Anyone who really knows me knows that I am a pretty moderate person. I tend to be rational and logical in my thoughts and reactions. I avoid emotional decisions and think about outcomes. Tanya (and this isn’t about her) is more prone to jump in with both feet. This is true to the extent that I have inadvertently coined the second most used phrase on the KU campus, “Tanya Half.” Seriously, even the Dean says it.
But I digress, what’s been eating at me for the past few days or weeks is just how stupid people are. That was a little harsh, but really, I’m kind of bummed about the critical thinking skills of otherwise intelligent people. People who manage not to starve, come in out of the rain, pour piss out of a boot fail at simple risk analysis. This is not new. From Pascal’s wager through H.L. Mencken to Kurt Vonnegut, many before have observed that people aren’t very good at making decisions for the benefit of all (and by subtraction themselves). Climate change is the big looming existential disaster looming.
Of course, in the shorter term, Coronavirus is the one that has my attention. Is it a big deal? Maybe. To best answer that question, ask yourself how much you care about your loved ones, or society. Does anyone close to you have a compromised immune system? Or, are they a cancer patient, a senior citizen? If you can answer ‘no’ to all these, them you can say, “Fuck You Society, I’m Living for me.”
I have had two different doctors and scads of other people point out that Coronavirus isn’t even the worst communicable disease out there. There are far more cases of influenza and deaths from influenza in any given year than what we’ve seen from Coronavirus. First, CAN WE ONLY TRY AND SOLVE ONE PROBLEM AT A TIME???? What kind of imbeciles are you? Second, the same measures that an individual takes to combat Coronavirus are also effective in stopping the spread of influenza. Let me repeat and bold that for emphasis. The same measures that an individual takes to combat Coronavirus are also effective in stopping the spread of influenza. I have posted/commented/said numerous times over the past few weeks something to the effect of “can’t we all just agree that stopping the spread of communicable diseases is a good thing.” No one has agreed with me. I would like to think that’s because people think it’s so obvious that there’s no reason to agree. Evidence leads me to believe that people just don’t agree.
Most Americans do not object to washing their hands (doesn’t mean they all do it), but go a step beyond that to say, covering your face (something that has been commonplace in Asia for years) and Americans react as if they’re being asked to turn in their guns (another irrational Americanism). Part of this is because of sketchy advice given by the CDC and WHO, both of which acknowledge that covering one’s face is effective at preventing passing the disease to someone else. There’s seems to be a disconnect between giving the disease and receiving the disease. If you stop either you have stopped transmission. For example, a friend and self-proclaimed germaphobe, doesn’t cover her face. The same friend was grossed out by someone sneezing into a microphone prior to handing it to her. Obviously, had his face been covered this would not have been a problem. If you can’t draw this line, I don’t know how to help you.
We should at least realize that not stopping the spread of communicable diseases is what leads to things like “the Black Plague”, “the Spanish Flu”, SARS”, you know the epidemics with names. Psst, the reason they have names is because they started with a few cases, then a few more, then exponential growth. Surprisingly, none of these were a big deal when they started.
I could say a lot more, but Nero is warming up the violin and I’m getting hungry. So, no more shouting in the abyss for tonight.