We all remember this refrain from the time of the lockdowns. It echoed at us from all directions, repeated by experts, doctors, politicians, and journalists—often with zeal and a fanatical gleam in their eyes. We were told that the world was about to change irreversibly, whether people liked it or not. Although it was never made clear what exactly this change would consist of, hints were dropped about various restrictions and new social orders that we were expected to get used to. These suggestions in no way bypassed the supposedly liberal West. I was astonished when I read, on the website of the widely respected Euronews, a journalistic opinion stating that we needed to create a new “society of hygiene.” And this was far from an isolated case—on the contrary, Western media with surprising ease became a platform for ideas that would make even the dictators so often condemned by the West envious.

In those tense times, I imagined Orwell, watching from above with a bitter smile, his sad gaze whispering: “Didn’t I warn you…?” Indeed—how fragile a thing freedom is, and how soft and malleable people are.

Yet despite the abundance and persistence of these mantras, most people received them with deep reservations, skepticism, and suspicion. The suspicion lay in the belief that the pandemic was being instrumentalized to achieve certain political, economic, and social goals on the part of global elites—goals that would hardly have been attainable under normal circumstances. For many, the crisis conditions surrounding the pandemic served as a favorable wind in the sails of the architects of a new world order—one in which there is no place for the individual and free will.

In my view, these fears were not without merit. The collective skepticism toward these messages of an impending global transformation proved to be healthy for societies, as it stripped away the inertia accumulated during the COVID crisis by processes that eroded freedom and the rule of law. This resulted in mass demonstrations, clashes with police, protests, and heightened social and political activity—various expressions of resistance to restrictions deemed disproportionate to the situation. People demonstrated that the desire for freedom is deeply rooted in human nature.

Perhaps elites and politicians were shaken by all this and postponed their plans for a new order and society to a more opportune moment. In the end, the COVID pandemic subsided—but it did not take with it the freedoms we had before it, despite the ominous refrain: “The world will never be the same again.”

Well—so far, the world is the same again. Masks are gone. Restrictions are gone. Certificates are gone. The specter of mandatory vaccination and endless boosters no longer hangs in the air. And those who insisted otherwise seem to have quickly forgotten their own words. Since we are talking about public figures, perhaps it would be appropriate for them to explain on what grounds they delivered such grave messages to society—from the platforms of their own ratings and public trust.

They probably won’t. But hopefully, people will draw their own conclusions.