Fear the walking dead..?

America, and presumably most of the industrialized world is locked down because of the risk of covid-19. It's been just about 40 days since most states imposed restrictions. Much global commerce has come to a halt and as you might predict, as resources begin to become more limited, people are beginning to turn on one another like rats in a cage or fledglings in a nest. Human society is a product of the natural world and nature is nothing if not Darwinian. 

Yonder come the Zombies

It's natural for people to panic in the face of losing their jobs, unpaid rent, empty store shelves. I would have thought it would take a bit longer than five weeks, but it seems that's about the limit of the patience of a large portion of America's citizens. The greatest generation this is not. People are beginning to protest government's limitations on commercial and personal activities, though the protests seem to be more politically opportunistic than genuine. Let's just say there are a lot of red hats in the crowds.

Covid-19 stats for the DC area 04/25/2020

Many of us, a majority according to the polls, support the limitations imposed primarily by governors across the country (the federal government stages daily dog and pony shows, but doesn't seem to actually have a national public health policy of any consequence - other than maybe injecting people with Lysol or somehow irradiating them with UV rays). But clearly, concern for the health and well being of our fellow citizens is not the highest priority for all of us...

I have tried over the years to keep an open mind and respect the views of people with whom I disagree, but despite my best efforts it is getting substantially more difficult. I understand there's a significant part of our population who feel increasingly left out of our nation's natural evolution, or nature's evolution for that matter. I sympathize. Who wouldn't want to be a white man in the immediate post-war era, even though it was always a myth? Who wouldn't want to live in some Archie Bunker America that certainly never existed wherein everybody was happy and prosperous and free?

Oh, that's what's wrong with you - you're a Nazi...

What the hell's wrong with you, White Man?

There's always been a nostalgia for a mythical past and I get that. I suppose our founders' choice to base our entire nation's government and official architecture on an idyllic vision of ancient Athens fits that description. But something there is about the conservative mind that seems to make it particularly prone to the kind of self-delusion and reality-free fantasy of some Dick and Jane world that if it existed, only did so on the backs of minorities and women who, trust me, were not enjoying it nearly so much.

Once you've abandoned facts as the basis of history, I guess it's only natural to create a fictional now in which Nancy Pelosi conspires with Chinese scientists working in a North Carolina lab to unleash a virus that may be deadly (or harmless) in order to destroy capitalism and enslave the American people. But at least the disease can be cured by shining sunlight inside our bodies and/or injecting them with disinfectant.

Look, if to maintain your worldview you have to disbelieve observable fact, distrust all authority and internalize all manner of laughable conspiracy theories, there's something wrong with your world view. Democracy is always a battle of ideas. It should be hard fought to force us to grapple with a range of issues and possible solutions. But it shouldn't be a battle over whether or not objective truth is real.   

The next normal

US deaths reported per day

I don't even remember how long it's been since our routine was disrupted. Three weeks? A month? Something like that. For a lot of people are being seriously impacted by this pandemic, and not only the poor souls who've actually contracted the virus. Millions suddenly find themselves out of work, and the longer the "lockdown" goes on, the more will find themselves falling on hard times. It's possible this will make the Great Depression pale in comparison, though it's too soon to tell.

Having said that...

A funny thing happened on the way to the end of the world. Forced to work at home rather than getting in cars, buses, trains and airplanes to get to work, millions of people have significantly reduced the pollution they typically produce. And we're using less electricity. Weird, isn't it? Our economy has to crash in order to improve our environment. Economic productivity, at least as we currently practice it, is clearly correlated to the degradation of the very air we breath. I guess that explains why it's so damn hard for our leaders to agree to set and attain targets for reducing the damage we do to the planet.

There's something in this experience that could teach us something about other ways to work - yes, most meetings are unnecessary or can be done perfectly well via teleconference. To play - how about a family bike ride through the neighborhood instead a drive to some commercial fun park? And even to eat - no commercially produced yeast? Learn how to make your own sourdough. Maybe we can re-learn some of what were basic skills for our grandparents and embrace the simple pleasures that make life feel worthwhile and don't require the endless acquisition and consumption and waste of ever greater quantities of pointless consumer products.

DC, MD and VA covid-19 statistics for April 15, 2020

When the pandemic subsides, what will be changed? Will we have learned anything? Will we have reassessed the way we live, learned to appreciate what we have, made adjustments to live more sane, appreciative, sustainable lives? Will we have seen that baking bread or tending the garden with our families or along is more fulfilling than going to meetings, writing reports and shopping online? Or will we just go back to business as usual; get back into our cars and drive to the office, fly to the conference, take prosperity and our health for granted? Will we just continue down the rabbit hole of digitally mediated consumerism and impersonal social detachment? Don't fool yourself; we were already practicing "social distancing" through our mobile devices and "social" media. Will any of us take this opportunity to embrace healthier, happier lifestyles and a better way of living?

