The Covid experience has me wondering what the word essential means. I think that the term has always been evolving depending on what we take for granted, where we live and how we live. It seems though, that a side effect of the virus is that each population it reaches has immediately begun to redefine what passes as essential.
Essential is defined in the dictionary as absolutely necessary, crucial, key and indispensable.
And yet the Governor of Florida has allowed the mega pastors to call their flocks to the collection plate, because he believes the service they provide is essential. What he really meant is that the votes and the donations are essential, and so I understand where the Governor is coming from from a tactical perspective.
What I don’t understand is how a person would begin to call their life normal and fulfilling when you belong to a group of people that check all the boxes for being classified as a cult. What I also fail to grasp is how membership in this cult is in any way, shape or form, essential to you or to the rest of society.
I think you can pray from home is all I’m saying. Jesus apparently has an information gathering network on a par with the likes of the Santa Clause, so he should be able to identify who’s been naughty without all of you assholes gathering together to spread the word and the virus.
Maybe the mega-churches can sell a Lear jet or two and use the proceeds to build drive through windows at their churches. Then the faithful can drop off their donations without having to violate social distancing criteria. The only dilemma left for the cultists is to decide if they want to super size that donation.
So, what I’m trying to say is that if you’re going to make a claim that a service is essential then you need to try to find a way to provide that service while still maintaining social distancing guidelines. Canada for example has determined that weed, alcohol and guns are all essential. But you have to order the guns on-line and the liquor and weed outlets are managing their businesses by controlling the flow of customers. Door locked. One person is let out and one person is let in.
Anyway, I suspect that the longer this pandemic goes on and the number of infected and dead increases, that we’ll begin to redefine what the hell essential really means.
As long as weed continues to make the can’t live without list then it’s a pretty good bet that we’re confusing nice to have with need to have. Same for alcohol and a variety of other items that currently make the essential list.
So, what is essential?
I think that protecting our health care workers is essential. I think that producing test kits and a vaccine is essential. I think that maintaining medical supplies is essential. I think that keeping the internet running and our food supply flowing is essential. I think that operating our water and waste treatment plants is essential. I think that keeping our supply systems working is essential. I think that keeping the police and the fire services working is essential and I think that pharmacies are essential. I think keeping the lights on and the gas flowing is essential, and I believe that maintaining a governing system that at least reminds us of democracy is essential.
If we can manage to maintain these services, then we stand a decent chance of not getting to the point where our essential list has evolved to include only oxygen, water, food and shelter.
Maintaining those services means that we have to take the social distancing rules seriously. A couple of hundred cultists in one building laying hands on one another isn’t just socially irresponsible, it’s fucking criminal liability. The liability would diminish or not exist if the cultists only dealt with others of their ilk. But, that’s not going to happen because God isn’t having grub hub deliver manna to their doors, and so the fucktards are going straight to the grocery and gun stores as soon as the last amen is uttered.
Also.
Speaking of guns. The Americans have a lot of them. In the last few days the gun and ammo sales have skyrocketed in the land of the free to a level not seen since half the population decided that a school full of dead little kids might cause the Democrat president to plunk some limits on their inalienable rights.
So, I think that Canada should seriously reconsider if we want our population unarmed next to a heavily armed group of people that think like Hannity, or Ingram or any of the Trumps, or Rush, or Navarro or Miller or any Republican senator or Governor or a Florida mega pastor.
Also.
I think that we should keep an eye on China. I can’t convince myself that they’re not going to make a decision that the United States and NATO is sufficiently weakened and now is a good time to invade Taiwan and a few other territories they’ve been lusting after. If that happens and Donny is still in charge, then the odds of a shitshow where we redefine essential is inevitable.
So it’s also essential that we not let covid overwhelm us to the point that we let our guard down around the bad actors of the world. Putin is no more trustworthy that he was pre-virus and neither is Donny and a host of other so called strongmen itching to exploit the situation for their own gain.
So Justin it’s essential that you consider that it’s hard to stand on guard for thee with a single shot 22.