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Totally rational behavior/caption
The greatest benefit of this pandemic" is the provision of a real-life contemporary example of the destructive capacity of humanity. Considering that societys primary obsession before this outbreak was attacking every entity or individual that failed to meet an arbitrary purity test it could not have come at a better time.
Because so many find it unfathomable that the parameters of socially acceptable behavior areand have always beenin perpetual flux our reaction to this virus should come as a relief. There is no longer a need to prove ones political correctness as we have demonstrated our ability to be just as ignorant and backwards as our ancestors.
These lessons will undoubtedly be lost on those who need them most but they are still worth discussing.
- Heads of state are ordinary people
President Trump is often faulted for his crude speech and copious use of superlatives. Though most of his policies have largely benefited the American people some cannot overcome their prejudices. He seems" racist so the China travel ban must be racist. Bill Clinton on the other hand does not seem" racist so his expansion of the prison-industrial complex is okay.
World leaders have shown themselves to be weak fear-driven conformists. Some have taken the opportunity to consolidate power such as Orban in Hungary. Others are reconsidering their severe measures such as Merkel in Germany. The German nation has some experience with government-sponsored hysteria so its inclination towards leniency makes sense. Only the Belarussian quasi-dictator Lukashenko has refused to follow the herd though his arguments are not exactly rational.
I do not pretend to be in a position to fairly gauge the intelligence of each individual world leader but it is not a stretch to consider Lukashenko closer to ordinary" than most. It is sad that this man of limited means is the only world leader to advocate a policy other than economic suicide. The experts" so convinced of their infallibility have led us to our destruction. We place our faith in experts" because we believe they are extraordinary; that they know something we do not. Of course there is plenty that they know in their respective fields but that does not make them qualified to direct policy or make executive decisions. I wish Trump were as headstrong or simplistic as the media would have us believe. I wish he had the strength to use uncommon sense in this time of crisis.
It is our weak politicians primarily those who drastically overestimate their own intelligence (cough Cuomo) who empower these fools. They take refuge from their own decision-making by hiding behind the words of the infallible then accuse detractors of opposing progress. If their every wish is not fulfilled it is because the rest of us are too ignorant to blindly accept the words of experts" as gospel. The media is happy to spread every sort of propaganda as news provided that an expert" alludes to something that can be used to reinforce a preexisting bias. This brings me to my next point.
- No one is actually in control
Humans like stories. Despite our alleged progress most people believe in some form of the great man" theory of history. It brings us comfort to believe that things are out of our control. On the left it is mighty corporations which oppress the poor and sick and the divine Senator from Vermont who will bring liberation. On the right it is the deep state and media which conspire to destroy the country and the Republican Party which serves as the last bulwark against communism.
The reality is that we control this. The media can fuel panic and politicians can capitalize but it is ultimately the people who govern. The reason that most democratic world leaders shut down their countries is because they are afraid of losing power. They cannot risk being ostracized by their parties and constituents. If the people want to cower in fear while the government protects" them from an invisible terror the politicians must comply. It is no different than a parent playing pretend with a young child to prevent a tantrum.
The people have always been in control. It is commonplace to make allusions to seemingly omnipotent figures from the past when criticizing our leaders. Trump is Hitler. Hillary is Hitlery. Strange how the unremarkable Viennese drifter has so captured the American imagination across the political spectrum. His name is always used as shorthand for totalitarianism and tyranny. In reality the failed painter with the little moustache ruled through popular consent. Hitler was deeply concerned with the mood of his people and tailored his decrees accordingly. His power was not retained with an iron fist but with civic engagement" in the form of denunciations and social shaming much like we see today.
Just as members of the stay home or die" cult now bask in their perceived moral superiority denouncers in Nazi Germany did 80 years ago. They felt they were heroes acting in the interest of the people because government policy and propaganda said so. Things are not so different now. The great mass of people are similarly naive and deliberately misinformed. Doctors and researchers are treated as living gods (though medical care should be free and corporations who develop vaccines are evil) and anyone who dares speak a contrary word is made a heretic.
