Why Not Blame The Public?
Yesterday morning, during Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s now daily press briefing, he noted to the public that with attempting to mitigate the COVID-19 outbreak in Canada, “It doesn’t depend on me, it depends on you.” It was upon the shoulders of Canadians to “answer the call of duty” and to fulfill “our end of the bargain.” I’m not sure when such a bargain was struck, but he made it clear to the public that concerning this matter, “It’s in your hands.”
This morning during his next press briefing to our nation — all of these are truly making me feel like Bill Murray waking up in the same hotel everyday — Trudeau circumvented answering a question as to why his government isn’t being transparent with the public concerning what information they’re getting from their projection models. He noted that “Canadian’s behaviour” is what is making the figures in the models. He steps around the question — which is a perfectly viable question to ask, as it’s not like the virus is gathering intelligence on our strategies — to once again throw the problem back into the faces of those, while in a position of governance, he is supposed to be helping.
Just under two weeks ago, I wrote that the immense inaction seen from many governments is due to their political stalling, while waiting for the circumstances to culminate into an ideal mandate for them to proceed with any more austere measures and lock-down procedures. Either the writing on the wall isn’t bold enough, or they feel the inevitability of massive fallout isn’t blatant enough yet, making it so that biding some time is a sound way to fill the wait. The current standard way of doing this is to blame the public. For what easier way to ring one’s hands of accountability?
Along with Canada’s ever inspiring and noble Prime Minister, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy have all the joined the chorus in scolding the public. To an extent I agree with these leaders in their supposed ire. Many citizens are bending over backward to assist in hindering this deadly pandemic, while many oblivious and self-involved morons are compromising those efforts by engaging in utter frivolities. Regardless, when one drives down the highway at twice the speed limit after downing an entire bottle of single malt, should they be…
