How 2020 became the year of the New Pharisees

One of Australia’s great singer/songwriters, Paul Kelly, has a very insightful song titled, ‘Little Kings’. It’s about how “everywhere the little kings are getting away with murder”. It’s a none-too-subtle take-down of all those who love wielding power in their own little spheres of influence to the detriment of others. While I have always shared PK’s distain for these tiny tyrants, I had thought he was being a bit melodramatic, or at least hyperbolic, with the whole murder thing. You see, most of the time, these petty Pincochets, these mini Maos, are simply an annoyance to those of us endeavouring to go about our lives unencumbered by their ever-advancing legions of legislation. But tragically, in 2020 it…