Lucy Carne: Good riddance 2020 the year of hypocrisy and irrational normalcy

This has been the year of hypocrisy and irrational normalcy. Bring on the 2021 quiet revolution, writes Lucy Carne.

AND so it drags on. The longest bloody year ever.

It’s staggering to comprehend that bushfires and runaway baboons occurred in 2020.

What has dominated our lives unlike anything before (unless you remember the war) has been COVID-19, that spiky pathogen grenade.

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Who would have thought our vernacular would now include new words such as QR code, iso, covidiot and (my lockdown favourite) quarantini.

But since a bat apparently coughed in a Wuhan market, we have not only witnessed the world unite in a desperate fight to contain this deadly disease, we have also seen the rise of unhinged hypocrisy and lunacy masquerading as sound judgment.

As we went into lockdown, so did our collective common sense.

Coinciding with coronavirus was the social virus best described as Irrational Normalcy – bonkers decisions that we’re all forced to pretend are reasonable.

The arrival of COVID-19 signalled the departure of common sense. Picture: iStock

Statues were toppled, a cheese had its name changed, a talented male actor was denied a chance to perform as a trans character onstage but a transgender star could continue playing a woman on TV and no one was allowed to mention that coronavirus originated in China.

A movie star, billionaire and rugby league coach were permitted quarantine exemptions but pregnant women, children with Aspergers and a brain tumour survivor were not.

Australian politicians and celebrities demanded US President Trump pardon Julian Assange, while the two little girls and their parents from Biloela who remain locked up on Christmas Island are still ignored.

A promising vaccine trial was cancelled because it would upset anti-vaxxers and a royal couple stepped away from their duties seeking “privacy” only to unveil a podcast, sign a TV deal and sell a $37 vegan coffee spruiked by Oprah and Kim Kardashian.

MP George Christensen is asking US President Donald Trump to pardon Julian Assange. Picture: George Christensen, YouTube.

Nades, Priya, and their daughters Kopika and Tharunicaa are still detained on Christmas Island. Picture: Colin Murty / The Australian

Just don’t get your hopes up that Irrational Normalcy will wash away at the strike of midnight on Friday. It has become a stain on our social fabric.

But there is hope.

Yale University social epidemiologist Dr Nicholas Christakis predicts the coronavirus pandemic will herald another Roaring ‘20s rife with big spending, sex-crazed parties and a continued move away from religion.

Citing social trends in the wake of plagues throughout history, once a vaccine is rolled out we will celebrate with uproarious behaviour by 2024, he claims in his new book Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of coronavirus on the Way We Live.

But as keen as we may be to party like the Peaky Blinders, perhaps instead of doing the foxtrot in flapper dresses, our wildness will manifest as a rebellion against Irrational Normalcy.

Will we party like the Peaky Blinders or will our post-pandemic release manifest in other ways? Picture: supplied

With herd immunity will hopefully come herd common sense.

Quiet Australians will get loud.

We will finally wake up to the hypocrisy of cancel culture and performative politics.

We will stop fawning to the moral woke and realise this proliferation of requisitions is just the self-indulgence of the ‘me’ generation.

And we will finally realise it is us – you and me – who will get us through this pandemic and not Premiers pretending that their tough border stance has delivered us from evil coronavirus.

It will be the selfless decisions of every day individuals that will save us.

Like my 70-year-old mother-in-law, who even though she only briefly got out of her car at Curl Curl Beach to admire the view two weeks ago, sacrificed Christmas with her family to quarantine alone in Brisbane.

It is the thousands of people who got tested and it will be all of us who roll up our sleeves for a jab.

As the Queen said in her Christmas speech, it is the “spirit of selflessness” that will guide us through the dark.

Queen Elizabeth II delivered her annual Christmas broadcast. Picture: Victoria Jones/WPA Pool/Getty Images

Her message included a socially-distanced tribute in Westminster Abbey at the tomb of the Unknown Warrior.

“He represents millions like him who throughout our history have put the lives of others above their own, and will be doing so today. For me, this is a source of enduring hope in difficult and unpredictable times,” she said.

“In the United Kingdom and around the world, people have risen magnificently to the challenges of the year, and I am so proud and moved by this quiet, indomitable spirit.”

So as a new year dawns, let’s bid good riddance to egotistical 2020 and welcome the rise of this selfless and “indomitable spirit”.

Bring on the quiet rebellion.

Originally published as Lucy Carne: Good riddance 2020 the year of hypocrisy and irrational normalcy