Well I guess the Chinese curse: “May you live in
interesting times” is coming true. It’s such a polite way of saying: “Fuck
you!” isn’t it? These sure are times to hold our interest. More like interest
due, though—interest on our debts: for all the profligate ways of our
households, our communities, our governments, our societies. Mam Gaia is tired
of our crap shoot and is calling in some markers. We’ll pay up—this time a few hundred thousand of us may succumb to Covy-19 (such a young virus, barely out
of his teens!) when this is all over and done with. Our public health systems
are still robust enough, at least in the developed world, to tamp down most of
it this time. What the future holds as far as pandemics are concerned is
anyone’s guess. Will we cope better next time? Don’t hold your breath (or maybe
you’d better!)
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| "I'm so lonely I could kiss a shark!" |
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| "Oh boy! My social Isolation is over!" |
And while we wait in our bat caves for the coronavirus to pass
us by, economies are crashing. Shops, stores, businesses of all sorts have
shuttered their doors, though thankfully, the Beer Store is open. (Beer is an
essential food source, after all.) But how many of them will be able to restart
with so much trade and commerce lost? How will they be able to recoup their
losses? Will workers be able to go back to work? Will there even be jobs for
them after this? How will the average Joe be able to get out from under a
mountain of new debt? In Canada, at least in Ontario, at least in the city
where I live, things are QUIET. Except for the occasional roar of a motorcycle
racing down the strip-drag in front of my house, there’s little traffic; mall
parking lots (except for the Walmart, of course) are by most standards nearly
empty. There’s not much pedestrian traffic either. Small family groups are out,
exercising their children to exhaustion, so they can get a little peace at
home. Dog walkers. Few bench sitters. Some people walking to and from
grocery stores or pharmacies or convenience stores. I saw one guy—I’m not
kidding—who wore what looked like a wet suit or some sort of full-body spandex,
and a close-fitting hood and goggles walking on the sidewalk. Yikes! Now I
don’t feel so bad wearing last year’s Halloween Darth Vader outfit. (At least I
get a lot of room in the checkout line.) It’s quiet now, but in another month
even wet-suit guy will be ready to bust out of hiding. What then?
And the situation in the United States looks pretty
dicey. What with their federal government having its head so far up its ass
these days. And Trump of course—there’s
a leader that inspires me, and makes me feel safe and secure! I’m not sure how
much more the Already Rich And Powerful (ARAP) in Canada will get now that
the government is spending like a drunken sailor on steroids, but in the US
there are a lot of complaints that the stimulus package (two trillion dollars!) has massive corporate
give-aways and ARAP party favours. Their medical system is under
considerable strain and rent is coming due for millions of Americans. How many
missed meals will it take until the lead starts flying down there, I wonder?
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| Hygienic Fist-Bump Machine |
That would be
a worst-case scenario, of course, and things will probably limp along to
some sort of inconclusive and unsatisfactory conclusion, until the next black swan comes floating by.
Same up here, of course, same everywhere. Maybe more cards will shake loose
in the house of cards we’ve made for ourselves, maybe more falls away than we reckoned. We’ll
see how the next weeks and months shake out.
Well, time to head
out to buy some groceries. May the force be with you!
More later,
Jake.
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