in Preventable – the Inside Story of how Leadership Failures, Politics, and Selfishness Doomed the US Coronavirus Response.

Slavitt says the US has 4 per cent of the world’s population, but experienced 20 per cent of the world’s Covid-19 deaths.

At the time he wrote that there were 500,000 lives lost. That figure is now 700,000 and climbing, despite widely available, effective and free vaccines. What a tragedy this is. And self-inflicted too.

Unlike many Australians who harbour anti-American sentiment, I have always admired America. Recent events, though, have changed my perspective.

In this pandemic, the wealthiest country in the world failed dismally to protect its own people. This cannot be denied or sugar-coated.

Slavitt’s book chronicles “missed opportunities, wilful neglect” and political “indifference and denial”. It puts the argument that a culmination of many things “had begun to distort” their society for years – “gross inequality based on race and income, the growing distrust of expertise, a media addicted to promoting controversy, and a people long out of the habit of shared sacrifice for the common good”.

When the pandemic hit, a test was applied. Wealth, technology and a self-image as an exceptional nation were of little help. A dramatic adaptation of their society was required, and this adaptation did not occur.

The pandemic did not test the prowess of the US. It tested its political and healthcare systems, its shared values and humanity.

Slavitt examines how and why the US failed this test. It was “unable to do what many other countries did – alter our own behaviour enough to stifle the virus’s ability to spread”. It was Americans’ “obsession with individual liberties, even at the expense of others’ lives and health” he concludes, plus their “diminishment of science and expertise”.

Slavitt points out that “safe public health practices in use throughout the world, including mask-wearing, physical distancing and contact tracing, not only were not implemented but also were openly scorned in many parts of the country”.

The wealthiest countries, he says, turned out not to be the best at dealing with the pandemic: “The countries that have more social cohesion have all the advantage.”

In Australia, we have been required to significantly alter our behaviour. Every time I feel sorry for myself, though, I think of the people who lived here during the last World War. I contrast their sacrifices, efforts and stoicism to the actions of the freedom warriors today.

The conclusion is obvious; not freedom, but freedumb.