I had been working on a post about the rising population and how that changed our vocabulary and perspective. It was a grand sweeping idea, that I am probably unqualified to actually write. However, just before I finished the world changed again. So again I will try to put my thoughts into words. I am not a social engineer, I do not have a PHD in… well anything. But I am living my best life and have a perspective that I am interested in hearing your opinions.
Extreme situations bring out a part of a person that isn’t always seen. I wrote and delete several paragraphs of examples and exceptions, but I don’t think you need that. We, currently all have a new understanding about who we and who our loved ones become while being held hostage by a disease.
I think, not only has this situation made it obvious who we are as individuals, but also as a collective. When we are living all day in front of each other with no where to go and little distraction we can clearly see. Our own thoughts about ourselves are our own struggles. Some people are faced with a new horror, while others have reconnected with an old friend in themselves. None of this is by choice, few people wanted (not this but some event leading to introspection).
As a society at large I think there have been few times in history where this was more apropos. Right now we are living in a time where if you say you like vanilla then you get accused of hating chocolate. There is not only little to no discourse, but also a lack of introspection or reflection, only pure reaction.
The one good thing I hope to get out of all of this is the time that everyone has to think. And to reflect on who we are, not only as the person trapped in this apartment with me, but the people we are all in this nation with. Am I the one to write the thing that’s going to solve it all? Am I the one who’s going to pen the thought that leads to some grand new understanding? I hope so, but I’d be happy if just a few people read this and think about it.
This new mirror held up to our society has shown me the reality that I think I always knew. In a society where the Almighty Dollar reigns supreme, more things are for sale then we may think. There is a cost to the things we do and enjoy. Yes there is a price tag, but that is only part of the story. As Americans we don’t even really see it, however the dollars and cents of our thinking is now clear. When they say X number of people will die before this goes back to normal we say, I hope I don’t know too many of the X, but ok. And that’s it! Our cold calculations about money have slowly seeped into our very way of thinking. When we want to buy something we think, that will cost Z hours of overtime, or Y numbers of paycheck. When we are talking about the uncomfortability this new purchase will place on our wallet, it isn’t a bad way to think about it. When we are talking about human lives it is abhorrent.
I have always loved America. But it is the true spirt in which America was built that I love, not what it has become. The forward thinking of “anyone can be great”. However I don’t think that is what America is any more. These days seem to be more akin to, if you’re great you can afford a ventilator and therefore deserve to live, and if you can’t afford one, well you must not be great. It’s crazy to me that the richest nation in the world would let it’s people die, because in some way it has been determined that they are not worth saving. We have the technology, we have the resources. The only reason everyone in this country doesn’t have the tools and aid they need is because we have deemed it more important to maintain our ‘way of life’ than to help.
When people say allowing more people to collect unemployment will incentivize not working, what they are saying is ‘I would rather screw over the portion of people that actually need it to not allow lazy people to get it’. When you look at it in that way, what percentage do you think is ‘lazy’? Do you think 90% of unemployment is really just lazy? That doesn’t sound right. I am sure there are studies proving one way or the other, but 90% of a group being there purely out of laziness doesn’t sound right. Just for argument sake, lets say 50/50. So You’re saying you would rather let 50% of the people that really need help not get it just to stop the other 50%?
But now here’s the important part. As you were reading the last part struggling with my inaccurate numbers of percentage. This is my entire point! We, as Americans are fine with discussing what percentage of ‘lazy’ people make it acceptable to not help the rest. Cause if it’s 10% lazy and 90% really needy people that’s not right. But we are discussing how many people we are willing to let starve to death in order to not allow laziness. Let that sink in for a minute. That is the real truth of American thinking, there is a percentage of lazy people that deem it ‘ok’ for us to let them ALL starve to death, cause, you know “we’re great”.
I understand these hard conversations need to be had. I understand there are massive implications to these vast decisions. However I don’t think the average American is really taking into consideration that ‘our way of life’, directly correlates to the number of people we are ‘ok’ with dying.
In the end I have no real answers, just a hope that we can use this time of seeing ourselves in a new light and having the time to reflect leads to new open and HONEST conversations.
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always be introspective… and honest.
always let your conscious be your guide.