The End of the World
I hope I'm wrong but I sense we may be on the verge of mass coronavirus hysteria in America: last week both my gym and church closed their doors--how do I exercise body and soul now? The lines at Costco stretch for miles, hand sanitizer is worth more than gold, if you can find any. Schools are closing even though this bug seems mostly merciful with kids. [Though old myself, I prefer it target us rather than the young, unlike the Spanish Flu of 1918,which killed my great-uncle, 26, and great-aunt, 22.]
I'm not making light of this; it is a deadly disease, but there are so many things than can kill us, and we really seem at times to lack perspective. Flu every year kills upwards of 60,000 Americans; cars,another 40,000 or so [every time you drive your odds of being killed are 1 in 3,000]. And we kill ourselves, directly by tens of thousands and indirectly, by over-use of booze, drugs, food, untold millions more. A retired doctor friend of mine told me recently the 3rd leading cause of death in America after heart disease and cancer are medical mistakes--the estimates range from 200 to 600,000 p.a. [I know of 3 people who died that way.]
So why are we so afraid of this bug? I don't know. The media are stirring fear as much as they can: it is what they do now in America. But I think there's something more going on. We have become so dependent and complacent about our reliance on tech,science that we are easily thrown by the unexpected--unlike our ancestors who knew death was always nearby. Nature has always been dangerous: it can send a tiger to eat us or a bug like Ebola that kills at a 90% rate. But Mother Nature is not the only one we need to fear: human nature is even more lethal. Yes, the 1918 Flu killed over 50 million while WWI 'only' 10, but WWII killed over 50 million, and the communists in Russia, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, another 100+ million. And now our love affair with technology has given us the means to destroy ALL life above ground in less than an hour. Why don't we worry about that?
As I go deeper into my 70's I see our foolishness quite possibly ending all that we have created over 1,000's of years. A while ago I drove into a big city and was impressed by its wealth of huge buildings, broad streets. A part of me has trouble believing it all could be laid waste, but another part knows we have not tamed our own human nature anywhere to the extent we have 'mother nature'. A madman, a mistake , a machine could end it all in a human heartbeat.
Copyright © L. J. Carber | Year Posted 2020
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