“Our top story for
the day: Two people have been diagnosed with Coronavirus in Zimbabwe. In other
news, a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania just suffered a meltdown, and two
million people are either dead, dying of radiation poisoning, or displaced from
their homes due to the fallout. Now, back to the latest on the virus.”
That’s where we’re heading, people. The CBC might as well
rename themselves to the Corona Broadcasting Corporation. And now, I just
learned that the Ontario government is now going to fine people $1,000 for not
following ‘social distancing’ guidelines. So, as of now, shaking hands with
someone is illegal. So is hanging out at the mall (if there’s one open). So,
apparently, is shopping, since it’s tough to stay two metres away from the
cashier at Wal-Mart if you want to pay for something.
How exactly is a society supposed to function without human
contact? Sure, there are the folks like myself who don’t make much of a habit
of social interaction anyway, but come on, people! This is getting ridiculous! And
most of us don’t want to spend that much time with our families in the first
place!
And businesses are going to get hit even harder, apparently.
Great; let’s just shut down the economy altogether, because that will really
solve the problem of Coronavirus. I work in tech support for a major internet
provider, and we’re not set up for work-at-home. How exactly is that going to
work, if the government shuts us down? We’re three days behind as it is on all the
customer requests; shut the building, and watch people’s freak-outs get even
bigger as the internet doesn’t work, and nobody’s around to fix it for them.
Now, I admit I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV. But
I’m not an idiot, and the levels of panic we’re seeing are just way, way over
the top now. People are upset that parents have the nerve to let their children
play outside now! How dare you give your child fresh air at the park? Give me a
break. You can’t find a roll of toilet paper in any store on the planet right
now. Grocery stores are completely screwed for the next few months, since there
isn’t enough stuff in the warehouses to restock every grocery store in North America.
But everyone is stocking up on stuff they’ll never use, because heaven forbid you
run out of pie filling and taco sauce.
It’s frustrating to see society breaking down like this. And
we’ve largely lost the ability to function without the massive technological
infrastructure that’s been created. So, what are we going to do? Because things
are changing in a big way; I doubt we’ll see the death rates that people are
hysterically repeating every time the news cycle starts over, but society isn’t
going to be the same. We’ve coasted for too long on a wave of ever-increasing
debt spending and financial unsustainability, and we’re now finding out just how
vulnerable we really are.
Buckle up, people; it’s going to get worse before it gets
better, and the people in charge are finding new ways to show how unsuited they
are to leading us in this situation. In the meantime, however, why not take your mind off the social chaos and read a book? I have a few recommendations below.
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