The Lockdown Nostalgia of the Chattering Class By Mrs Vera West
Here is a sample of the thinking of the mainstream chattering class, coming from journalist Harriet Walker, writing for The Times. She puts her case that the lockdowns were good times, if not the best of times, having less stress, and being able to work from home with the comfort of her trusty laptop. What is there not to like? Well, good for her; but at least she is vaguely aware that the lockdowns not only destroyed multitudes of small businesses, but led to wide-spread ill health, death and suicide. And, many studies have shown that the lockdowns were ineffective, and unnecessary, as non-locked down Sweden showed by way of a counter-example. But, the point of interest here is that the attitude of Walker is typical of the New Class, and foreshadows the inevitable fact that when the next plandemic comes, and Bill Gates said it is coming soon (no doubt just in time for massive US election fraud via mail-in votes), we will be back to where we were in 2020, or worse, given that the Victorian sheeple returned the Andrews government.
“It’s not just me. I’ve had several conversations recently — at parties, ironically enough — that confirmed what the guilty little voice in my head has been whispering for some time: for many people, the enforced planlessness of lockdown was actually quite nice.
It’s a privilege to think this way, I know. For those who lost relatives and livelihoods, lockdown was beyond awful. It sharpened lifestyle choices to their most intolerable: loneliness among single people; the claustrophobia of house shares; the frustrated exhaustion of trying to work and parent simultaneously.
Yet many parent-friends are nostalgic for time spent together rather than constantly ferrying their kids between things. When the roster of weekend clubs and activities, and weeknight work events, dinner and drinks paused, their marital status ceased being ships in the night and reverted to companionship. It didn’t suit everyone but plenty of couples found they liked it.
Even single friends I expected to be livid with me for mentioning the L-word said they were wistful for time that didn’t come with the pressure to be used efficiently or productively. In this age of constant omni-channel communication, maintaining friendships can often feel like a second job.
The school-aged kids I know remember lockdown (the sunny one, anyway) with something close to fondness, too. Though it was tough for older teens, younger ones enjoyed walking the dog, reading and making up dance routines without worrying about what their friends were doing without them.
As the youngest in my family, who always had to go to bed first, I have an acute sense of Fomo (fear of missing out) that lockdown, for the first time ever, rendered quiet. Even if many aspects were pretty grim, that side of it was something close to bliss: simply getting through the to-do list of my own existence, without worrying that other people’s were more interesting, more fun, more successful.
As Janice Turner has written so well on these pages, we are all still coming to terms with what we went through in 2020 and there is a certain pressure to perform “normal” again. But I’m determined to keep hold of some of that planlessness. It is empty time, I now realise, that keeps me feeling topped up. …”
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