Krišjānis Kariņš bases public administration on a religious belief

The theme of Covid is convincingly dominating the agenda of Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš. Every time he speaks, he talks about Covid first and foremost. It cannot be missed that this topic is close to Kariņš, and it seems that he is convinced that political points can be gained by exploiting it. Unlike other things where people demand real, tangible results.

At this point, one might argue that fighting the pandemic is precisely the thing in which the results can best be seen and the professionalism of government work most easily assessed. It may have been so until the beginning of this summer when not everyone who wanted to get vaccinated had the opportunity to do so. People were worried and Kariņš and some of his government ministers were sharply criticized. At times, it even seemed that the government was hanging by a hair, and the opposition was saying that the next Saeima elections would throw the ruling group into the trash.

The situation changed significantly in June when the topic of Covid quickly turned from an issue of a medical epidemiological nature into an ideological issue of faith. Society split into us and them. Believers and non-believers. The professionalism of the Kariņš government was swept far into the background. The firmness of faith came to the fore. In an interview with Latvijas Radio last week, Kariņš himself once again repeated that part of the population does not believe in a pandemic. He himself believes it unequivocally. How was it phrased in the Bible about the faith that can move mountains, even if it is only the size of a mustard seed?

In the fight against and about Covid, the topic of vaccination looks like a medical issue only in terms of outward formal features. As Archbishop Jānis Vanags said at the service dedicated to the Day of Restoration of Latvia's Independence in the Dome Church: "Let's look at the hatred with which the opposing parties turn against each other. No one attacks each other because of a medical procedure. People attack like that when they feel offended and sense a threat to their identity.”

Identity in this case is faith. Only a few hundred years ago, there was no other common identity. Only the identity of the religious community. Everyone knew from birth what denomination they will be baptized, married, and in what church cemetery they will be buried. Exclusion from this community was the heaviest punishment.

Today, there are seemingly many identities and they are different. Religious identity is almost extinct, and even if a person is considered to belong to a Catholic, Lutheran, or Orthodox church, this identity is rarely primary. National identity seems much more important, despite efforts to minimize the importance of this identity.

But, as they say, nature abhors a vacuum. People are social beings, they like to group and be with people like themselves. Including those who are like-minded and claim to want to be with people different from themselves, and thus paradoxically form a community like themselves. People are constantly forming more or less enduring groups of identities. They have also developed regarding the opinions about vaccination, Covid and the related restrictions.

Each group of identities is characterized by the demonization or dehumanization of opponents, because as soon as you try to understand the opponent, to understand his true motivation, not the self-imagined and self-satisfying [evil, wicked] motivation of the other, you have already partially lost. Only a rock-solid, steadfast stance allows you to maintain the positions won by your group. Therefore, it is important to maintain the belief that there are bad people in the opposite camp who wish to harm others.

Half a year ago, Kariņš held the image of a rather indecisive, cowardly, peace-loving man. However, Covid religion has allowed him to change his image significantly. He now positions himself as the most ardent priest of the Covid religion. People like politicians who are passionate about something, who are ready to stand and fall for their cause. If in early spring it seemed that Covid would be the stone over which Kariņš would stumble, now it seems that Covid is the stone on which Kariņš will climb to get higher.

Covid skeptics probably think the exact opposite, but in these cases, you should always remember the phrase that Ainārs Šlesers once said: “It doesn't matter how many people refuse to vote for me. It matters how many people will." Those who take part in the protests or sympathize with Covid skeptics will not vote for Kariņš and would not vote for him in any case. We are talking about those for whom Kariņš and his policies do not arouse antipathy. Kariņš's belligerent attitude towards those who think differently seems attractive to them, because people always like it when their ideological opponents are put in a tough spot. The quote attributed to Voltaire about the readiness to die for someone's right to express himself, even if you do not agree with it, is just a nice-sounding fantasy, which has never been expressed in life and has never been observed in real politics. Neither in the 18th century nor in the 21st century.

The closest analogies of the fight between the modern Covid hysterics and Covid skeptics are the wars between Catholics, Huguenots, Calvinists and other Protestants in late medieval Europe or the persecution of Old Believers in Russia following the reform of the church by Patriarch Nikon. Today, fortunately, this opposition is associated with incomparably less violence and is nowhere near as bloody. But the principles of social behavior remain the same - to force the other side to convert to your faith, or at least to obey unconditionally. If you are not willing, then go elsewhere - to North America, or to Siberia, or to the furthest corners of Latgale forests. No matter where, just out of sight.

But let's return to Kariņš's pandemic religion and the question of identity raised by Vanags. The main argument that this is not a belief, but a real, scientifically proven fact, is based on the claim that since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 200 million people (certainly many more in reality) have been infected and almost 4.5 million more have died. The numbers are impressive and seem to remove any shadow of a doubt. What can be set against these facts? Also facts. Just facts.

Let's narrow the space under consideration. Let's not talk about the world. Let's talk about Latvia and imagine for a moment that there is no Covid hysteria and the news in the media do not start with information from the Covid front - how many tests have been performed, how many sick, how many dead, but the previous day's mortality statistics are reported in an impassive voice. Yesterday, 95 people died in Latvia, this many from this and that, this many from this and that, and at the very end, how many from Covid. In recent months, since the issue of so-called compulsory vaccination has escalated, the number of deaths from Covid has been one, two people every day, often none. At the same time, about 80-100 people die every day in Latvia. Hospitals are full of patients who also suffer but who are not infected with Covid. Do these people deserve less attention and sympathy?

In the population under the age of 50, the number of deaths from Covid since the beginning of the pandemic has been lower than the number of deaths in car accidents. Deaths of students are practically unheard of, and according to Forbes,

a child is less likely to die from Covid than to die from a lightning strike.

In turn, masks in schools negatively affect children's development, traumatize them, slow down the development of thinking and social skills.

However, this will not prevent Kariņš's government from tormenting students and teachers by regularly testing, forcing them to study remotely or wearing cloth strips on their faces. Of course, each person's life is unique and must be protected. There is no doubt about that, but everyone's life is unique and important. Even someone's who is not infected with Covid. People's lives don't just revolve around Covid, and significantly more people suffer from this emphasized focus on this one topic. People instinctively feel that the uproar is much louder than the real threat, and they resist this forced tune however they can.

Unfortunately,

this "fight against the pandemic" has turned into a divisive "war of faith" that will hardly benefit our already not-so-big and not-too-united nation.

It is for this reason that I consider the government of Krišjānis Kariņš to be the worst that Latvia has had since the restoration of independence thirty years ago, because it has not been able to protect our people from such unnecessary opposition.

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