Feeling Outraged by the “New Normal”?
You’re not the only one.
The “new normal” is a nebulous term, yet after twelve months straight of varying Coronavirus restrictions, we have globally come to understand what it is intended to mean. The anniversary of a year of lockdowns spent basically under house-arrest has hit many of us hard and we can do little else but wonder where the year went and why we still feel so traumatized and frustrated by its passage.
Regulations on our freedom of movement stand out to me the most. Here in Ireland we faced some of the strictest lockdowns in the world and are still locked down as I write today.
We have five levels of restrictions and have been on the fifth and highest level since I can remember. Each new set of rules are doled out by the government in consecutive 6 week intervals, so we always know when we’re heading in towards a tough month and a half — though in reality, the past twelve months have been extremely arduous, regardless of level.
In many ways, the “new normal” represents a fundamental shift in concepts of personal freedom and civil liberties. How far can governments actually go in curbing and curtailing rights that we hitherto took entirely for granted? The past year has demonstrated that they can go surprisingly far.
