Just Don't.

People don’t like being told what to do. They especially hate being told what not to do.

Tell us we can’t… and dammit, we will.

That’s a problem for any government trying to restrict the movement and behavior of its citizens… which, as I write this, is every government on the planet.

Whenever my government imposes water restrictions or petrol rationing or purchase limits there’s always some kind of pushback; we search for loopholes and contradictions to make ourselves exempt. We even question the reality of the crisis, recasting it as a conspiracy… or just ignore the rules altogether.

To find examples of populations willingly curtailing their behavior in response to some existential threat we have to go back to the time of the World Wars; the propaganda posters of those awful times were a litany of Thou Shalt Nots:

Don’t peel your potatoes.

Don’t drive alone. Don’t be out after curfew. Don’t leave lights on at night. Don’t spread panic or misinformation. Don’t throw out what you can repair. Don’t exceed your rations.

Whatever it was, the government told us not to. And (with very few exceptions) we didn’t. Maybe we had a better sense of our social responsibilities. Maybe we trusted our governments a lot more than we do now. Maybe Nazis are easier to imagine than viruses.

But just maybe there’s something to be learned from the messages themselves – everything was framed as ‘Don’t give the enemy what it wants’.

Wasting food, fuel or materials robs our armies of vital supplies. Just what the enemy wants. Breaking curfew or lighting up our homes makes us easy targets. Just what the enemy wants. Fighting among ourselves does the enemy’s work for them, so Keep Calm and Carry On.

Ok, so what does the virus ‘want’? It ‘wants’ us to huddle together, to share breath and touch. It ‘wants’ big weddings and sports events, pub nights and birthday parties. It ‘wants’ us to carry it as far as possible, to wipe it on everything we can, especially eyes, noses and mouths. It 'wants' us to squabble over politics, to think that it’s not even a problem.

That's a message that's worked before. Would it work today?

What do you think? Let me know! I'd love to get your reactions, comments, queries and arguments, so if you feel the urge to click 'like', why not go a step further and share your actual thoughts? Or maybe share the piece with someone who might?