How in the name of all that’s holy (if you go in for that sort of thing) did we become the people we now are? We’ve become so gullible, malleable. How does a people win a war when these are the qualities of the soldier?
The Fronts
In this war there are 5 basic fronts. There are the Social, Medical, Economic, Political and International. These can be broken down further but they will do for our purposes. And they are all heavily intertwined. Some more so than others.
The Social cannot be disentangled from the Medical. At the moment the Medical is at the mercy of the Political. And the Economic is being treated like a pariah. Almost every day you hear people disparage those of us concerned with the Economic front as being heartless monsters more concerned with “wealth over health”. Such a pithy phrase. Such a nonsensical sentiment. There is no REAL health without wealth. Or put more correctly, no sustained health without a strong, functioning economy. The most dangerous fronts in this war will turn out to be the Political and the International.
The Social Front: Social Engineering
Last night I called my granddaughter who live three states away. My son suggested I call beck because everyone was “social distancing” on the front porch. People had stopped by to see them. He didn’t say Jackie and Russ came to visit. He said “social distancing”.
In our present war, this new verb is the personal ammunition you’ve been issued to stand up and fight. The social engineering needed to protect ourselves and those in the same trenches, masks, 6 feet, gloves, sanitizer, etc., are your bullets. But the rounds are no good sitting in a cartridge box.
While practicing good hygiene is always key to avoiding sickness, sitting in your house 24/7 is not practicing good hygiene. It is hiding. It makes you the coward, curled up at the bottom of the trench, refusing to squeeze off a round, expecting your comrades to protect you while they risk injury and death.
Too harsh? Nah. Because most of you are not actually doing that. While collective, irrational fear, in many cases mandated from the governing class prevents you from going to work, what have you actually been doing? Many have been going to the store. (So much for containment. Your mask and gloves protect you a little, but the you carry whatever you were actually exposed to into your house! It’s on the outside of that warm, moist mask you were wearing!). And that’s fine. When you need food or TP you’ve got to go.
Think goddammit! If you can hygiene your way through a trip to the store, you can do the same at work! This slides toward the Economic and Medical fronts, but you see the point. What have we accomplished? Very little. We’ve retarded the spread of this virus temporarily. But it is out there waiting for us. And it will be when this self quarantine nonsense goes away.
Prediction
As I said in my last piece, you already had, do have or will have Covid in your system. Few will avoid it altogether. Some will get sick. Here is my prediction. Once we’ve managed to test a substantial number of people we will find that few who carry it will have gotten sick and far fewer than numbers tell us now will die from Covid. Further, we will inevitably find out that many who were counted among the fatalities from the virus will have been judged to have died from Covid-19 with decapitation or massive coronary listed as a complication. So actual fatalities, as a percentage of those infected, will drop much further.
But for the sake of argument let’s say that this virus is as fatal as early numbers suggest without knowing the real numbers. We are still hiding under our beds from something that must be faced. We will not destroy our society by facing it and living our lives albeit with some novel cautions. But we might by continuing to hide.
NEXT: The Medical Front
Are We at WAR? Then Develop Some COURAGE!
How in the name of all that’s holy (if you go in for that sort of thing) did we become the people we now are? We’ve become so gullible, malleable. How does a people win a war when these are the qualities of the soldier?
The Fronts
In this war there are 5 basic fronts. There are the Social, Medical, Economic, Political and International. These can be broken down further but they will do for our purposes. And they are all heavily intertwined. Some more so than others.
The Social cannot be disentangled from the Medical. At the moment the Medical is at the mercy of the Political. And the Economic is being treated like a pariah. Almost every day you hear people disparage those of us concerned with the Economic front as being heartless monsters more concerned with “wealth over health”. Such a pithy phrase. Such a nonsensical sentiment. There is no REAL health without wealth. Or put more correctly, no sustained health without a strong, functioning economy. The most dangerous fronts in this war will turn out to be the Political and the International.
The Social Front: Social Engineering
Last night I called my granddaughter who live three states away. My son suggested I call beck because everyone was “social distancing” on the front porch. People had stopped by to see them. He didn’t say Jackie and Russ came to visit. He said “social distancing”.
In our present war, this new verb is the personal ammunition you’ve been issued to stand up and fight. The social engineering needed to protect ourselves and those in the same trenches, masks, 6 feet, gloves, sanitizer, etc., are your bullets. But the rounds are no good sitting in a cartridge box.
While practicing good hygiene is always key to avoiding sickness, sitting in your house 24/7 is not practicing good hygiene. It is hiding. It makes you the coward, curled up at the bottom of the trench, refusing to squeeze off a round, expecting your comrades to protect you while they risk injury and death.
Too harsh? Nah. Because most of you are not actually doing that. While collective, irrational fear, in many cases mandated from the governing class prevents you from going to work, what have you actually been doing? Many have been going to the store. (So much for containment. Your mask and gloves protect you a little, but the you carry whatever you were actually exposed to into your house! It’s on the outside of that warm, moist mask you were wearing!). And that’s fine. When you need food or TP you’ve got to go.
Think goddammit! If you can hygiene your way through a trip to the store, you can do the same at work! This slides toward the Economic and Medical fronts, but you see the point. What have we accomplished? Very little. We’ve retarded the spread of this virus temporarily. But it is out there waiting for us. And it will be when this self quarantine nonsense goes away.
Prediction
As I said in my last piece, you already had, do have or will have Covid in your system. Few will avoid it altogether. Some will get sick. Here is my prediction. Once we’ve managed to test a substantial number of people we will find that few who carry it will have gotten sick and far fewer than numbers tell us now will die from Covid. Further, we will inevitably find out that many who were counted among the fatalities from the virus will have been judged to have died from Covid-19 with decapitation or massive coronary listed as a complication. So actual fatalities, as a percentage of those infected, will drop much further.
But for the sake of argument let’s say that this virus is as fatal as early numbers suggest without knowing the real numbers. We are still hiding under our beds from something that must be faced. We will not destroy our society by facing it and living our lives albeit with some novel cautions. But we might by continuing to hide.
NEXT: The Medical Front