We love repetition, don’t we. Yes, yes the children cry, same old, same old, please. Don’t change the story, the sitcom nutty neighbour, the catch phrase, the couch phrase. Repeat after me the mantra of the everyday that makes things normal. We will try to go back again and be rescued by familiar ennui, the comfort; but not to put too fine a point on it, our lattes are curdled and in this generation shopping will remain a licensed activity that some irrupting virus will stay. The worst of it is that the ‘preppers’ are smirking and offering fifty day food packs in sealed containers delivered to your door. There are sects of the flagellants who so desire normality that they are prepared to accept what Defoe called very large bills of mortality. They see the angel of death in the sky and there will be no avoiding his sword till there is general repentance. When the vaccine arrives they won’t take it either and feel themselves justified to lurk in the shadow of herd immunity. They have evidence that there is a conspiracy to rob freeborn men of all nations of the god given right to do as they like. Will we call that ‘jumping the virus’ at one bound?
2 comments:
Seems like a naturally occurring experiment for exploring the Dunning-Kruger effect. Controlling for age and comorbidities, do those who expose themselves to contagion overestimate their ability to defeat the virus in mortal combat?
I think it's a question of 'flash philosophy' which I noted recently
https://ombhurbhuva.blogspot.com/2020/02/flash-philosophy.html
Some of them are not stupid just that they have a really brilliant idea which renders them permanently blind to countervailing arguments.
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