Dear Editor:
I find it very interesting that the Wellington Advertiser is willing to publish dissenting viewpoints from the official narrative (“get vaccinated or else”). I really appreciated Joy Lippai’s “Fears for terminated staff” and Nancy Seiling’s “Applauding and praying.” I was dismayed by Karen Eddie’s “No hospital passport?”
Unfortunately, what people like Eddie are missing is the long-term consequences their attitudes bring to our political environment and ultimately our well being as a freedom-loving nation.
Let me clarify my comment by stating some of my beliefs:
– there is no such thing as a benevolent government, only varying states of malevolence;
– highly malevolent governments can only function when there is total conformity; and
– moral dissention is not only good, but very healthy for a properly functioning democracy.
When we conform we are essentially giving the malevolent dictators permission to do what they wish to us. I once had a very wise person tell me that it seems that psychopaths function best in government. It seems to me that they function best in non-elected government, and with my limited experience, they tend to gravitate towards the top of the heap.
Lets take this logic a little further. If a malevolent person with ideations of total control over his/her subservients wanted to identify the potential dissidents to his/her ideation what better way than to introduce some form of enforced compliance with loss of employment being the only other option?
What happens when there is no dissenting nurse that will challenge a doctor while advocating for the patient? Or there is no dissenting police officer who will stand up and challenge the injustices they are ordered to perform? They will only get worse as the malevolence increases and moral boundaries decrease. What will you do when they come knocking on your door? By then it will be too late.
COVID-19 is very, very nasty, and we should do what we think is best to protect ourselves in whatever form that takes. But that is where this political game and accompanying enforcement needs to stop.
Wayne Baker,
Wellington North