An assortment of maskless freedom lovers, vaccine haters, Covid deniers, QAnon believers, and various others, as proclaimed by the banners, placards and posters on display, converged on central London on Saturday 24 October 2020, all united in a common cause, for the fourth in an ongoing series of weekend anti-lockout demonstrations. This “Stop the New Normal” protest happened to feed into a growing global backlash against government-sponsored lockdown measures to contain Covid-19. These measures are being interpreted by some citizens in the West as being part of a conspiracy by the government, the WHO, and certain high-profile individuals, such as Bill Gates, to deprive them of their constitutional rights and personal freedoms and to place the world under the control of a tyrannical New World Order of sinister global “elites”.
In recent months, anti-lockdown protests have taken place throughout the world, and for various reasons. Protesters have taken to the streets in large numbers in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and even in Australia. In poorer countries, the devastation caused by economic standstill has been the main reason for mass public protest. Apart from any economic considerations, lockdown measures, such as stay-at-home orders, restrictions on the movements and gathering of people, the closure of businesses and leisure facilities, and, more recently, mandates to wear masks in public, have also been viewed in liberal Western democracies as an “assault” on freedom itself.
It is unsurprising, therefore, that the United States, the leader of the free world, has also led the way when it comes to defying lockdowns. In the absence of a cohesive national policy to deal with Covid-19, decision making was devolved to individual states from the very beginning. The states accordingly went into lockdown in a staggered manner, starting with California on 19 March and New York on 22 March, with Georgia becoming one of the last to sign up to the process, on 3 April. Lockdown measures varied significantly between the states, with some of the most severe restrictions being imposed in “blue” states with Democratic governors, while Republican lawmakers generally seemed more sceptical about the benefits of lockdown when counterbalanced against the economic side-effects of widespread business closures. All of this led to a wide disparity between states when it came to a shutting down of the economy.
Protests calling for a “reopening” of the economy began in Columbus, Ohio, on 9 April, and were soon followed by larger anti-lockdown events in Lansing, Michigan (“Operation Gridlock”), on 15 April, and in St Paul, Minnesota (“Liberate Minnesota”) on 17 April. Thereafter, anti-lockdown protests rapidly spread to many other states, especially to presidential election battleground “swing” states, encouraged and emboldened by President Trump’s supportive tweets on 17 April calling on people to LIBERATE MICHIGAN, LIBERATE MINNESOTA, and LIBERATE VIRGINIA.
This American anti-lockdown movement has been backed by a significant majority of Republican politicians. Participants at the protests have included conservative activists, pro-gun rights groups, far-right terrorists, “Patriot” militias, conspiracy theorists, and others like-minded. Pro-Trump banners and MAGA hats have featured prominently at these events, reflecting a curious situation in which the head of the Executive seems to be at loggerheads with the decisions of his own government.
Anti-lockdown protests have since spread to the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Nigeria, India, South Africa, Australia, and many other countries. In some countries, opportunists have conveniently latched on to the anti-lockdown agenda, as shown by the example of neo-Nazi infiltration of protests in Germany. It is noticeable that anti-lockdown protests have mostly happened in democratic nations. No one appears to have taken to the streets in protest in authoritarian and totalitarian countries, where all such public activity is under tight state control. But when it comes to established democracies, those who cherish “freedom” have appeared unwilling to obey the orders of distrusted governments and to forgo their liberties for a wider collective good. Add to this an increasing distrust of science and disbelief in the mainstream media, and you can understand why ideas that Covid is either a hoax, an overexaggerated problem, or a biological weapon aimed at surreptitious domination of the world, have so readily taken root.
No one can be sure when the pandemic will come to an end, nor what form the predicted “New Normal” will eventually take. What is certain, however, is that the Covid-19 pandemic has given us an unparalled opportunity to study mass psychology and also to recognise that we live in a world less inclined to respect authority in any form, whether political or scientific. In liberal democracies, in particular, lockdown measures will likely prove difficult to impose effectively without resort to draconian measures, as people grow tired of engaging in an increasingly fuzzy process with unclear timelines. Merely appealing to reason and to the better instincts of people alone is unlikely to be enough.
Ashis Banerjee