Rob Rattenbury: Freedom comes with responsibilities

OPINION

It could be assumed that in New Zealand, the fourth safest democracy in the world in 2021, freedom is everywhere.

Apparently not according to many disparate and unhappy groups of people in this country.

The country, for weeks, watched as several thousand Kiwis have mobbed together to assert their loss of freedom in various parts of Aotearoa, particularly in Wellington at Parliament recently, the very seat of our safe democracy.

A haven for freedom.

Freedom is a word that means many things to different people. To me, it means living in my beautiful homeland safely, without the prospect of war, enjoying my rights and responsibilities as I personally choose.

I am free to do what I wish, within reason.

As long as I do not impinge upon the freedoms of others in my community I am pretty much left to just get on with things.

Live my life as I wish according to my personal values and views. Not hard, really.

There are some areas in life where we are not free to do as we wish.

In this country, we all have to drive on the left side of the road. No ifs and buts, we must.

That is the law, in place to keep us all safe. No one I know disagrees with that or purposely disobeys that rule.

We are not free to wander uptown naked. We can do it, but it is likely someone will take us aside and point out to us that this behaviour is, at the least, inappropriate.

We might even have to talk to a judge about it.

Some would argue it is their body, they should be allowed to. They maybe do not understand that others may find their behaviour offensive.

As we all watched the mob express their freedoms by abusing and threatening others on the streets around Parliament for having the freedom to wear masks to protect themselves and others, most of us would have seen the wrong-headedness of their actions.

The fact that these people were free to be able to behave the way they did argues against their cause, whatever that may have been.

In most places in the world, the official response would have been quick and very brutal. Not in little old Welly.

The local cops rolled up, tried a few tactics, decided that this was too dangerous bearing in mind the makeup of the crowd including young children and older people, so settled for the long game.

Let's wait them out. Only in New Zealand.

Photos of police doling out lollies, laughing and chatting with the mob, trying to keep all safe flashed around the world showing a tolerant society.

Some would say a little too tolerant.

As time drifted by, the loos backed up, the ground became a fetid swamp and sickness began to take its toll. Many drifted away to fight another day.

The faceless leaders of some of the groups present also abandoned ship when they realised they had nothing further to gain. They left their deluded followers to their fate.

I concede that some in the mob held sincere opinions, however wrong, about their freedoms being impinged. The thought process that made this happen is interesting.

New Zealanders have never been compelled to be vaccinated by law.

It has been left as a choice to our population, at least 94 per cent of the population who qualified chose to exercise that choice.

This majority did this for their own protection and for the protection of others, a community responsibility shared. Something New Zealanders should be very proud of.

Some of those who chose not to be vaccinated suffered the consequences of their decision.

They lost jobs and maybe homes. These people chose this course, knowing the possible outcomes.

Rob Rattenbury. Photo / NZME

How then has their freedom been taken from them?

How has a Government who, overall, managed the Covid pandemic very well compared to other governments, taken freedoms away from New Zealanders?

These people took their own freedoms away.

Let's be honest - no one likes the mandates.

Most have ended with our borders slowly re-opening to the world and us all learning to live with some form of endemic Covid-19 together with yet another annual vaccination going forward.

But losing freedoms? Really?

Freedom includes various rights, but with rights, come responsibilities - to ourselves and others. Most people understand this but a few simply cannot.

The causes displayed in the Wellington mob were wide-ranging with some strange bed-fellows sharing time together.

It seemed every unhappy soul in the country got together for a major whinge. Many with very strange agendas and views, many perhaps simply not well.

Watching the mob fight each other at times said it all, really.