Posted on 05/06/2020 5:46:25 AM PDT by Kaslin
Blessing In Disguise. It’s Evil Social distancing is not something to celebrate. It is, according to the experts, what we must do right now. But it’s a necessary evil, not a societal good.
As the U.S. government’s “30 days to slow the spread” order expires, with no indication that President Trump plans to extend it, it’s time to start asking whether it was worth it. Have the extreme social distancing and economic measures to which we have subjected ourselves accomplished the desired result? Was any of it even necessary to begin with?
It’s a question we’ll be debating for years. Depending on where you live, social distancing is going to continue, at some level, for the foreseeable future. It will be a very long time before it’s far enough in the rear view to assess its effect. Even then, there will be no way to know for sure what would have happened had we not taken the approach we did.
In the meantime, there is and will be a strong desire to find some good in our national ordeal, as the thought that we might have done all this for nothing is too depressing to contemplate. Surely it was worth it! Surely we didn’t tank our economy, undermine public health, close our houses of worship, give up basic freedoms, and turn into a nation of latchkey citizens for no good reason! It’s a horrifying thought.
It’s so horrifying, in fact, that many Americans are understandably looking for the good in all this, apart from the intended result. The examples flood social media: Look at how much richer our lives are and what better people we’ve become!
We’ve spent more time with our families, gotten to know our neighbors better, made our pets deliriously happy by staying home with them 24/7, cooked more from scratch, taken up new and rewarding hobbies, Marie Kondo’d every aspect of our existence, planted a vegetable garden, knocked a few titles off our to-read list, and learned better personal hygiene! We’re tanned, rested and ready (well, maybe not tanned), and when this pandemic is over, we’re going to be kinder, gentler people.
I understand the impulse. To a degree, I share it. As a person of faith, I believe in a God that can take the worst human-made mess and bring something good out of it. I believe that He can do that even with this pandemic.
At the same time, something within me bristles at the effort to put lipstick on this pig. It is grating to hear the coronavirus touted as a blessing in disguise: the thing we needed to make the world a better place. I’ve even seen it inexplicably argued that social distancing can make us less lonely. Alone together! That’s Newspeak if I’ve ever heard it.
Yes, adversity can teach us valuable lessons. Tragedy can help us remember what’s most important in life. But for every positive story to be found in this pandemic, there’s a another one showing Americans to be increasingly anxious, depressed, and isolated, more likely to tattle on each other, more dependent on the government, more addicted to our screens, and as politically polarized than ever. So let’s dismiss the notion that this situation can somehow make the world a better place.
Social distancing is not something to celebrate. It is, according to the experts, what we must do right now. But it’s a necessary evil, not a societal good.
Like many, I’ve spent the last couple of months dutifully trying to find the silver lining in this cloud, going down the road not taken, fronting only the essential facts (not to mention retail establishments) of life, and gathering more rosebuds than I know what to do with. But my shoes are muddy, I’m tired and grumpy, and after two months without allergy shots, I can’t step foot outside, much less smell the flowers.
Worst of all, I haven’t been to church, the way church is supposed to be, in two months. As much as I’d like to believe otherwise, I’m not becoming a better person. I’m struggling, desperately, to hold it all together.
When this shutdown began, I was one of those who joked about how I had trained for this all my life. I am an extreme introvert and committed homebody. I have a harmonious family life. I have been able to continue working full time from home. I’m in relatively good health. I don’t have aged parents to worry about because both my husband’s and my parents are already gone. I am one of the lucky ones.
If social distancing is this hard for me, I can only imagine how hard it is for those who have actually lost loved ones, jobs, and businesses; who are battling serious health problems, mental illness and addiction; who can’t visit their people in hospitals or care centers; who are “sheltering” in abusive situations; or who are trying to survive this ordeal all alone.
That’s why I’m going to keep reminding myself, every day, that everything about the current situation is wrong, bad, and harmful. It’s not a party, a vacation, or a needed opportunity for hope and change. It’s a prison sentence, and the sooner we all get sprung, the better.
It began with Drew not being able to sleep, then he began buying all kinds of weird stuff, a DJ system? Then he started treating her with alot of disrepect, not usual at all. Then he quit his job and found another. After a month she called his family to ask what is happening to Drew?
They broke the news to her, Drew never did, and told her he is Bi-polar and is manic right now and do not know how long it will take for him to come down from his manic state. with Lithium he could, but he is feeling at the top of his world right now and won't listen to anyone, let alone take a drug to bring him down from his manic state.
It is so serious, she kicked him out and the relationship is over, all caused by the lock down, due to his routine being upended. it could end in suicide, he has tried it before.
