While I admit that a rethink is difficult for most people and impossible for some, I still cling to a shred of optimism that the majority of the human race possesses the ability. Perhaps self-isolation can provide the opportunity to exercise that ability.
I’m hopeful that somewhere in the midst of the pandemic induced trepidation, that a moment or two of clarity and quietude descends upon all of us and enables that opportunity. Much like a system reboot, we are down temporarily and have an option to come back on line with a glitch repaired. With some luck and some planning we may also emerge with a virus detection and quarantine package.
It would be a shame to come out on the other side of this lock down and return to all of our old thoughts and routines, without even an attempt to reflect on what this plague has taught us about our society, our priorities, and ourselves.
I used the word plague deliberately because I wanted to draw a historical comparison to the black version of plagues that occurred in the mid 1300’s. I’ll admit that there are some differences that need pointing out. For starters, the black death lasted around three years and killed about half the people in Europe. Some estimates place that number at sixty percent, and so I’ll stay hopeful that Corona will remain but a blip on the bubonic scale.
However, the plague of the thirteen hundreds was followed by sweeping changes in thought and in process. The renaissance and the reformation were probably the two biggest of those changes, but every aspect of life from the status of the nobility to the economic drivers of every day life was altered or completely upended. I suppose that level of impact is inevitable when every second person throws up, shits themselves, bleeds from their ass, then turns black and dies. Also there were no intensive care units so most of the bleeding, puking and shitting was happening at home for everyone to witness, not just medical staff.
So, I’v been wondering what if are any lessons can to be learned from and during this pandemic? Are we going to come out of this with a surge of understanding and awareness, or are we just going to say fuck it, and have a bacchanalian burst of self indulgence followed by a return to our factory presets? I’m wondering if we have to eradicate half the population of the planet before our learning curve arcs a little above it’s current Fakebook trajectory.
Speaking of Fakebook.
I cannot for the life of me conceptualize how the hell some people can rail against the main stream media as fake, and then accept snippets of prejudice, hatefulness and outright bullshit from Fakebook as gospel. I suppose it’s the same circumstance as believing a president with 16,000 documented lies. The best answer I can imagine is that both the current president and Fakebook are appealing to our lizard brain, and it’s easier to hate than to reason.
Anyway.
I think that as a minimum, we should have learned that we take many things for granted. Perhaps we should give some consideration to the idea that if we’d like to assume certain privileges are inalienable, then we need to determine how to protect those privileges.
I think that we should take note that in order to persuade the population to behave in a way that benefits the many and not the few, that we needed to saturate the airwaves with doomsday death scenario’s. Sense and sensibility doesn’t cut it when you’re trying to compel the herd to not gather together to graze. The sadness inherent in that scenario is that repetitive doomsday data was necessary to get people to pay fucking attention. But unless at least a quarter of a million people die in the U.S. alone, there is no doubt in my mind that the crack forensic team at Fox is going to claim that they over reacted. That the liberals and the media took advantage of a minor tragedy and politicized a disease to crash the economy and topple Trump.
The noise from the conspiracy disciples will be even louder if the body count ends up being less than the predictions from the experts. Any benefit gained from making as many people as possible stay home will be ignored, attributed to the actions of the president, or dismissed as unnecessary media hype.
This worries me a bit because I think there’s a decent possibility that the noise I just mentioned is going to start as soon as the virus looks to be receding. I worry that the noise is going to drive policy change to release the beasts from their cages, and we’re going to have a second larger outbreak as herds the world over stampede to soccer and baseball games, the Hajj and Disneyland.
Maybe New York should take all of the refrigerated trucks from in front of the hospitals and park them in front of 1211 Avenue of the America’s, and 725 5th Avenue. Come to think of it, there’s a hotel in D.C. that might have a parking lot the Washington hospitals could use as well.
Because this pandemic has illuminated an obvious human condition. We have a really hard time understanding the pain of misfortune unless it’s happening to us, or right in front of us. Even with misfortune as dire as death, we still won’t react unless we’re convinced the odds are high that we’re next.
So. I suppose the first litmus test to determine if we’ve learned anything will be how quickly we abandon social distancing. Once the repetitive warnings and the body count diminish I suspect it will be much more difficult to keep the corral doors closed. The path we take will likely depend on which group bleats the loudest.
I think that images around the world have given us something else to think about. All kinds of Chinese people that didn’t die or disappear have seen the sky for the first time in a while. Dolphins and deer and assorted other animals are showing up everywhere, and satellite images have shown distinct decreases in our heat signature and carbon output.
I’m waiting to see if this teaches us anything. I predict two conclusions from the data. The first would be that it’s a no brainer that human activity is influencing the health of the planet. The second conclusion will be that our impact is minimal. Hell. we took a month off and the planet pretty much healed itself. Lookit all them critters. Hell, there’s deer and turkeys walking down the goddamn street. Good thing we bought more guns.
Makes me wonder what the road kill carnage is going to be like when all the highways are opened up again. All of the animals have been lured into a false sense of security, and forgotten that the roads are lethal. Hopefully we’re going to be slightly more clever than the possums and deer and realize that although the roads are quiet, the traffic is parked and the threat is not eliminated.
We’ll see in the next few weeks I guess.