From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 13 September

Since when did blatant civil disobedience become de rigueur?

THE perception that one can do whatever wants, whenever one chooses, regardless of the consequences, is arrant nonsense. As Newton’s third law of motion tells us: to every action in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction.

If you choose to audaciously break the law then you must expect a reaction, however surprising, and unpleasant, it might seem when the long arm of the law comes knocking on your door.

To explain away a flagrant disregard for the majority’s safety and welfare as a bimbo moment is spurious, at best. Troublingly, it demonstrates a decided lack of many things, but mostly a complete lack of basic respect for others, which is unforgiveable; coupled, it would seem, with a total lack of empathy for the prevailing circumstances.

It is too ludicrous to argue ignorance of the law, a personal passion, and a weariness of the current status as a catalyst for the behaviour. Introducing a medical condition as a distraction is risible, by any acceptable intelligent standard. One would need to have been living on Mars to be unaware of why we are in this current lock-down. There is a pandemic. People, across the world, are dying in their thousands. Lives and businesses have been ruined. Families are shattered. There is no vaccination. You might – and this should be read slowly – ‘die if you contract COVID-19’.

There is a marked distinction between protest and lawlessness. To contend the proposed pointless disobedience was a fight for human rights is deeply insulting to the persecuted. A Government order to do something to keep you safe, and to prevent the spread of a potentially deadly virus, is not a breach of anyone’s human rights but common sense, which is, in itself, a misnomer since it is not common. Occasionally, in the interest of public safety, you have to learn to do as you are bloody well told!

The lockdown is most tedious, for everyone. These are trying times. We are, all of us, keen for some form of normality to be back in our lives. At the same time, we have every cause to be incandescent with rage at those who believe they have the right, for whatever misguided reason, to put our health and lives in jeopardy. Their behaviour is a manifestation of their self-centredness and obliviousness.

Social media is an explosive Pandora’s box. Like gelignite, it should not be handled wantonly or lightly. It provides the dangerous, chattering middleclass with a megaphone to the world. A public voice is a most serious responsibility. You have to learn to put your mind into gear before you put your big, loud mouth into action.

Relentlessly, we see countless examples of the ignorant, the ill-educated, the ill-informed, the misinformed, and the plain bloody stupid, running-off at the mouth like a tap, with absolutely no regard for the truth, or the consequences of their erroneous gobbledegook.

Thank God, or the Crown, there are laws to protect people like us from people like them. Perturbingly, the plethora of absurd conspiracy theories abound. They are, all of them, too silly to believe and not fit to be repeated. It is impossible to imagine their genesis, and one has to ponder suspiciously the parallel universe those believers are inhabiting. Now is not the time for retribution, nor any form of meaningless civil insolence. The media prognostications, and the soothsayers’ myriad rantings and ravings of how the world will be when we recover from this virus are to be ignored, by all of us. No matter what!

It is too easy to allow the irrational inanities to overwhelm our lives. We must, of necessity, steer a steady course through all of this. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. I thought this an appropriate quote for the circumstances: You should start seeing each hello as a small declaration of faith.

Hello!

Roland can be heard on RADIO 3BA, every Monday morning, 10.45 and you can say “Hello!” to him via his email – [email protected].