Hey doofus. I said somewhat irrelevant.
I don’t care how many people catch a cold. I do care about how many turn that cold into pneumonia and end up in the hospital.
Given Andrew Jackson’s incredible perseverance in the face of pain and suffering, I think you should change your screen name
I am shocked that we give up our rights so easily.
How many will be returned?
Notice the LIBERAL mantra today: “THE NEW NORMAL!!” Yes, change the world with the new normal. Everyone fell for it. The NEW NORMAL. Yup, we fell for it. The one worlder’s and Red Chinese have one round one. Is the world going to continue to cow under and cave in or fight back? New Normal my skinny white @$$!!! There is NOTHING NORMAL about this crap!! Nothing.
Plus, for anyone who pays attention to such things, it exposed many if not all the petty little autocrats and would be dictators who rule among us at the state and local levels...
I think that, as long as there is no significant change in the disease’s morbidity rate, no change in how we generally treat it.
Then basically it seems to this observer, to not really matter a great deal.
If at some point some particular change in the way people are showing signs differently from the way they have been.
Or likewise, maybe each and every patient is starting some day, treated with Hydroxychloroquine, using the same treatment protocols as Dr. Zelenko, when his new patients are shown in two weeks to be responding remarkably.
Then you might expect a change in the patients symptoms. And watch for that.
Otherwise I personally wouldn’t really expect a huge difference in the behavior of the disease, short term.
Just saying. But I’m not a doctor, so don’t really know.
:)
‘I think it’s created more contempt for government.’
I don’t see that; I’ve seen just the opposite...I’ve seen passivity and acceptance of being ordered around that makes herds of sheep seem rebellious...
It may be exactly the wrong thing to do if we want herd immunity to develop.
Because it’s true, Danny.
‘but reasonable social distancing is appropriate.’
let me ask you this; yesterday I was at a supermarket, (outside because I refuse to wear a mask, but I also refuse to possibly infect people, so outside I stay)...I was watching from a distance as the store deployed employees to limit the amount of people in the store, keeping them in the cold windy weather breathing into sodden masks...’we are at capacity’ the employee shouted, ‘and as one leaves, one of you can go in...’ in turn, I shouted to him ‘what happens if one person over ‘capacity’ goes in...does everybody drop dead...?” and of course I got the stink eye from him and several of the sheeple...
my question(s) to you...is the above a ‘reasonable’ usage of the social distancing principle, considering that at no time in the long history of this market has the number of people in the store ever mattered until this ‘crisis’; that the entrance of another person over an artificial and capricious ‘capacity’ has created an existential threat to the other shoppers and employees, and that we are being manipulated into believing that questioning these practices is akin to harboring murder...?
actually, I’ll rephrase; I have only one question, after all; do you believe the utter stupidity implicit in such actions as I’ve described above constitutes reasonable and constructive behavior...?
“Until it’s safe” means, “Never.” - Dennis PragerWell that's clearly an extreme and idiotic view. Why would you believe that?
Because life is fatal, and “safe” isn’t 100% safe.
You can wait until Gretchen Whitmer says it’s safe if you want.
Maybe you’ll live that long . . .
When Dennis Prager made that assertion, he mentioned that he goes to Israel and (IIRC) conducts tours. People tell him that they will go when it’s safe - and some of them have died waiting for that to happen.
‘You are a clueless idiot.’
I see your first impulse is to insult people; and then expect them to take you seriously...
“There is nothing moral or constitutional or conservative about spreading contagion. Not a goddamned thing and this preaching of suicide from the right has to come to an utter halt right now or the lockdown totalitarian running dogs of the CHICOMS will win.”
Preaching of suicide? Preaching of suicide?
Forgive me, are you mad?
If every infection led to death, than rejecting government lock down would be suicide. The death rate is less that one percent of the population. Most people that get this either don’t even know they had it or had minor cold like symptoms.
More importantly, it is a TEMPORARY "necessary evil". WHY do so many on this forum fail to understand that very simple "T-word"?? NONE of these measures is intended to be permanent.
"There is a reasonable middle. Social distancing isn't lockdown.
Ah, someone else who "gets it". Amen!
Though apparently, thee and me are seriously in the minority around here.
No rights have been given up. This is TEMPORARY. Why is that simple idea so difficult for some people to understand??
TEMPORARY.
When was the last time we saw anything temporary from the government. Haven’t seen any sunset attached. Was there?
Strongly agree! PT did the right thing, Dem Govs are too tyranical.
One major educational benefit. Students are no longer exposed to every lesson that is introduced with “don’t tell your parents about this...”
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