Alongside

 

The policy of alongside should already be falling from favour. As omicron figures escalate in Sydney at Christmas, the casual instructions from the Premier look less like a common sense option, more like the main cause for omicron’s escalation. It harks back to the previous Premier’s promises, that if Sydneysiders do the right thing they will be rewarded with a picnic. Alongside is rendered obsolete once we consider that the whole world is living alongside the virus, regardless of borders or comparative claims on common sense. Alongside is in the bloodstream. Omicron makes approving noises about alongside, understandable given that’s precisely the sort of proximity it actively pursues. The Premier is encouraging the spread of omicron while he persists with his promotion of alongside. Laissez-faire fairly translates as ‘bring it on!’  His Health Minister takes this to its ultimate conclusion when announcing that everyone will get omicron. Some people think the job of the Health Minister is to stop that from happening. Perhaps he has given up trying to deal with coronavirus. Perhaps he should look for another job. Considered another way, the policy of alongside betrays the social division that the Premier likes to keep in place. He must find it hard to live beside voters from the poorer suburbs of Sydney. There must be moments when the very thought of living alongside the great unwashed tries his patience. He has no choice. They are not going away, anymore than new variants of coronavirus. While they stay over there and he stays over here, out of the way, alongside, then things ought to continue a bit longer without mishap. No doubt those trapped in war learn to live alongside bullets, just as those living near volcanoes are accustomed to residing alongside hurtling red-hot pumice. Alongside is in the air we breathe. As we recover from seasonal good cheer and travel uncertainly into the new year, one other consideration is prompted by alongside, and that is closure. Separation from omicron as we go about our normal daily life is an illusion. The cure for the illusions promoted by the Premier is found in the seventh paragraph of health advisory reports in newspapers. The sentence more-or-less goes: This variant will take a year of two more to play itself out. Unquote. It should be the headline, it should have been the headline back in the days of alpha, but that might be too much like realistic responsibility. In this worldview, alongside will continue for the life of the virus. This means alongside successive Premiers and Health Ministers, taking their chances with picnics, declaring we could all be buried under a lava flow so get used to it, and wondering if we must survive the entire Greek alphabet. Living in Sydney will not make any difference to this scenario.