1. My grandmother left Austria in the 1930’s just before the Anschluss - when Germany took over. She felt the political climate was darkening and didn’t want to be a part of it. As a young, unmarried woman in her twenties she acted on her principles, beliefs and instincts.
2. She settled in the U.K. and never wanted to go back. My grandmother wasn’t even Jewish - which makes me even more proud of her because she would have been one of the safer people.
3. She refused to live in a country run by a dictator, in a totalitarian state that valued some people’s lives over others. Where you were forced to be complicit in the domination and destruction of others. Where your every move was monitored, your thoughts and speech controlled.
4. The growing authoritarianism of governments around the world, the decay of the democratic process, the censoring of free speech and of movement, the coercion of experimental medical treatments, media propaganda and now the introduction of vaccination passports/digital IDs...
5. Point to a growing global technological totalitarian movement that should terrify us all. My grandmother is warning me in my sleep, rattling my spirit from the other side.