Living in Interesting Times

LIVING IN INTERESTING TIMES

Chinese curse:  May you live during interesting times.

The most “interesting” times in America in the 20^th century as defined by the number of books written and read include the Great Depression; World Wars I & II; and the 1960’s internal conflict ignited by the civil rights movement and the Vietnam war.  

Now we have the coronavirus, a cursed yet “interesting” time that will be written about and read in the years to come.    But like the average Midwesterner who finds New York a nice place to visit but he would not like to live there, COVID-19 will be a great place to visit for historical review, but who wants to live there?

Conundrums pique interests, but this one presents an unpalatable Hobson’s choice:  Our economic well-being—particularly those hardest hit by the shutdown who have been thrown out of work—versus protecting our health and lives, particularly the most vulnerable, which includes the elderly and infirm. 

 The ironic oft proves interesting in its bizarre twists such as when the price of gas drops precipitously but we have nowhere to go, or when  gun toting, mask-wearing demonstrators who fear nothing but fear itself demand that government ease restrictions so they can return to work.

What could be more intriguing than watching the transition from de jure to de facto?  Legally, many of us are allowed to return to work, to restaurants, to parks and beaches albeit with restrictions, yet many self-impose their own de facto restrictions and remain home.  The fearless or the heedless brave the unknown as the timid or the sensible wait on the sidelines to see if the Punxsutawney Phils who exit their holes will see shadows of death

The media and its pundits—left and right—remain cemented in their usual political demarcations.  Has the stay at home order adequately dampened the corona forest fire, or will the breezy days of commerce fuel the flames hotter?   Like television Nero’s, they fiddle tunes of either gloom and doom or laissez-faire, depending on their respective audience segment. 

Everyone possesses an opinion, but no one really knows except those with taro cards who trade at Wall Street—one day selling, the next day buying—trading stocks more on whim than logic.  Transfixed, the deer herd stares at the roller coaster carrying our loosely held life savings.

Not surprisingly, greenhouse gasses diminish as airline flights shrink to one-third the norm and consumers burn a tank of gas per month instead of one per week.  Coincidentally or not, Americans presently experience a refreshingly cooler and more traditional springtime weather as opposed to the inordinate number of early 90-degree days of heat in the merry old month of May.

 Some experts opine that many of the world’s problems—climate change, global pandemics, immigration and wars—sprout from an over-populated earth, and that the coronavirus serves notice that immutable checks and balances ultimately govern world population—either by war, famine or pestilence, or a combination thereof.

A thought-provoking and disturbing question presents itself as the global census approaches eight billion people:  Have our numbers reached the point when Atlas, who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders, shakes lose some of the load that he can no longer bear?

paul lore