Follows
are my thoughts about our current COVID-19 pandemic:
These
are strange times, made only stranger by the way people are reacting. Looking at the news, we would expect to see
hordes of zombies roving the streets, breaking down windows and infecting those
uninfected with their virulent breath.
Instead, we find the outdoors mostly empty, save for those poor
unfortunate few who must brave the (where I live) rain to attend work while an
unshakeable pall falls over the our populace wherever we go.
Rhetoric
has become such a large part of our lives now.
We have a twenty-four hour feed plugged straight into our TVs, our
phones, our eyes, and our brains that keeps us not only complacent but well-fed
on half-truths and full-lies meant to placate us or, in some cases, move us to
particular actions. Fear has long
motivated people and often seems a better motivator than anything else, and
right now we’re being fed fear while stores go bare of groceries. Worse yet, we are buying the fear whole-sale
and consuming it greedily, glutting ourselves on it, growing fat on it, and strangling
ourselves with it.
COVID-19
is dangerous. It is a pandemic, and it
has affected, in total, less than 1% of our world population. Significantly less. Almost laughably less. Which in no way diminishes the death it has
caused, nor does it affect our lives any less, either. It is real, and we should take steps to
mitigate its effect on us because, if we aren’t vigilant, it could easily
spread to consuming that 1% or more before we could find a viable cure or response. This is not a call to leave your home and
attend a gathering, nor is it a call to cough and then touch every microphone
as a joke afterward, but it is a call to think rationally at a time where
irrationality seems so much easier.
When
speaking with my Noodle (my wife), she told me that she doesn’t think that the
world will ever change back. Which seems
crazy to me, but I understand what she is saying. We haven’t ever faced something like this—our
generation, not humanity, humanity has faced worse and come out of it—and while
I don’t entirely agree with her assessment, I do think that people need to
start thinking about what the world will be like after.
The
problem is that everyone is lying to us.
It is all a manipulation. One
side wants us to hate the Chinese and blame the Chinese because it covers up
their own ineptitude and inaction in the face of a coming epidemic for which
they had plenty warning. Lackadaisical
in their response, they point the finger at an entire country, an entire
people, rather than accept responsibility for their own failings and working to
make it better.
The
other side, however, wants to keep you afraid.
They want to keep you afraid because it will mobilize you into action,
and they want to keep you afraid because it leads you away from their political
enemies, and they want to keep you afraid because sensationalism sells and they
want their retweets and their views and their ad-revenue. It is all rhetoric, however, whatever their
intentions might be.
Rhetoric
is pleasing language. Specifically
speaking, it is the art or skill of persuasive speech. Practiced in ancient Greece, the art itself
has been carried on and refined into our modern era. A debate has long been had as to the
potential evil of rhetoric as a tool for persuading people into wrong things,
i.e. convincingly lying to a population to lead turn them against what is
right; conversely, some believe that rhetoric can be used to persuade otherwise
obstinate people into righteous action, i.e. having a skilled speaker explain a
good thing rather than the uncharismatic doctor/scientist/whomever.
The
problem is that everyone is trying to sell you something. Even this is a sales
pitch, and I make no illusions of that.
At this point, the tension is too great for me, and I cannot handle a
world that has gone this far off its axis.
I am suffering intense compassion fatigue, and I haven’t even started my
social isolation yet; today is my last day of work for three weeks, and I
cannot stand being home in the evenings.
I need people to stop being doom and gloom and to recognize that we will
recover, and I need it bad, so I am trying to convince you of that.
More
than that, though, I am trying to convince you to be rational. Shop like you normally would and stop hording
things because someone else needs that toilet paper more than you need it. Stop looking up how many ventilators your
local hospital has because, if you isolate, it shouldn’t be a problem, and even
if it is a problem, it’s probably not one that you yourself can solve. Stop worrying about when things will go back
to normal, because no one knows and it doesn’t really matter, it will in time,
and stop blaming China because just over 3,000 people have died there already
and it’s damn petty to sitting around pointing fingers like we’re trying to
figure out who farted. We all did it
wrong (yes, even you who was stocking-piling for the apocalypse).
P.S. I started this while I was at work waiting for children to be dropped off and stopped writing when one of my coworkers arrived and interrupted my flow. Looking back on it, I was trying to process my own feelings about everything that is happening, particularly the compassion fatigue I seem to be experiencing. Sometimes, writing helps me process and heal, and other times it only causes me to cycle harder. This one was healing.
P.P.S. While I stand by much of what I typed here, I must also make note of how incoherent it is. I wish I could say that I am someone who gets it right in the first draft, but I am no Kate Chopin, and editing and revision are where my writing becomes my writing. All of this to say, this is an approximation of my true feelings on the matter--as close as I could get at the time. I may go back and revise it later, once I have more perspective, but it will do for now.
14.
Saturday
-Current
Mood: Fried.
-Good: I
changed my game schedule to something I think will be a bit more manageable.
-Bad: My
anxiety and anger got the best of me today.
-Current
Goal: Exercise 0%
Finished
Tenchi Muyo! OVA
15.
Sunday
-Current
Mood: Accomplished.
-Good:
Played Trivial Pursuit: Live! With the Noodle, had a BLT for supper, and
just had a generally productive day.
-Bad: I am
exceptionally bloated right now and look a bit like a house.
-Current
Goal: Exercise 2%
16.
Monday
-Current
Mood:
17.
Tuesday
18.
Wednesday
19.
Thursday
20.
Friday
-Current
Mood: Tired.
-Good:
Noodle’s mood seems to have improved some.
-Bad: I am
not following the schedule I set out for myself.
-Current
Goal: Exercise: 2%
Stories
Post
Indigo: Abraham
Post
Emerald Crisis—Final Fantasy VII—Disc One
The
Knights of Sheba
Editing 61% M
Stargazers Part 1 Outline
84%
The
Unnamed Story: Four Thrones Revision 9%
Spooky
House: Year One
Rough 0%
Yggdrasil Concept
Red
Verse Vigil: Gang Wars Rough 0%
Echo Concept
New
Rangers: Mighty Morphin’ Part 1 Rough 0%
Jacob
is Trapped in the Closet S1 Outline 2%
Books
Sun:
Writer’s Guide 2020 pg. 15
Mon:
One-Punch Man Vol. 2, Punch 20.1
Tue:
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Part 1—Phantom Blood Vol. 2, Chapter 23—Ch. 27
Wed:
My Hero Academia Vol. 2, Chapter 17: “Game Over”
Thu:
Yu-Gi-Oh! Vol. 1, Duel 7: “The Face of Truth”
Fri:
We are What We Pretend to be by Kurt Vonnegut
Sat:
One Piece Ch. 466
Shows
Weekend:
Critical Role/Talks Machina
-Funimation:
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie 45mins
-Owned:
Gundam Wing 15—27
-Netflix:
Voltron: Legendary Defender 3.7
-Online:
Witch Hunter Robin 17
-Disney+:
Disney Shorts 1920s
Weekend:
Critical Role/Talks Machina
Games
1. Console:
Earthbound
2. New:
Bioshock
3. JRPG:
Tales of Xillia 2
4. Series:
Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix HD—Twilight Town/Mysterious Tower
5. Replay:
Persona 5: The Royal*when released**Final Fantasy VII: Remaster if delayed
6. Multiple:
Dragon Age: Origins Duran Aeducan Replay
