Voicelessness and Emotional Survival > Voicelessness and Emotional Survival Message Board
Coronavirus
Twoapenny:
Exactly the same thing happened here, Skep - lockdowns, masks, distancing and so on are either seen as draconian and another step toward a police state or seen as a civic duty that all should adhere to without question or exception. Very all or nothing, and depending on which side of the fence you sit you're either a sheep or a psychopath. We took more precautions than we were told to because I felt, based on what I'd read, that the best thing for us was to just avoid catching it and not take a chance on how ill it may or may not make either one of us. But not earning money, seeing people, having physical contact and so on has done just as much damage as the virus itself, plus there have been many who died because they couldn't get treatments or surgery they needed for other things. I agree there still doesn't seem to be a clear consensus on all the different aspects so we'll just keep trying to avoid catching it, which for us we can do by staying home as much as possible. But my friend called me earlier; it's Mothering Sunday here and she met her daughter at her mum's grave and they had a big, and currently prohibited hug for the first time in a year while they both cried. My friend now feels guilty because she and her hubby are at risk and she's been very stringent about all the precautions but we're all only human and that hug was very necessary. I think we've all just got to keep muddling through as best we can and yes, as you say, this could flare up every winter just like flu does and could continue to cause problems so we're all going to have to find a way to keep plodding on, preferably without the media pointing big sticks at people and whipping up rows all the time xx
Hopalong:
--- Quote ---But not earning money, seeing people, having physical contact and so on has done just as much damage as the virus itself
--- End quote ---
I agree it's done a lot of emotional/psychological/mental health PLUS employment/security/care access/economy damage, and in some cases those forms of damage have led to death. Despair and loneliness can kill too.
Yet since more half a million have died of it directly here (and the toll's still climbing), and by all accounts it's a horrible, painful death by slow drowning, and it has burnt out a generation of health providers, first responders and more....I can't equalize all the forms of damage. Dead is as damaged as one can get and the same is true for those we carry it to (if one's among the 40% of asymptomatic carriers).
I believe that if we'd behaved like people unafraid to work together for the common good, we'd all have had masks on pronto if we'd been educated skillfully from the get-go, even though masking's an unfamiliar practice. All sorts of failure and lack of preparedness and dominant political manipulation contributed to the mess that's been made. As did our national hyper-independent cowboy character, which some confuse with freedom. Saying "no" can be wise and principled. So can saying "yes."
All that said, I have to remember that whether or not someone's attached to a different ideology than mine, my primary practice is (ideally) love. For me the mask expresses love of humanity plus belief in interdependence. And it has also protected me. But masks, no matter how diligent one is, do not provide perfect protection because gaps/leaks, etc. For that you'd need scuba gear, probably.
In the end I am so profoundly grateful for scientists and public servants at every level who've worked incredibly hard to try to save us from ourselves, as well as from the pandemic. The suspicion and disrespect aimed at some pretty selfless experts (and even bureaucrats) are for me, very sad to see.
America is, in comparison to Europe, a juvenile country. We've seldom shown it more, except for our long history of using violence to "solve" so many things that don't need force, but education, cooperation and compassion.
hugs
Hops
Twoapenny:
I agree, Hopsie, the sensible thing would have been to close the airports everywhere to stop it spreading like it did and for a lot of preventative steps to have been taken. Sadly, it comes under the same bracket as it being sensible not to allow businesses to destroy the environment, not to leave people living in the streets, not to deny people healthcare, create wars, sell weapons to countries and then complain that the people they're being used on seek refuge somewhere else and all the other mad, destructive practices that happen. I do think it will take longer to see the fall out from the damage caused by all the lockdowns, though - the impact on mental health likely won't make itself apparent immediately and will take longer to assess along with the the overall effects on health that low incomes, unemployment, homelessness and so on have, all of which it seems (here anyway) are only starting to show now as steps have been taken to prevent things like evictions at the moment. Once the gloves come off I think that's going to get a lot worse - plus we'll be seeing, I would assume, more huge cuts to public sector services and staff shortages as the government claw back the money that it's all cost and staff leave because they've been treated so badly (plus all the overseas staff who are already choosing to work elsewhere because of Brexit) and I do think long term we'll see more damage from the way it's been handled than we have from the virus directly. They spent so much time posturing and being 'manly' about it that, whatever they did, that genie was out of the bottle and no way forward was going to be anything other than a nightmare to deal with. I think a big part of the problem here has been the number of times they backtracked as well - they insisted for months that there was no reason to wear a mask and then mandated it. So many mixed messages. They've really made such a pigs ear of it. I am also very grateful for the science and all of the people who've worked through it and helped one another out. It's been a truly terrible situation for so many and I know I will be so happy once it really is behind us and things get back to some sort of normal xx
Hopalong:
That's what I call PERSPECTIVE.
Outstanding, eloquent and rational rant, CB! You have a way of seeing right through to the cognitive dissonance. This part was especially striking to me:
--- Quote ---In that disease, science said most people were safe, but people believed what they wanted to. Now, science is saying we are not safe, but people still believe what they want to.
--- End quote ---
The rapid devolution of reason and community is really shocking:
From post-9/11 adaptations:
--- Quote ---Everybody just takes their shoes off as they go through the security line.
--- End quote ---
To present chaos and crumbling:
--- Quote ---Might just turn out to be the downward spiral of a culture.
--- End quote ---
You are as clear and cogent as Heather Cox Richardson. I have SO appreciated you turning me on to her. Sad as the facts are and the perspective may be, it does ring clear.
hugs
Hops
Hopalong:
You are that perceptive too, Tupp:
--- Quote ---[about what's sensible]: Sadly, it comes under the same bracket as it being sensible not to allow businesses to destroy the environment, not to leave people living in the streets, not to deny people healthcare, create wars, sell weapons to countries and then complain that the people they're being used on seek refuge somewhere else and all the other mad, destructive practices
--- End quote ---
It's just SO clear that it was cultural/psychological, and not strategic:
--- Quote ---They spent so much time posturing and being 'manly' about it that, whatever they did, that genie was out of the bottle and no way forward was going to be anything other than a nightmare
--- End quote ---
I think that coarsening of character really is what's wrong. Older ideas and mores may have been conventional (and racist, sexist, colonialist, etc.) but in terms of community -- WWII really did show the courage and grit of ordinary people and they DID band together. Losing that sense of communal obligation and affinity (which I personally believe we lost to entertainment replacing education)...was a slow bleed and now we're waking up to how pale and weak we (Western culture) have become.
Sounds grim and there's hope anyway. But I'm going to have to start digging beyond the click bait for that. If only they'd report the quiet heroes as much as the palaver.
hugs
Hops
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