Stranger than fiction

In a world-renowned quote, Mark Twain is supposed to have said that "truth is stranger than fiction, but that is only because fiction is limited by the possible, while truth is not". You would not be surprised to read that I have just had yet another chance to confirm that observation, particularly considering the strange route that the overall pandemic management has taken all over the world and especially in the western world.

Just yesterday Karen and I were revisiting "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", the fifth installment in the series, released as a movie in 2007 and it turns out that the situation depicted in the movie (and even more clearly in the 2003 book it you have read it) bears more than a passable resemblance with the current pandemic. It is not like the situation is 100% comparable, because in the fiction the authorities were denying the need to act on an impending danger that only a few chosen ones were able to see, while in our present reality they are pushing for actions which are, from my point of view, completely out of proportion. But even with this substantial difference there are a few lessons that can be extrapolated... if there is the will to learn.

Photo: Brian J. Matis

One of the most wonderful properties of tales and other stories is that they allow us to keep our distance to the problem by changing its context, so that it is not as personal, making the stakes are lower and saving he self-esteem from any risk. So let us start to analyze the movie and draw the comparisons where applicable: the first key element is an iron-clad narrative dictated thou above. In the magical world the Ministry of Magic states unequivocally that the strange events being reported are not related in any way with a possible return of the dark magician Lord Voldemort, and the control of the narrative is so fierce that they are ready to prosecute and incarcerate anyone speaking openly against the official narrative. Jumping to the present, it is not difficult to find any day new examples of tweets and Facebook posts being tagged as misleading or even whole accounts banned only for stating the fact that the official narrative of powerful and safe vaccines has some points that are not as rosy as commonly accepted and that the data might deserve yet another round of honest and unbiased analysis.

The consequence of this careful media control is very well explained by J. K. Rowling: anyone who praises themself of being a citizen in good standing not only embraces the official narrative, but by the same mechanism they also abhor and shun whoever dares to put it into question, frequently with utmost disregard for any preexisting level of mutual trust, with people fighting former friends or life-long neighbors. In real life we are already starting to read the sad pieces of "advice" on how to deal with that member of the family who wants to take part in the family dinner but has not got their jab: from implementing life-threatening ventilation schemes to relegating them to having dinner at a separate table or even in the kitchen. So let me spell it very clearly: any "advice" that suggests giving up your humanity and turn into a heartless rule follower is, to put it simply, hate speech, and should be prosecuted as such.

Because, in the end, it does not help much if we manage to survive the pandemic but we lose any trace of humanity along the way. If we end up mistrusting every other human being the virus will have won even if we somehow find a way to eradicate it, because we will not be the same that we were before the infection. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago my fear of what could be losing in the ordeal, and my recent experiences are not very promising. This Sunday we decided to take the chance that the weather was not too cold and went for a walk around the neighborhood. I was appalled to see how many people would cross the street to the other sidewalk rather than finding themselves face-to-face with us. Admittedly, we were not wearing a mask, but who is doing that in the open these days?

The question now is what has to happen before, as in the movie, the authorities realize that the official narrative cannot sustain itself in the long term. In the fiction the signs for a return of Lord Voldemort eventually became so clear that the Ministry could not deny it anymore. In our time and day, I do not know how long we will have to endure this extremely unfair situation before the government realizes that neither the unvaccinated are pure evil nor the vaccinated are exempt from every kind of risk in this pandemic. But as long as this does not perk into the official news, the citizens in good standing will continue to spread the virus (possibly inadvertently) and blame the ones without a vaccine for it. Let us see what comes out of this situation. Have a good week.