April
11, 2020
Today’s
idea- The Great Pause – a term used in a circulating essay titled “Prepare for
the Ultimate Gaslighting” It’s an apt phase for what we’ve been living this
past month or so, with no clear endpoint in sight. And as the author, Julio
Gambuto, points out, there will be a time when we must decide, design and
devise how we reopen the economy/society.
How will getting back to normal look?
Is it something we just slide back into like riding a bike, balancing
the checkbook? I look at the calendar, as I reflect on this question, and I
notice we are getting closer to Mother’s Day, that 66-day mark. Only four weeks away from making our
adjustments and adaptations to life in the Great Pause into indelible habits
and new lifeways. I wonder how the Jews,
who sequestered themselves in secret tiny rooms in the 1940’s until it felt
safe to come out into the big world again, melded their invisibility skills
with the celebratory raucousness of the post war culture. This is not new. Were my grandparents who survived the Spanish
Flu Pandemic and the Great Depression as newly arrived Sicilian immigrants ever
able to settle into the sanctified consumer culture that was promoted in the
1950’s? A dog that knows what it is to
be on the brink of starvation for half her life will always steal and scavenge
food, no matter how regular her meals come now. How will we be shaped by this season of
sequester and reflection? Especially we who have been indulged by our families
with every comfort and security they could muster, and by a government that
prides itself on personal liberty, and an
ethnic and socio economic lineage that has assumed privilege, we grow so easily indignant at the mere notion
that governments and economies change sometimes turn toward totalitarianism or
decline. We just don’t want to believe
it could happen to us. More crazy conspiracy
thinking. So, what if our leadership and the corporate behemoths launch
campaigns to rally and convince the American populace that the good old days
are the best way forward from the Great Pause, will we be compliant? I like to think that they’d need to start adding amnesiacs to our drinking
water and fog memories about what got better when we slowed things down? Gambuto writes, “Get ready, my friends. What
is about to be unleashed on American society will be the greatest campaign ever
created to get you to feel normal again.
It will come from brands, it will come from government, it will even
come from each other, and it will come from the left and the right…an all out
blitz to make you believe you never saw what you saw. The air wasn’t really cleaner, those images
were fake. The hospitals weren’t really
a war zone; those stories were hyperbole.”
Will this massive gaslighting crusade that our modern Paul Revere shouts
to the roof tops about with his essay racing across the social media
countryside, be here by May? Before Mother’s Day? I’ll keep my eyes open but more importantly, I
need to find ways to talks with others about how a new normal might be rolled
out too.
Today’s
image – There is a lot to think about in regard to our national elections in
November. With a pernicious viral infection still unabated and no vaccination available,
we are faced with deciding how to vote without pushing into motion another health
crisis. What is the most reliable and
secure replacement for polling stations with digital ballet boxes where we
check in with our polling attendants face to face? Well, that depends on which party one
supports, I think. If online voting is
fraught with the perils of hackers and unfriendly government bots, mail in ballots
have certainly proven themselves to be viable, and they are a system that is
already in place in many precincts. So,
what the problem? Republicans know that
when more people vote, Democrats win. Thus,
their advantage comes with creating as many hurdles for voting as they can
devise. Given this assumption, I imagine that if the Democratic Party simply
focused on voter registration and fully facilitated “get out to vote and mail
in your ballots” drives, we could witness true democratic process without a lot
of campaign blather. The candidates are
well known by now, the people have decided what they need and want. It’s a golden moment for democracy that no
amount of campaign dollars should be able to sway one direction or another. I think it is a case of “pushing a river” and
the will of the people flows strong this year.
Today’s
observation – I got a call from an insurance adjuster who wanted to set up a
time to look at the damage on my car. It’s
true, the golf ball size hailstones, from last week’s storm, left dozens of
dimples in my car’s roof and hood. I did
start to do an online claim with USAA insurance, but I did not hit the submit
button because I thought, “Maybe I want to get an estimate first and besides
there’s a pandemic going on.” Never mind, apparently in cyber land, the mere suggestion
of starting the process committed me to taking a number and falling into line.
On my hike the other day, a car rental company called, I thought out of the
blue, to make arrangement for me to pick up a car while mine was in the
shop. I told them I’d get back with them,
shaking my head as I hung up the phone. Apparently, the wheels of restoration already
had me in their cogs. It would seem that
hammering out dents from hail damage is essential business. The adjuster told me he was up from Texas, contracted
to be part of an insurance catastrophic event team. An army of adjusters deployed to the area,
working long hours and doing their part for the economy. Why fight the current? I thought, as I made an appointment for first
thing Monday morning. Once again,
calamity makes hay out of hailstorms for a beleaguered economy. I’ll do my part since we’re at war.
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