Ode to Hogarth: The End of Social Distancing Pubs Open

GIN LANE - England - The 18th century satirist, William Hogarth would have recognised the scenes last night when social distancing ended and the pubs re-opened.

William Hogarth, Gin Lane, 1751

Much of London looked very similar to Gin Lane, William Hogarth’s satirical depiction of the evil’s of the clear liquid that can cause serious moral and physical decay, as the pubs opened up and social distancing ended.

It is the end of social distancing as Londoners crowded the streets with mass parties and fighting.

Watching the apocalypse unravel in such a fashion, would probably have amused Hogarth if he were around today, and his wonderful satire of Gin Lane does hold up even in these modern times, as much as it did in 1751.

As the vomitus horde of drunkards all huddled together in intoxicated union ignoring any form of social distancing, there’s still this little niggling feeling of something called coronavirus, which hasn’t seemed to dampen the herd one little bit. Are these people immune to the virus? Will they spread it around, drunk, not knowing what they are doing? The answer can only be — most certainly.

Sunday night, the buses, and tubes were all packed, and there was not one mask in sight. Shouting and singing, some vomiting on the floor, these people were a picture of joyous abandon, and deadly ignorance to the fact they were spreading the virus far and wide.

Watching the carnage from the safety of a television was possibly the only safe option, because the virus is increasing its infection rate daily once again, and will soon be spreading at an exponential level.

Culling of these lemmings is not of much import, as long as the clever people watch from a distance, it is certainly time that the population is reduced drastically on this crowded isle.

The virus will not be one session as many think, it will come in stages, sometimes mutating, but due to the nature of human stupidity and globalization, it will now always be around. When these ‘super human’ creatures get infected and find themselves not able to breathe as their respiratory system clogs up with gunk, and their arteries clot, they may only get the message in the last few breaths they take.