What Happened to the New Normal

Before buying my air-tickets for my September trip to Norway, I asked my brothers if there were any restrictions on unvaccinated travellers. I specifically asked about the new normal. Was there anything left of it?

This was an honest question on my part, but I think my brothers thought it a trick question because none of them cared to answer.

I figured their silence meant that the most draconian restrictions were rolled back, so I went to Norway only partially expecting to be harassed on arrival. But it turned out that there were no restrictions at all.

That's quite a contrast to only a year ago, when the new normal was being implemented at a staggering pace. People going to Norway had to spend ten days in quarantine before getting into the country. People everywhere were forced to wear masks and go into concentration camps if not fully wetted.

Supermarkets in Germany were putting up scanners for vaccine passports so as to keep the unvaccinated out. Supermarkets in Portugal (Continente) were preparing for the same. Hobby fascists were out in force, yelling at those who dared to pull their masks down below their noses.

There was a lot of momentum in the new normal. Then, out of nowhere, there was a sudden about face. A year later, the new normal has been completely rolled back. With the exception of a few countries still insisting on vaccine passports for free entry and travel, there's nothing left of it.

The new normal came and went like a bad dream. When we see evidence of it in year old photographs and videos, it's borderline surreal. The phenomenon has aged terribly in just twelve short months.

Few people worry about the virus these days. The focus is shifting towards the long-term consequences of the new normal. Kids are getting ill at alarming rates. There are excess deaths. Every time some young person keels over dead for no good reason, many people's first though is the vaccine.

This illustrates a central point in Christian doctrine. Namely that those who have faith in God (aka nature) have much less to fear than it may seem in the heat of the moment. However, those who give in to fear, and act against nature may soon find themselves riddled with fear of nature itself.

We're now at a point where those who resisted the new normal can continue their lives without fear, while those who gave into the new normal are increasingly sensing the presence of God, and not in a good way.

My brothers' silence on the topic of the new normal is telling. They don't want to be reminded of their failure to see what is obvious in retrospect. Nor do they want to think about the long-term consequences of what they let themselves into.

Thinking about the new normal