Saturday 4 April 2020

Stop The WW2 Comparisons

Seems the World leaders have hit upon the idea of filtering everything they do with Coronavirus through the prism of the second world war.
I am hearing and seeing more and more comparisons citing World War II in their virus-related remarks, Boris Johnson who fancies himself as a bit of a Churchill figure although he is coming across more and more like the nodding dog one off the Insurance advert has been at it with mentions of the 'blitz spirit' and 'having a battle plan to fight the enemy' and even calling it the countries 'Dunkirk moment' although i am struggling to see the comparison with the rescue of Allied soldiers trapped on the French coast.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, declares 'We are at War' repeatedly and Donald Trump, who famously dodged the Vietnam draft with heel spurs and dismissing the virus as a hoax, has called himself a 'wartime president' as the nation deals with the Coronavirus pandemic.
After two weeks of social distancing and staying home as the new normal, we have the ridiculous daily diatribe from Piers Morgan comparing it to the horrors of the second World War as if being asked to wash your hands frequently, cough into your elbows, stay six feet away from other people and watch a lot of TV is exactly what out grandparents had to do to defeat Hitler's Army when they had bombs, blackouts, air-raid shelters, sirens and rationing as well as washing their hands.
I understand that saying 'this is a public health crisis' does not hold the grandeur of portraying us as being in the midst of a war or being a wartime leader, especially when it comes to imposing some of the strict measures that have, but to paint it as a war in the conventional sense only benefits the leaders who sense a political opportunity, Coronavirus is a killer and will cause real hardship but what the many comparisons with the Second World War ought to show us, most of all, is that we are not at war.

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