Where We Are: a personal perspective

Cherry

By HarryC

Fri, 07 Jan 2022
  • 659 reads
6 comments
 

Hello folks,

I'm honestly not inviting group-think. I just would be interested to know what people feel about what I have to say.

This whole Covid crisis has had an enormous impact on me. At the beginning (as a diagnosed Aspie with co-morbid ADHD and mental health issues), it sent me into a spiral of panic attacks, anxiety and depression. For a couple of weeks, I couldn't function. But then I managed to settle down as my managers at work (in social care) were happy to accommodate me and make reasonable adjustments for me that have enabled me to continue working, doing the job I love as a carer for young adults with learning and physical disabilities. This work has enabled me to carry on, and to get through. Without it, I might well have been dead by now. Notwithstanding that, I still had a burn-out last summer, and was away from work for 6 weeks. I didn't think I would return. But I did.

One other thing that has kept me going is the thought that this might be humanity's 'stop and think' moment: that it might be just the thing that was needed to make people realise that the 'normal' that most now want to return to is what actually caused the crisis in the first place. Animal exploitation, human exploitation, environmental exploitation, unrestrained and destructive globalism. I hoped that this might lead to some kind of paradigm shift. That it might make people realise that we need to change the way we do things - run our societies and our economies.

Sadly, no. All people seem to want is a return to what was. I think a major part of the problem is that Covid took away too much all at once - so people can be forgiven for wanting it all back. If you take away all of a child's toys at once, that child isn't going to want them returned piecemeal, over a long course of time. It's going to want them all back. And NOW!

So, there we have it. As huge and disruptive a thing as the Covid pandemic has been, it hasn't been enough (at least, so far) to force the changes that, in my opinion, mankind needs to make in order to safeguard the future of our planet, and the generations to come. If anything, all it's been is a bit of a wake-up call. But a wake-up call that's been put on 'doze' - until the next crisis makes the alarm go off again.

Where do we go from here? Onwards... and, I'm afraid, downwards as far as I'm concerned.

As cautious as I've been over the last two years - always wearing a mask in public, staying indoors as much as possible and only really going out to work or to shop, always maintaining social distancing rules - I nonetheless tested 'positive' yesterday, so am having to self-isolate. But in many other respects, I think that's always been the case for me. I've never been a part of the general throng. And perhaps that's why I feel so despondent now. Because, as it seems to me, no one has bothered to look at this for what it really is.

And all they now want is to go back.

One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result each time.

And that's precisely what seems to be happening.

Here's a quote that sums a lot of it up for me:

'For the past two years, my insides have felt like they're eating themselves. All the people I respected won't talk to me any more, except through lawyers. People want an authority to tell them how to value things, but they choose this authority not based on facts or results. They choose it because it seems authoritative and familiar. And I'm not, and never have been, familiar.'

Dr Michael J. Burry - MD, Scion Capital, 2008 - best known for being amongst the first investors to foresee the subprime mortgage crisis that occurred between 2007 and 2010, leading to the global financial meltdown.

It strikes me he could also have been talking about the pandemic. In that respect - as in his original respect - I can't help but agree.

 

Image: my own

Certificate PG
Non-fiction
Opinion

Comments

Submitted by Ray Schaufeld on

I'm sorry to hear that you tested positive. Well done for bothering with your lateral flows (I do and I have been lucky to only have negative tests but not everyone does the tests. I have a good friend whose excuse is that he had his tonsils out as a kid(!) but he has had all his jabs and wears masks and follows social distancing guidelines)

Boris Johnson IMO opinion is so dangerous that he ought to be removed from office today on the grounds that he is is a public health risk. Why the HELL is he scrapping pre-entry Covid testing for the UK. Anyone can now bring in any variants old or new from anywhere in the world.

You will get through this

You are not alone

All the best, Rach

Submitted by celticman on

I'm with you on that one. My stepson comes up with a vaiety of reasons why he won't get the jab, yet concedes he might if he had to go on a golfing holiday. He works with kids incidentally. And like you at he begining of the pandemic worried about affecting others. I guess I've covered most of this in my post. 

https://www.abctales.com/blog/celticman/dan-carlin-2019-end-always-near-...

 

 

Submitted by donignacio on

A big part of me is thinking/hoping that we're not just watching the world go down in flames right now. I would have to say though I suppose you could go back at any point in history and find people thinking very much the same things. I am really hoping though you're right and this will be the start of a big shift in the way we think. I know I've evolved in my politics/world views over the last 20 years, and they continue to. Thanks for your thoughtful piece! Michael

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

Harry I'm so sorry to hear you've tested positive - it must be a big worry. All fingers crossed for you that you remain symptom free. Maybe try writing while you isolate? take you mind off it?

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Very sorry you have it, are you feeling really grotty? Hope it goes away quickly, easily!

About the Summer, I felt the same as you about the lockdown. The sky was blue with no aeroplane scars. Could walk in the middle of roads. Dogs got more walks than ever before, even if their human was on the phone. Everyone around was a local, everyone smiled in passing (not masking outdoors then)

The aeroplane thing is what gets me crossest - This would be the perfect time to be working on a model to be sustainable with only essential flying, as they know there has to be less flying to help with climate change in the future, but instead keep complaining that any kind of safety measure to prevent incoming variants is bad for business.

I guess it is like that game where you have to remove a piece without the whole thing coming down? I was thinking about the highstreet shops in our little town, really only food shops and tool shop and post office and foodbank have actually needed things? But people will have earned a living somewhere making the other things. People earn a living selling them. Without a money cushion for transition no one is going to vote for change as will involve hardship. and printing money as for furlough etc causes inflation. Has to be wealth redistribution but at the moment that seems to be seen as disincentivising enrepreneurs. Until fighting climate change is considered a literal fight, as COVID seem to be, there will be no money for it

Being a Luddite, I think it all went wrong in the Industrial revolution when fewer people were needed to make things, so un needed things could be made, and because not made carefully by people, these things were shoddier, therefore needed replacing. However am saying this on my computer :0)

I do hope you get better soon, and if you are well enough, perhaps you will be able to use this time for writing? Take care of yourself! Daisy will be liking to have you all day :0)

 

Submitted by David Kirtley on

I like the issues you raise, and the observations you make in your piece. I think there is a lot of truth in what you say. We are basically just going straight back to the society we had before the pandemic. It obviously is not easy to change our society or the way our world is! Small steps can be taken even if the big ones are not perhaps.