We have a panicking world cocooning themselves to avoid catching the China bug. Makes sense, I suppose. If nothing else, social distancing is a worthwhile experiment in damage control… as far as it goes.
But eventually, all this forced isolation will be eased… it has to be, people can’t live like this forever.
Then what?
All these pristine, uninfected butterflies will emerge from their cocoons and encounter people who had caught the bug and either gotten over it, or were asymptomatic — who are now immune — but also carriers of the malady.
Imagine the paranoia that will run like ice through the hearts of all the former caterpillars. The more susceptible may spend the rest of their lives trembling in fear, self-isolated in some apartment the government may now be obliged to provide them. One can almost smell the feelings of entitlement taking root.
Eventually, the trepidatious butterflies will venture out… and I’m guessing promptly catch the bug, after all the bother of trying to avoid it. Then yet another wave of this debilitating madness will roll through the country like a tsunami.
And in the meantime we may well have utterly destroyed our economic viability for years, possibly decades, to come. This isn’t some false, simplistic dichotomy here between human lives and money. For better or worse, money is the lifeblood of our physical lives — the less you have, the more you suffer deprivation and hardship. So how many will die from an economic implosion caused by fear of a virus, ya think, if we don’t get back to work pretty damn soon and start rebuilding our livelihoods? Looking at the bigger picture, sheltering in place until God knows when isn’t shaping up to be such a brilliant plan. 🙄
As for this particular bug, it’s apparently contagious as hell, yeah. But the most recent US mortality rates aren’t matching the early hype we got from government and scientists. In addition, we’re now hearing stories by health care workers that they are being instructed by authorities to attribute anything that isn’t a heart attack or a car wreck fatality to the coronavirus. Not exactly inspiring news.
On the plus side, studies indicate that this scourge is more or less manageable for generally healthy folks with the proper nutrition, immunity-building vitamins and supplements. It’s entirely possible that we are experiencing less of a virus problem than we are an immune deficiency problem, thanks to the horrible food we eat and all the toxins in our environment.
Meanwhile, in what’s left of the real world, supply chains continue to break down, essential ingredients and components we need for the basics of life are dwindling. We see the unraveling of our world every day in the news. Many will disagree with me, but I’m increasingly of the opinion that the cure may well turn out to be worse than the disease. Frankly, I fear the mounting hysteria gripping the planet more than I do this infernal bug.
in their stateroom aboard the Titanic
Let’s try to put things into perspective here. As we take a gander through eons past, all the way through to today, we clearly see that tomorrow is promised no one. Life is hard, at times brutal, and consciously or not, we all face a choice every day: worry about all the bad things that might happen, or buck up, roll the dice and live our lives.
Now, self-isolation isn’t hard for me, I’ve been practicing the art for 50 years. I can easily stay out of everyone’s way up on Taterbug Hill, since with all my work cancelled, I scarcely have a reason to leave the homestead anymore. It’s what I consider to be the manufactured necessity of staying cloistered up on the hill that I find increasingly annoying.
My belligerence notwithstanding, I do have a modicum of compassion in me. I wear my little mask to the store, not because it will filter a virus (it won’t), but because by donning the silly thing I can bring some small comfort to others, assuage their feelings of impending doom. It’s a politically correct but ultimately futile gesture I don’t mind all that much, given the intense anxiety so many folks are experiencing. But what I do resent is everyone else’s fear impacting my ability to work and pay my bills without sucking up to the damn government for a handout.
Folks will do what they do. Everyone who wants to can wring their hands and cower in paranoia as long as they want. Guess what — it ain’t gonna help. Coronavirus has been unleashed upon the world, and will likely stick around awhile. Given the virulence of this stupid bug, sooner or later we’ll all be exposed to it, and whether we cop a mere sniffle, or become sick, or buy the farm… well, our individual mileage will vary. Que sera sera… but whatever happened to “home of the brave”?
We’re going through a tribulation, a pestilence, that’s just how it is. If one’s a believer, one might well consider this plague biblical. In any event, I say be a spiritual warrior, dammit! Concern yourself more with the state of your soul, and less with the state of your earthly circumstances. Fight for your freedom as well as your mere existence on this earthly plane.
This scourge will pass like all others before it, but the damage we will have done to ourselves, out of panic, because we can no longer return to our secure and cozy cocoons, will far outweigh the human toll directly attributable to Communist China’s little gift to the world.
