It’s surprised many that even most Premiers have now capitulated to let it rip. But it’s inevitable under…

It’s surprised many that even most Premiers have now capitulated to let it rip. But it’s inevitable under populism, where politicians attempt to directly manage complex population-level events, bypassing expertise. We see that now,…/1 #auspol #covid19aus https://t.co/TjtfR8FUn5

…where that management is really only the management of messaging, not realities. That’s what politicians do, manage messaging, it’s their specific job. Experts always run the country in 99% of what we do. If you replace expertise with popularity, everything will be…/2

…subservient to that popularity, a complete decoupling of actual outcomes from decisions. Problems will be re-messaged as non-problems, or as somebody else’s problem. It will only ever be about messaging, never outcomes. Again, not because politicians are intrinsically…/3

…venal, but because in democracy, that is their specific job. To create and carry the narratives, while the experts do the actual work. Populism removes the expert layer, leaving nothing but messaging. The Premiers and PM have run out of ways to re-message an event…/4

…that pays no attention to any of the messaging. So they’ve thrown in the towel. What they should be doing is say ‘ok, we’re now handing management of this over to our CHOs and other pandemic expertise, to end this once and for all.’ Let the pilots fly the plane again. /end