And lest you presume I'm some sort of self-righteous scold lecturing from my holier than though keyboard, I'll point out that nobody reads this blog, so this message is really just to myself. I am processing these lessons, asking myself these questions and wondering if I can embrace this opportunity. I realize that I view this all from the perspective of privilege. I am a white collar knowledge worker who only needs a laptop and a cell phone to earn a salary higher than the income of the average American family of four.

I know that many people are struggling and just want to get back to work and school and have things return to "normal". But this is a pivotal moment in our societal evolution, and I very much hope we can make the most, or at least something valuable come of it. And I hope those of us who are passing through this from a position of privilege consider what it's like for those who are struggling and think about how we can forge a more equitable culture that recognizes the contributions of all our citizens and values rich, diverse community over profit and personal gain. 

The choice is ours. We've been handed a stark reminder that most of our daily activities, at least in the Western world are frivolous or at best optional. Deprived of physical human contact and freedom of movement, in some cases having lost people to this virus, we've been reminded of what's really important. Or should have been anyway. So what are we going to do about it?

The new normal

A visit from Dr. Schnabel, Plague Doctor

Anxious is the new normal. Suddenly everything is different. Things you are accustomed to doing without thought now take a lot of concentration. Things you took for granted no longer are. What makes us strong now makes us weak and what makes us weak now makes us weaker. Some things you just don’t do anymore. Go to the office. Go out to dinner. Run down to the store. Everyone is paralyzed, waiting – waiting for something to NOT happen. If we are lucky.

Right before everything was cancelled, the Managing Partner and I had tickets for a modern interpretation of Waiting for Godot at one of the local theaters. Sorry we missed it. Though it may have been somewhat redundant given that we all now find ourselves characters in a similar absurdist drama. Waiting for Corona, perhaps? As Beckett forced us to ask the existential questions, so does our current drama.

What is important? What do we believe? What is even real? Is there actually an invisible virus infecting and killing tens of thousands of people around the globe? Can I actually get it by being within six feet of someone else who’s infected? How are we to understand such a thing? And if it is true, how does it change things? Is anything different? Is everything different? Does it matter? And what are people doing with all the goddamn toilet paper?!

Of course our collective reality had already been undermined by our current leadership, with just shy of half our population living in a separate universe that has an entirely separate set of alternative facts. Our equilibrium was already off kilter, undermined by a constant stream of calumny and hubris. But nothing is new there. Just one more brick in the [border] wall of lies.

I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would live through such an amazing time in human history. Since I was born well into the second half of the last century, some of the most amazing things have happened. Big things. Historic things. The moon landing. The computer revolution. The genetic revolution. Amazing things. Glorious things. But also horrific things. 9/11. Forever war in the Middle East. Climate change. Global pandemic. I mean, what the actual fuck? What’s next, complete economic collapse? Societal breakdown? Station Eleven?!!

The current situation with the covid-19 pandemic is unfortunately not fiction as far as I can tell. At least it feels real. The anxiety is real. You can see it in the empty store shelves. In the empty streets and closed businesses. In the volatility of the stock market, the 2 trillion dollar bailout package just passed into law and in the 3.3 million Americans who just filed for unemployment. All news seems to be a continual stream of discussion about the corona-virus.

You can see fear in the faces of everyone you encounter - even from six feet away. There's a combination of amazed disbelief and low level dread. The expression seems to be kind of ubiquitous at this moment. Though it should be noted that this observation comes from a necessarily narrow sample, since I am engaging in some serious "social distancing" just at the moment. Oh, right, you can see it in the new phrases that have suddenly appeared in our vocabulary. No doubt German speakers already have one of their great concatenated terms for it. Unglaubenfürchtenangst or something.

So here we are in a state of suspended animation. Pacing through the house, looking out the windows, popping out for a quick bike ride in the park - vaguely worried some over-eager roadie will launch a viral snot rocket at me - and generally just waiting for this thing to be over. We muddle through the work-from-home days glad for the distraction. But it's hard to concentrate. Hard to care about meetings and reports and websites when for all we know our world will never be the same again. Or maybe it will. Maybe this will pass and we'll go right back where we started. A little older, a little poorer and not one bit wiser. Too early to tell.