Measles is a killer. I still remember contracting measles as a child and becoming very ill indeed. I was born in a generation that had to take their chances; families watched children suffering at the hands of this awful disease and it wasn't uncommon for a family to grieve the loss of a loved child. By the time my children were born, the MMR vaccine was available and, remembering the risks suffered by previous generations, we gratefully had our children protected. This modern medicine was a wonder of sort, that made life more secure and reduced the risks of infant mortality.
Enter Dr Andrew Wakefield who published a study into the links between MMR and autism in the Lancet in 1998. Wakefield has since been exposed as dishonest and probably motivated by personal profit. He was struck off the medical register in 2010. However, he moved to the US, where his campaigning continued. New parents had no experience with this illness themselves and, doubting the veracity of the vast weight of scientific evidence, they refused to expose their children to this alleged new risk. As a result, children started to die from measles after there being many years with no recorded deaths. Evidence last week showed that, globally, 169 million children have missed out on vaccination. This includes half a million children from the UK who missed out between 2010 and 2017. This is described as a public health time bomb.
The internet is a hot bed of ideas and opinions and who is to judge what ideas are right and wrong. One of the problems for the authorities who are now trying to persuade the public that vaccination is beneficial and wise is that the serums are made by global pharmaceutical companies. As the purpose of these companies is to make profit, many people have an issue trusting them. The beneficial effects of vaccination are easily overcome if your political and world view is to distrust people in power.
The legal world is not free from similar delusions and dangerous ideas. An increasing number of clients are calling themselves 'Freemen-on-the-land'. For normal citizens, this movement appears to be nothing less than a way of pretending that the law of the land does not apply to adherents. To its advocates, it is a way of grabbing back freedom from an illegal government that took your rights away at birth. This really is an anarchic way of looking at the world - alleged to be linked with Magna Carter. It really is turning the Rule of Law on its head, they believe they are above the law.
Acting in legal proceedings for people with these attitudes can be challenging. Sometimes it is impossible to represent clients as their anarchic behaviour makes it too difficult and we have to withdraw our services.
It is hard to predict where all of this will end up. Logic and reason have brought us a long way but the world that was built upon these is changing. As a lawyer trained in applying logic and reason to problems which face citizens, it seems we have a fight on our hands to ensure that the revolution of the 'Enlightenment' is not overcome by an anarchy of ideas where anything goes whatever harm it causes.