Learned helplessness is the order of the day. We are children who need to be protected. Anyone who suggests that we are capable of making our own decisions and calculating our own risks is crazy". Indeed whoever chooses to not play this ridiculous game is attacked by the mob of children who find the pinnacle of existence to be government-mandated sloth. All who enforce the status quo are given inordinate praise. Of course the powers that be should have known that incentivizing laziness is a risky proposition.
Elevating the most indolent among us to moral ascendancy will have lasting social repercussions. The worst elements in society are currently controlling the narrative. We can only hope they will someday permit the rest of us to resume normal life. Even if we are so permitted a large contingent of otherwise decent and hardworking people have undoubtedly developed a taste for socialism. It is difficult to convince people to aspire to their full potential after conditioning them to do the opposite.
The projections of self-importance surrounding this episode are absurd. No one should have their personal status elevated by this crisis. Dr. Fauci is an accomplished doctor and researcher but the spread of a novel virus did not grant him superpowers. Like the rest of us he is much the same person he was in January and no better equipped to make policy decisions. Medical personnel working long hours in difficult conditions have my respect and appreciation but there is no need to glorify them as frontline" soldiers. Not everything has to be cast in a binary of reductive thought; not everyone is a hero or villain. Why is it not enough to be a diligent professional and good citizen? What is this social disease that makes everyone so desperate for validation? Do we have a vaccine for that yet?
- People have not changed
Pre-virus America was deeply divided but not on the cusp of civil war. We were pretentious but not quite Victorian. We have been through it all before and we will go through it all and worse in the future. The most important takeaway from this catastrophic time is that we are the same foolish species we have always been. Our lives of comparative opulence lull us into a false sense of security that everything is as it should be. We take everything for granted and live constantly preoccupied by the most trivial of concerns. A novel virus of variable consequence is discovered and most everyone suddenly regresses to the Paleolithic. An alien observer would wonder why these otherwise industrious beings have collectively decided to destroy everything they created. A few of the native human population also wonder but they can do nothing.
At all times and in all places we have existed in the same way. Not everyone who went to a Nazi rally was an adherent. Some just went so they would not be conspicuously absent; to avoid the suspicion of neighbors and authorities. They held the party salute and spoke the party words because it was not worth the trouble to do otherwise. Similarly the few rational people observing this hysteria for what it is blend in seamlessly. I keep my six feet of distance when entering the grocery store. Does it matter that there is no way of maintaining consistent proximity once in the store? Not at all. Hours of operation are reduced. Does it matter that this increases the concentration of people in the store at any given time? Not at all. These are not measures to protect against the virus they are measures to assure a group of primitive homo sapiens that action is being taken. No terrorist has ever used a toothpaste tube of larger than 3.4 ounces to blow up a plane but our leaders understood the need to calm the popular mind during our last national crisis as well.
Because we are still in the midst of it people will not be receptive to critical analysis but my sincere hope is that we can make this part of history" sooner rather than later. We can learn much about political science mass psychology and economics. We can better understand why so many people throughout history just followed the path of least resistance. Instead of thinking of ourselves as uniquely enlightened beings we should draw parallels to other idiots who thought the same of themselves in other times. The collective delusion of modernity has very often caused humans to miscalculate. The ultra-sophisticated and technically advanced person is a self-indulgent construct of the imagination. Who is hoarding toilet paper? Are people from less civilized times transporting themselves to our stores to empty our shelves?
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People will not change
I often wonder how future generations will perceive this time. My own theory is that this pandemic" is largely a product of our socially isolated but digitally connected world. We were already living in increasing isolation using our devices as proxies and avoiding real human interaction at all costs. If an identical outbreak manifested in 1990 people would barely have noticed. In 2120 it will be common knowledge that we were the first internet generation and therefore uniquely susceptible to mass panic and misinformation. They will of course overlook their own faults and blindly stumble into their own moment of collective stupidity.
I also wonder how this generation will perceive this time in a year. What excuses will the people make to justify their excesses? In 2021 no one will have been a coronavirus fear monger just like no one was a Loyalist in 1784 or a Confederate in 1866. It is amazing how so many people always find themselves on the sidelines of the winning team. Facebook has admitted to deleting posts related to quarantine protests. I hope that next year all of the sane rational people who were totally never spreading panic (wink) will be outraged.
Next time: Four Lessons From The 2020 Recession
