If an earthquake were to engulf England tomorrow, the English would manage to meet and dine somewhere among the rubble, just to celebrate the event.
- Douglas Jerrold
Coming out of isolation in Paris I saw a lot of words, posts and memes being bandied around comparing the Coronavirus to the London Blitz as a way to harnass the Churchillian show of defiance of no surrender during the last lock down. Especially in Britain.
But we forget - without down playing the deadly effect of Covid 19 - that all we were being asked was to stay in our homes for a period of self-isolation. We still had and continue to have many comforts that make such self-isolation bearable from access to the internet to still being able to buy all the food we want.
Under the circumstances it’s hardly the same kind of sacrifice that was made by the generation that went through the hell of the London Blitz where one could not only lose one’s live but also one’s home or access to food or medicine.
Now there is every chance of a second more localised lock down due to a ‘second wave’ that might make us scurry back indoors.
A sense of perspective is needed as a reminder that of course we will muddle through troubling present times of the dreadful Coronavirus but not by drawing upon false equivalence for cold comfort. We’ve barely gone through a year and yet the greatest generation that went through war put up with much worse for over 5 years.
**Photo of survivor from German bombing during the London Blitz 1940
