The war against Coronavirus: Are we all the Nazis?

I recently asked my Grandma how her life during the current Coronavirus pandemic compared to her childhood during WWII. Her answer startled me.

Without hesitation, "it's worse," she said, "during the war, we at least knew our enemy."

It wasn't what I expected to hear. It stunned me, to be honest. But at the same time, it made me think, who is the enemy during this pandemic?

The current statistics of covid-19 are horrific. More members of the civilian British public have been killed by the virus than died during WWII. There have been 91,470 covid deaths in the UK vs 70,000 civilian casualties during WWII at the time of writing.

In the US, the figures are even starker. Four hundred two thousand people have died from the pandemic so far, and during WWII America lost 418,500 military and civilian lives in total. It is a sobering reality that more Americans will have died by the end of the pandemic than died during the entirity of WWII - think about that for a moment.

So, who is to blame for this horrific death toll? Is it merely the virus? Is it China, as former US President Donald Trump wanted us to believe? Or is the answer far more terrifying, are we all the enemy? During the war on coronavirus, are we the Nazis?

Now let me be clear from the start, the crimes and atrocities of WWII are without parallel. The genocide experienced by the Jewish People - horrific, the number of deaths experienced in Russia - incomparable, and the 70 million-plus people in total who lost their lives during humanity's darkest hours are a tragedy which is hard for us to fathom. In no way during this piece, do I want to undermine that.

What I want to understand is why my Grandma, who despite being evacuated from her parents, separated from her brother, and sent as a five-year-old with a name badge on her coat and gas mask in hand to live to with strangers miles away from her home, thinks that the current situation we all face is worse than a conflict that cost the lives of millions of people.

What did she mean by, "at least we knew our enemy"?

I needed to unpick that.

In the UK, we are raised on the narrative of the British Blitz spirit. The concept of the story is relatively simple. WWII was the biggest existential threat ever to face the country (and the world). But as a nation, we came together, we all rallied, we resisted, our brave soldiers and allies fought and gave their lives, Churchill inspired, and the great British spirit and stiff upper lip saw us through those dark times.

At the same time, the name of the enemy of WWII is equally clear to the British: the Hun, the Fritz, the Heinie, the Jerries, the Krauts, the Nazis. We can all picture them, can't we? Hundreds of films have taught us exactly what they look like. The Nazi was a sadistic, evil, blonde-haired and blue-eyed, dressed in pristine black uniforms, red armbands, goosestepping, 'sieg-heiling' monsters devoid of humanity. All of them with the same excuse for their actions and unspeakable crimes, "Ve were only obeying orders." The Nazi stereotype is so well drawn in our national conscious, so parodied, that this enemy has become a pantomime villain. So much so that even princes of our realm are willing to dress up as one for comedic effect, remember? Remember, when Prince Harry dressed up as Nazi for a party? Seriously, can you remember that?

My Grandma speaks of the wardens who came around at nighttime and told you to close your blackout curtains so that the enemy bombers couldn't see. She talks about the posters and the radio and cinema adverts that told you how your enemy could be listening at any time. She talks about the rationing of food. And it breaks my heart to hear her describe going to bed at night so hungry that it hurt.

But my Grandma also talks about people being able to go out, being able to go to the cinema, and being able to go to the pub. Church services took place. Children went to school. Families were still able to see each other. People socialised. And that, I guess, is the real crux of the matter.

Humans are sociable animals. Despite the individualistic societies in which many of us live, at our core, we need others. We need to be around people to develop, to grow and to prosper. We both need to nurture and be nurtured. We like care and our caring. We love to love, and we love being loved. These facts are at the core of our human nature. So, when a government, like the English government has, asks its people to stay at home, not see others, and if we do avoid contact with them, it contradicts our very nature. It's our very instinct to be sociable. Because of our sociability, we have evolved to be the creative and incredible animals we are, capable of achievements beyond our dreams.

But is the flipside of this sociability, and the desire to see our family, our friends, our groups, the problem at the heart of the pandemic?

Our willingness to be a friend and family to the few makes us enemy and villain to the many. Do we not name the enemy of this pandemic because we don't want to admit, it is us?

Our selfish individual need, inherent in all of us, which shouts 'don't leave me alone' is, perhaps, now responsible for thousands of deaths. And the exponential effect of our herd neediness is turning us all to killers. In this war, we carry the weapon, and whether knowingly or unknowingly, we have become the Nazis.

It's hard to hear, and it's hard to think about ourselves like that isn't it?

In the United Kingdom, we are now in our third national lockdown and whilst most people are doing what has been asked of them by staying at home, avoiding travelling, and only going out for fundamental reasons, sadly some aren't.

Brothers of politicians, like Piers Corbyn, and shit nepotistic actors like Laurence Fox (who looks exactly like the kind of white British posh-boy actor you would pick to play an SS officer, i.e. a Nazi, in a direct-to-video war film, oh wait he already has – see The Last Drop) take pleasure in courting the newspapers as they protest against vaccines and wearing masks with the type of arrogance and antagonism that has become the norm and is reserved only for men of such extreme white privilege.

However, at the same time, it feels like, and there are, too many of my fellow every day country-folk ignoring the rules and requests of the government. A flagrant disregard of the authorities (and disrespect to the medics) to travel miles for unnecessary things, house-parties and gatherings, and protests outside hospitals where staff are mentally and physically exhausted as they operate beyond full capacity have become commonplace.

The few Nazis who were held account for sacrificing their morality and humanity in the years after WWII used the excuse they were only obeying orders. In contrast, people are now sacrificing their morality and humanity by knowingly disobeying the rules.

I understand the concept of liberty and freedom. I do. I am exercising it now by writing this opinion piece. But equally, I value my liberty and freedom more in a world where there isn't a killer disease slaying thousands a day.

Not every Nazi was an evil monster. Indeed, there are no such things as monsters, only humans than do monstrous things.

In the same way, I don't believe that every anti-vaxxer, covid-denier, party-goer, or non-mask wearer is evil and morally repugnant. But just like during WWII when many good people found themselves swept up by an ideology and false truths that now only deserves repulsion so too people (and I count some friends amongst them) are being swept up by dangeous rhetoric and falsehoods to justify inaction, poor action and, at worst, downright selfish actions.

Me, my and mine are being put ahead of us we, ours and us. The starkest comparion between the actual Nazi and the, let's call them; the Coronazis is that the former would have risked execution for insubordination. The latter deny themselves respect and appreciation for the sake of their disobedience.

Nobody is going to put an anti-vaxxer against a wall and shoot them for spouting their lies and fictions (and nor am I suggesting they should) but those who are flagrantly ignoring the rules at best disrespect the thousands of medics giving so much to save lives and at worst do, as intensive care clinician, Prof Hugh Montgomery put it, have blood on their hands.

People might not recognise their actions as wrong, evil or immoral but did every Nazi identify their activities as so heinous? Historians and psychologists both argue convincingly that too many times in our combined history atrocities have been committed for a perceived greater good - like individual freedom and liberty. And I wonder, if in the same way that society now judges the acts of the Nazi party as beyond evil, will those in the future judge those who risked people's lives during the pandemic in the same light? Almost certainly, they won't, but in what way should we look at those people? What do we call the people, many of whom we know, who are exacerbating the problem of the pandemic and delaying all our freedoms and liberties just so they can have a fake version of theirs?

Is my Grandma right? Do we not know who the enemy is? I am not so sure. I think we do know the enemy but while we collectively hold a microscope and say, "we see the enemy". Should we really all be holding a mirror to see the enemy's true face?