“The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in. Within thirty seconds any pretence was always unnecessary”. (1984)
What we are seeing in the UK is a peculiar, low fat version of Orwell’s dystopian vision. Now it is the five minutes love.
Following the lead if the Italians, who in their strict Covid lockdown started the craze, the UK has instituted what is the Thursday clap. But what was once a symbol of support has started to take a more sinister aspect.
Initially the clap was an opportunity for those who wished to show support for the health workers, the doctors, and nurses, but also the porters and hospital cleaners how much the nation appreciated them. People, took to their gardens, doorways and balconies on Thursday evenings at 8 pm to applaud, and bang the odd pan or kettle.
All was good humoured and friendly, and the workers being applauded were bowled over. But in following weeks, as the list to be applauded grew to include shop workers, shelf-stackers, bin men, street cleaners, in fact pretty much anybody not sacked, fired or furloughed is the recipient of the applause. The Prime Minister stood outside No 10, the Prince William, Kate and the little princes, celebrities, from A to Z list, the works..
Week after week the clap continues, it is now accompanied by fireworks in some places and infamously the senior police officer in the country, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Cressida Dick, led hundreds of police officials and others on Westminster Bridge as fire brigade barges sailed by, firing off their hoses like the Queen’s jubilee. (Of course raising a rash of resentment as the film showed all these police officers, the same ones who are arresting thousands for possible breaches of social distancing rules - were all seen to be, yes you guessed it, ignoring social distancing rules).
But with official support from all the media, printed and broadcast, TV advertising, government and religious bodies, the weekly 'Clap for Carers' is turning sour.
First there have been attempts to hijack it for political reason, left wing activists are trying to turn applause of appreciation into a rallying call. Filming themselves shouting political slogans, and now and far, far worse we are seeing the public shaming of people who fail to appear on their balconies.
Writing on the social network, Musmsnet, one woman wrote,
“Last week, after a rough night with DS (darling son) I fell asleep after he went down and missed the clapping. A post went on our community Facebook group actually naming and shaming me.
"I was mortified. The post said everyone else turned out and I showed the street up and if I can't spend a minute showing my appreciation. I don't deserve to use the NHS if I or my family get ill”
“I just feel like I'm a total outcast on my previously friendly Street now”.
This is pure Orwell, and very worrying. Some of the responses to the post came from horrified medical practitioners, and others. One responded,
“I cannot stand how every biddy and buddy in the street has turned into the Corona Police. As if it’s not bad enough we’re being told what to do by the higher powers like a bunch of monkeys (put a rainbow in the window, clap at 8, stand in the queue, dare ye not sit on the bench...) it’s a thousand times worse when Dave from 3 doors down who you had never laid eyes on prior to the 23rd of March, is now the self-appointed boss of the neighbourhood. Our community groups have been outing people for cutting their own bloody grass”.
There are still people who love freedom in the UK, but increasingly it feels that the establishment is allowing a latent dictatorial tendency to come out amongst our fellow citizens. This is only a short step from the police report lines which police forces up and down the country have put on their websites, encouraging people to report on their neighbours.
Traditionally a stern tut of disapproval was enough, today it’s social ostracisation or a size twelve boot through your door.
The left continues to nitpick normal life and common sense in a once-great UK. It cannot end well. Sooner or later, a Churchllian leader and a movement must take hold. The spineless Brits are have been de-balled and are too tame to reclaim their heritage. With delicious irony, maybe it will be the "Asian youths" that will spear-head the fight against globalists. How their anglo ancestors must be weeping.
Liberals are intent on forcing their misery on everyone else.
Consequenty they corrupt everything they touch.
Like the Wuhan Virus, Liberalism is a disease that needs eradicating
I didn't catch on at first. What is this British "Clap" all about? It took a minute, then it hit me. Now I'm "woke." It's not about collectively praising and thanking our heroes for "selflessly" risking their lives to fight the life-threatening virus. The real enemy is not the physical illness; it's the mental attitude concealed behind the facial expression of each member of the collective. The "Clap" is the leftist method to correct defective attitudes. The Clap's about "snitching" as the new ethics of solidarity. It's about turning in our neighbors for not applauding or showing the appropriate emotion. Reason and argument are conveniently by-passed, ---and seemingly irrelevant to explain one's behavior in a purely material world. We may now judge the physical person solely on their appearance. We no longer need to intellectualize and examine the individual personality, nor seek "the reason why." We are all Socialist-Marxists now. We have truly become the "passive products of material productive forces" in a purely material world of the leftist's creation. Intellect can no longer serve to reveal causal efficacy in a society where free will is denied and the possibility of alternatives is both denied and prohibited. The Social Democrats champion "total resistance" when they are defeated at the polls. Total resistance was the only Democrat virtue left after their stunning defeat of 2016. Yet when and where they were successful, or later recovered in 2018, all resistance to their totalitarian dictates became a thought crime. But notice the double standard of the left. The current crop of right-wing resistors are now denounced as "racists and confederates." How dare they, how dare they resist the dictates of the temporary majority in the House of Representatives and certain Governors in certain blue states? The communist mayor of NYC is orchestrating the mob of snitchers. Your neighbors across the street are watching you when you are presently visible, and also when you are not, by default. You can't hide any more; you are a private person only when you are asleep, and perhaps not even then. We're all in North Korea now. Orwell was so damn prescient, ---and to think Orwell was a Trotskyite Socialist to the day of his death.
I'm currently reading 1984 and I thought the 2 min hate resembled the clapping and hearing of people being shamed for not clapping so I googled.this thought out of curiosity and now I am here .