A couple of Saturdays ago I ran into the weekly demonstration against the covid passport, child vaccination and other evils on Via Laietana. Curiosity got the better of me and, with the mask tightly taut, I ran it up and down a couple of times. I do not know what left me more bad body, to think how much immune system wide open to the virus had concentrated there (does diving among so many presumably unvaccinated count as risky practice?), the rhythmic monotony with which the mantra was repeated ‘Liberty’ (See video: it reminded me of ‘Soma, soma’ from an old TV version of Huxley’s ‘Happy World’) or the banners they were flying. That they ranged from the insulting to the embarrassing, without lacking in any case demagoguery.
Insulting, those who accused the health workers of being fascists. Burdas, those who compared the covid pass with the selection of waste, with the non-vaccinated ones treated as organic fraction (“separate the garbage, not the people”). Narcotics, those that denounced the “plandemic to reduce the population through eugenics” (where are we left?). Irritating, smiles of satisfaction, conviction and superiority in front of the blind to their ‘truth’ who watched from the sidewalks. Outrageous, those that compared the requirement of vaccination to enter closed spaces with the Nazi genocide (one more reason to avoid using the word ‘denialist’, contaminated by its use coined to define neo-Nazi denialism of the Holocaust, when referring to, according to be the case, conspiracy, irresponsible, misinformed, fanatic, enlightened or selfish).
But it may be that the most significant (and symptomatic of the upturn in protests as soon as ‘my son or touch him’ has entered the territory) was the one that said ‘Children only spread love and joy.’ How much damage has so many parents’ sonship done. Ask a teacher to explain it to you.
Children are contagious, of course. Colds, lice and whatever happens there. And yes, the covid.
Children can transmit, but not necessarily “alone”, love and joy. They can do it whether they live in a padded bubble or when whores pass them, and then they can become admirable. But there are also those who suffer so much wickedness, hatred or poverty in their flesh that they have no reserves of joy left to give away. Or that they are so abandoned that they cannot find someone to offer it to. Or that they suffer from mental illnesses that mean that, although they deserve to receive all the love that can be given them, they do not spread more than pain. Or there are some who are bastards, a provisional and still amending draft of the bastard they will be when they are like us, in front of whom the work of their families to get the best of them is more a war than a party. Or that they simply have moments of everything, like everyone else.
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The banner bearers may live in a world where children are beings of light. Selective blindness to reality would explain many of those banners, in addition to the raising of spoiled and overprotected children. Or they may know very well what weaknesses to push to recruit new acolytes.
Reference-www.elperiodico.com