Pausing for a Plague.
Just a ‘pause’ because this too shall come to an end. It was never a question of a virus wiping out a species entirely. We are a kind of ‘cockroachy’ species. History claims so. One way or another, humans have contributed to, and survived these kind of plagues for centuries. We as a species survive better than individuals.
Our own timeline, short as it is, has thrown up a litany of plagues. We have been diseased from time to time. Effectively reducing our population periodically. Nothing wondrous this time after all. What is surprising is that we haven’t learned shit from from previous ones too.
The problem is the potency of this plague and the resultant deaths it will accomplish. It remains to be seen whether we as a species come out of it with stark lessons learned and our own consumption practices rewired. After all everything boils down to human consumption on Earth.
Let’s mull about the ‘pause’ a bit. Because I have rankling that we might not have this opportunity in the future or at least not in this scale of events. Our ancestors never had a moment for lessons. When the time came they just had time to hit the road and haul ass quitting cities and populations before the demon catches up with them. Invisible, swift and deadly. (This current one checks all the categories of all the previous ones and more.)
I was scrounging the web for similarities. For revelations. And the themes are uncanny with this one too. Overcrowding had fed the disease well. And globalisation has given this a ‘pan’ proportion.Most instances of pandemics has the ‘no time to bury the dead’ situation.
With mass migrations and death of poor labourers, we can safely assume that the labor policy might get some tweaking. This might throw up some significant technological advancements. One which incorporates social distancing in the near future. Plagues have always changed life dominant at the time. We can expect a change of guard this time around too.
Even riots have been witnessed with the Russian plague of 1770.
This virus has stopped us in our tracks. Factories closed. Flights stalled. Stock markets blipping away ignored. Roads deserted. Bank accounts emptied. Cards maxed out. Hospitals filled. Fighting for our lives. Our existence in jeopardy. Our loved ones vulnerable. Families rediscovered. We have been reduced to doubtful subsistence, checking the news for the umpteenth time for the flash news of a vaccine. Serial worriers, as we are, this situation has been a dynamite to our overloaded mental faculties.
But then this time out has been actually overdue as nature was long throwing a list of diseases at us for sometime now. We have dodged or defeated a number of them. This is just a level up from H1N1.
We have never been clear of the danger posed by viruses or bacterias or our own financial greed. You tell me if we are a hundred percent sure that we would not get fucked up by another greedy corporation or plain human idiocy. In no time we would be in the middle of a nuclear war. Stupidity is universal. American or Chinese or Indian doesn’t matter.
And we still are neck deep in the climate endgame. Why the hell would we be surprised by a virus come to claim its share. The real shock should be that we took Starbucks and MacDonalds for sure when our own reality is just a bat or rat away.
I know. Doomsday prophet, you think. Most of those who know me opine as much about me. But it so happens, that a majority of which I think out loud has a good probability of coming true. I am not someone special. It’s just that I compulsively read the news. And the signs are not lurking, they are headlining blatantly.
I am also confident that this virus will subside with time but not before teaching some very good moral lessons to humans. Death gives the survivors time to think. Those who survive must not waste this opportunity. After all this lesson is precious.
