How do you stay healthy in normal times? It’s different for everybody. For me, good relationships, nature, a clean diet, fun, exercise for body and brain, swimming, creative endeavors and dark chocolate do the trick. Now that we are deep in the twilight zone, it is more important than ever to stay healthy and keep our immune system humming along. How? I reckon we maintain whatever our normal is to the greatest degree possible. Immunity is complex but balance and happiness certainly play a role.
How do we maintain normal now? It’s difficult. And in our town it was made especially difficult when the public spaces were closed, everything but the dog park that is. Access to sand, water and parks are why we are here. It’s our normal. Jumping in the ocean makes it a good day. And good days are integral to balance, happiness and immunity.
The town is empty, tourists are gone and road blocks are up. Why are the public spaces still closed? Social distancing is a non-issue so spare me the rote answer that it’s for our safety. Why does the City place a higher priority on the poop and play habits of dogs over the wellbeing of the citizens? As I photographed the police protecting the beach from people like me, I pondered these questions. Very puzzling. Then I was struck by an uncomfortable thought. Closing the public spaces drags people way out of normal, upping the fear factor and potentially destabilizing folks. Does that make them easier to control and manipulate? Me thinks it does. Then the follow up question arrived. Are the officious among us smart enough to realize their actions result in more pliable citizens? Hmmm. Some are. How much do you want to bet there is a memo circulating?
The motivation to keep everything closed could be far simpler. They are overwhelmed, worried about liability or just plain lazy. It is a question of priorities. Priority one is the health and wellbeing of the citizens. Priority two is reduce the spread of the virus. If the powers that be placed equal weight on these priorities, the public spaces would be reopened. To be extra safe, people could wear masks. If the City worries that social distance criminals will emerge, have the police shift their duties to protecting us rather than the beach. And news flash, the images of NYC opened everyone’s eyes to the danger, not you. We all get it and are quite capable of personal responsibility.
Corona will result in many changes in our society. One is the selection of leaders who understand that their top priority is the wellbeing of the citizens and, equally important, leaders who understand what constitutes wellbeing…
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It appears one pier was opened for swimming. If that can be done, the rest can be done too.
I sent two letters to our Mayor on this subject. The second remains unanswered.
I feel like I am in a Batman episode. Has the Joker teamed up with Lex Luther in a diabolical plot to take over the world? Or is he happily on the sidelines waiting for the opportune moment to swoop in? Let’s run a story line and see.
The Joker watched the 2009 pandemic unfold and had a great idea. Why not convert his toxin to a highly contagious virus, cripple Gotham City and seize control? First he had to lay the groundwork. Make people more susceptible to media messaging and dumb them down. Divide and conquer using identity politics. Encourage folks to feel victimized so personal responsibility becomes some dusty, old fashioned principal. Who needs to be responsible for their decisions? The government promises tons of free stuff no matter what. Ramp up litigation so government and business cater to the smallest minority. Bombard the people with one doomsday scenario after another. Make people doubt their own sanity when prepubescent kids question their gender and adults identify as mermaids. And very important, support politicians who are more interested in virtue signaling than virtue. The Joker is good at what he does. The stage was set.
Then the Joker spreads his deadly virus. Yeehaaa! What a perfect weapon. It spreads fast and silently because most people don’t even know they have it. But when it kills it does so spectacularly. “Bring out your dead” images are super helpful to the Joker. He wants to engage emotions and disengage brains. How do you do that? Fear. Plus he designed the virus to kill old people and others with serious health conditions. He doesn’t want those old farts around with their heart disease and diabetes. And the human isolation that results is like a cherry on top. How can people revolt when they avoid each other, dare I say, like the plague? One of the Joker’s favorite outcomes is separating people from their cherished institutions. What a fab way to crush unity.
Batman, Batgirl and Robin are on it. They want to do whatever is necessary to save lives and because they don’t know anything decided to create some models so they could guess. These models produced astronomical death and hospitalization numbers that stoked intense fear and panic throughout Gotham City. A mad rush ensued to develop testing, add hospital beds and restore depleted supplies. Batman wisely shuts down the economy for two weeks via social distancing. The goal was to flatten the curve so hospitals could handle the patient load, save more lives and bring testing and treatments online. They also renamed corona virus Covid-19.
The Joker’s minions raise a hue and cry to keep Gotham shuttered with extreme social distancing. The Joker’s no dummy. He knows if he hamstrings the most essential component of the economic structure, it will weaken and fail. That element of course is the people of Gotham City. Meanwhile Batgirl and Robin fret over their models and with very little actual data they convince Batman to close the country for an additional month. The cascade of economic hardship starts in earnest. So does the dying. The Joker is positively giddy with delight. This is better than he ever dreamed.
Meanwhile the virtue signaling governors make the Joker proud with a shutdown contest. Who could shutdown faster, longer and with more draconian measures? Me, I am the best governor since I shut everything down till May. No its me, only me, since I shut down till mid-June even though I have zero data to support my decision. No you useless twerp, it’s me because I arrested a paddle boarder by himself in the ocean. You all are second rate has beens, I am the best guardian of human life since I told the stores to stop carrying nonessential items. And what about the governors who have very few corona cases and are reticent to destroy the citizens’ economic and mental health for a scourge that may not materialize? The pressure on them is extraordinary.
Not one of the virtue signalers held a public debate on the pros and cons of their actions, questioned the models or asked the people their opinion. Instead they assume the people are too stupid to have a voice. The people cower and question nothing.
In the midst of the shutdown challenge, the Joker adds his best touch yet. He starts the “money vs lives” campaign. Genius. The media bends to his will and begins a relentless drumbeat. This ploy effectively marginalizes all who wonder if there is another way, a middle ground that saves lives and the economy. Those who question the extreme measures are viewed as heartless, cruel subhumans who will sacrifice grandma to save the evildoers on Wall St. It encourages neighbors to assume a righteous mantle and rat out their neighbors. The phrase silences debate in favor of a narrow emotional reaction that excludes a reasonable perspective on death. Damn the Joker is good.
Batman recognizes he has a big problem on his hands as unemployment numbers skyrocket and businesses, small and large, falter. How did they not foresee this tsunami of economic destruction, ruined lives and depleted 401ks? Entire industries are wounded, perhaps mortally. In response Batman proposes the biggest government bailout in Gotham’s history. It weakens Gotham further. The Joker is a happy man.
So where are we now? We have learned the models were wrong. Batman, Batgirl and Robin say the models weren’t wrong, social distancing caused the dramatic decline. But we aren’t that dumb. We know the models assumed social distancing and they are just plain wrong. We know that they crippled the economy based on faulty data. And we are infinitely sad that 18,777 fellow citizens have died from corona, 7,887 of those in NY. We must avoid a repeat of this in other high density areas.
So what happens next? What does the Joker do now? When will he make his move? Will he give it up when he realizes how many guns we have? What will Batman do? And Batgirl and Robin? Has Batman enlisted more help? Alas we will be forced to watch the story unfold…
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I don’t believe that corona is manmade but with what we have seen in the last couple months anything is possible.
I am only half joking when I say this all feels like a Batman movie. We have voluntarily weakened our country to an unprecedented degree. Did any faction help this destruction along? I don’t know but once again, anything is possible. The world is not comprised of people singing kumbaya. Bad actors exist who thrive on opportunities. If there were ever a case of “where there is confusion, there is opportunity”, this is it. It is extreme naivety to assume otherwise.
