End of Days

And it shall come to pass that Lamb of God, the Lion of Judah, shall open the first four of the seven seals and summon forth four beings that ride out on white, red, black, and pale horses. That’s it, folks, the end is nigh, and pestilence stalks the land in the form of the dreaded yellow peril, Kung Flu, Covid 19 or whatever else you want to call it. Harsher than influenza but nowhere near the numerical killer that both flu and tuberculosis are, governments everywhere are losing their biblical shit over it.

It now looks likely that other countries will follow Italy and progressively shut down their entire economy to deal with a bit of a cough. Because when you shut down the schools you lose workers who will stay at home to guard their kids. When you cause panic buying supply chains are distorted, and when some of the stay-at-homes are healthcare workers you lose the ability to deal with it. Damned if they do, damned if they don’t, western governments are committed to self-harm in the name of votes. (Meanwhile, certain islamic countries are enacting miracle cures by having imams dribble holy spit in drinking water. Talk about blind faith.)

Then there is the great plague of Thunberg disciples stalking the land as harbingers of doom, relentless gobbling up every last morsel of terrifying propaganda, bowing before the text of rcp8.5 and genuflecting at the feet of the tainted sainthood herself. A martyr for the cause of mass disruption and mental pain, the idiot savant lectures grown adults on science she does not understand yet accepts without question. Religious fervour has much to answer for because the cure for climate cancer seems to be the same as for corona virus – shut down the engine of the world.

Here in the UK spare a thought for the villagers of Fairbourne. The flood defences for this Welsh coastal hamlet are to be discontinued in the 2050s and the village decommissioned and left to drown. Inhabitants now occupy worthless property with no rescue plan in place, no commitment to compensation, no funding to continue defending their homes and no potential buyers to help them out. Some are resigned to hoping they die before their village does. No doubt the Extinction Rebellion lot will be cheering the slow death of an entire community.

Old people, they say, it’s the old people. Old people caused these crises, old people deserve to die and look, the righteous virus is claiming the elderly before the young, so there’s your retribution for wrecking the planet, greyhair! But have you seen how very parsimoniously many older people live? After a lifetime of contributing they eke out their last days in frugal fear of running out of money before running out of breath. How callous the young and the comfortable are, condemning their forebears while gobbling up of the fruits of their labour.

And all the while, war is coming. The flood of migrants who will take no heed of precautions against the spread of disease and will voraciously consume whatever the west has left after it has driven down its own immunity against decay. While the World Health Organisation is counselling quarantine, western administrations are still flying the flag for open borders. In the Greek islands, vigilante groups are taking action where their governments will not in order to defend themselves from yet another apocalyptic infestation.

In every case – corona, immigration, Greta8.5 – fear of losing voters is diverting resources from the front line, avoiding real debate and effective action, and instead pandering to the hysterias which appear to afflict a minority, rather than the masses. The tyranny of vocal special interests is taking away the sanity of the world and replacing it with gibbering impotence. When the schools and factories have closed, when the social services have been overwhelmed and collapsed, when the developed world ceases to be able to pay its way, who will be left to clean up the wreckage of this mountain of folly?