I’ve been following threads here and discussions elsewhere, and I’m seeing something rather curious. Whilst we are all required by law, common sense and care for others to follow lockdown rules meticulously, some people are turning it into a kind of moral crusade against any kind of pleasure. A couple of examples:
— Some TV doctor has said people should not wash cars, even on their own properties and observing social distancing. Now, assuming cars are on people’s own property, and those washing are observing social distancing, what possible reason can there be for making it morally wrong?
— There have been many who seem to think that it’s better to insist people take daily exercise tramping the streets instead of walking round a local park or wood, even if both are accessible on foot. Again, assuming social distancing is rigorously observed, I can see no virtue in walking round dull surroundings instead of lovely ones.
I have this theory that the pandemic makes people feel powerless. So they are starting to apply an irrational and medieval kind of superstition in their thinking which goes something like this: the pandemic is some kind of ‘punishment’ and to make it go away, everybody has to suffer and deprive themselves of all sources of pleasure as a penance. If everyone suffers enough, the virus will be driven away. I’m fascinated to observe how many people who reject traditional religion seem to fall into this pattern of thinking.
Goodness knows, life is hard enough for those who are fearful, lonely and frightened. I’d like to see us all wishing everyone what joy they can squeeze out of life just now, as long as they don’t put themselves or anyone else at risk of infection, and as long as they remain within the law.
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You did make me smile geekesse 
I have been saying that it's OK to do almost anything as along as you don't look as if you are enjoying yourself. No fun. No sunbathing. No smiling or laughing.
let's hope it doesn't get more sinister than that. lemongrove
I think this is what’s now called a ‘purity spiral’. There’s only way of doing things and anything else is just wrong. 
www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Purity%20Spiral
The car washing thing was the idiot Dr Hilary - but where are the reports of the many people who insist others tramp the streets instead of walking round a local park providing its easily accessible by foot and you can keep 2m away from others? 
Hetty, just because you haven't seen something doesn't mean it's not happening, any more than geekesse having seen it proves that it has! 
.
The best (or worst) place for this sort of thing is local Facebook pages. Mine is a toxic place at best, where local busybodies like nothing better than to name and shame 'transgressors', and signal their own virtue from the highest towers. Since the virus, things have got even worse. I can't post sources, as it is a private group, but a couple of examples include a woman complaining that people 'who didn't need them' were 'taking' delivery slots for groceries. When it was all unpicked, it turned out that she had been unable to get one, despite never having used the service before, and was annoyed at her neighbour for carrying on as she had always shopped. The complainer had no idea about the circumstances of those using the service anyway. Without access to medical records, she couldn't possibly know whether people had underlying conditions, and neither could she know about other circumstances, such as access to a car for click and collect etc.
Another example is someone complaining about a woman who didn't go out to clap. The woman had her reasons, which are nobody's business but her own, but still, she was publicly called to account. It makes my blood boil, really - who do these moralists think they are? And why is 'their way' the only one that is 'morally right'?
The virus has made me realise just how easily a sinister government could get people to turn against one another, and how close we are to puritans with pillories for 'moral transgressors'.
geekesse do you live in Cheshire by any chance? Because it would be a shame if there was more than one area that seems to have grasped the rules, clutched them closely and derives great delight in naming and shaming anyone that they precieve to have breached them. These include people walking across fields that are not within a 5 minute walk from their homes --there are public footpaths across them--; walking through the woods --they're open to the public--; riding their bicycles along the cycle track . These, and many more, have been named and complained about on our local Facebook pages time and time again. And then they complain that there are too many people walking down the streets and because they're so narrow, people are having to step in the road! You can't win! It's actually been suggested that a set of stocks and a ducking stool be set up at the village pond. And I'm not at all sure that they're joking.
Perceive not precieve 
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