Zeitgeist, according to the dictionary, is “the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time’’.
So, what do you think has been the zeitgeist of 2021?
Obviously we have proved our resilience, but there have also been periods when we questioned whether we could survive the virus.
At other times we have rediscovered our optimism.
But there was so much more to the various parts of the zeitgeist in 2021.
A lot of nonsense went down in 2021 as we tried to muddle through against an enemy that keeps changing the level of threat it poses to our mortality.
There was, too, much sneaky stuff introduced under the cover of the pandemic.
Our governments, which have been good and bad in leading the fight against the virus, have been the biggest sneaks of all.
They change the goalposts all the time on most aspects of the pandemic, from testing for it to getting vaccinated for it.
Maybe their intentions were good, but most people would prefer to be treated as though they had some intelligence.
Most of the time, the governments that we literally entrusted with our lives were obviously muddling through themselves.
We just wish they owned up to it.
In the end though, the biggest downer of the year was discovering that some of our close friends and family were suffering from delusions of grandeur.
It is rather ironic that if it hadn’t been for the pandemic we would never have realised that an uncle or a cousin, and even a brother or sister, was an anti-vax, conspiracy theory nut job.
Really, I am totally at a loss to declare whether this is a good thing or bad. Indeed I can’t help wondering where they have been hiding all those years before the arrival of the virus.
But it’s done and dusted now, and all we can worry about is how our relationships will survive with these people after the pandemic is just a memory.
Bugger it, let’s worry about it when the time comes.
Here’s our Top 5 from what was the zeitgeist in the year that’s about to expire:
Number 1. What else, the anti-vax jokers.
Number 2. Periods of optimism.
Number 3. Even more periods of despair.
Number 4. The seeming collapse of our country as a federated nation.
Number 5. Only one serious constant was on offer in 2021: the bile and hatred on Twitter. Goodness me.
