There have been several “lock-down” protests taking place around the world, including the Netherlands. What might be the hidden reason for them to be happening?
This whole protesting against the lock-down is kind of funny because the Netherlands is not even in a situation that can be called that way. People still can go out, even for non-essential matters – for a walk, run, exercise and they can go shopping for anything that is open. Moreover, many people are also allowed to go to work, if it is not possible for them to work from home. The freedom of people is limited minimally, although people are supposed to keep 1,5 m distance from each other and in general, they are not allowed to gather in groups lager than 2 people. This way of functioning was has been presented in the media as the “intelligent lock-down”. However, it is hard to say what is intelligent about this way of functioning, comparing to the stricter lock-downs in Italy, Spain or in the United Kingdom. On the top of this, people are not wearing masks in the public, including the employees in the shop, so then the healthcare workers have enough supply, even though it is possible to buy them online, just people were not encouraged by the government to wear them from the beginning, not to mention that it is even possible to DIY the masks at home.
Anti-lockdown protest in the Hague, the Netherlands, Tuesday, 5.5.2020
It can be interesting to think about the reasons of protests like these happening, when going out in crowds, not keeping the recommended distance, plus not wearing a mask is a life threatening activity.
These are my assumptions:
- losing a job due to bankruptcy of a company, no income and difficulty to find a new source of income
- lack of purpose in life
- not being grateful enough to be healthy in the middle of the pandemic
- believing in propaganda or in the existence of fake news
Let’s take in one by one:
Losing a job due to bankruptcy of a company, no income and difficulty to find a new source of income
This can be a tough one, since it is crucial for us to be able to satisfy our basic needs to go on with life and support ourselves and our family. Currently, many companies has to terminate their employees for the pure shareholders’ survival and the preservation of the company existence. What then, the protesting people, want to achieve is that the government will hear them and help their situation. It can be questioned if this way of “communicating” their struggles is effective.
Lack of purpose in life
It can seem as a hard judgement but starting a protest or being part of the protest shows inability to pursue the own purpose and goals due to poor life satisfaction. The protests can be easily avoided by finding an activity in life that brings the peace and satisfaction, without projection of the inner frustrations on government and media. After a month in lock-down, many people have struggled with monotonousness of days and with coping with their own “selves”. This can be demonstrated on the current civil unrest.
Not being grateful enough to be healthy in the middle of the pandemic
This is a tough one to wrap one’s head around. People, voluntarily, expose themselves to the crowd and risk being infected. It is hard to imagine how it feels to get COVID-19, until a person has it and feels it for themselves. The longer the virus spreads, the higher chance that it will mutate and can turn into even more dangerous one. Many people also take their health for granted but everyone starts to re-think what really matters once their health is endangered or deteriorated. The value shift happens only in a critical situations from a direct experience.
Believing in propaganda or in the existence of fake news
In the media, there have been many articles and opinions on how the news actually do not show the reality of what is happening in terms of COVID-19 crisis. On the one hand, it is true because the real impact on people is not accurate due to lack of testing. Furthermore, many news just copy the others to produce the content. So yes, the news are to a certain degree, not truthful enough. On the other hand, the high increase about the average number of deaths for this time of the year period cannot be denied and claiming that the virus does not exist is the extreme way of overlooking the seriousness of the current global health situation.
What do you think about the rallies against the lock-downs? Do they serve a purpose or are they just hard hazard?
Recent Comments