streaming consciousness…

Goodbye Corona, Hello Global Warming, Dark Age Optional…

I got my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine against the Covid-19 virus today, so I guess that now is as good a time as any to put the finishing touches on this pandemic. Yes, I know that it’s not over and could go on at least another year or more, but for me, this is a defining point, and so I think I hear the fat lady singing. And I say that with a twinge of sadness, because for me it’s been a good year, not in material acquisitions, but in spiritual gain. Because the times of greatest stress and suffering often coincide with the greatest spiritual gains. This is as obvious in Jesus’s eschatological emergence as the Roman Empire entered its down days, as it was in the Buddha’s times, with the emergence of India’s and China’s rise as the two dominant centers of world population, a position that they maintain to this day.

But enough about me. Let’s talk about Covid-19, aka Coronavirus. Barring a few changes here and there, I think we can speak about it in past tense, notwithstanding daily rates (in the West, of course) equal or greater than those of last summer, which at the time were considered outrageously high. The USA, of course, is Number One in total cases and deaths, and that won’t change. Total cases have now passed 30 Million and total deaths have passed 555 K, so that is a clear indication of where we’ll end up—bad, more than four times what I imagined a year ago, before I realized how pathetic the US response would be, not just by Donald Trump, but by Joe Blow from Peoria. Europe is not much better. So that’s the dominant theme of this screed, and if that offends you, then I’m sorry, but it’s true.

Of the Top 20 countries (in total Covid cases), only three are non-Euro/American (including South America) and those are India, Indonesia, and South Africa, the latter two far down that list of countries that have around a million and a half total cases or more. India is #3 in total cases now, but not bad at all in terms of Total Cases per Million, that and Total Deaths per Million the only numbers that really count, given population differences. India is far better than average on those two counts. Brazil is now #2 in cases and deaths, of course, given their almost total inability to deal with their situation, bad enough to rival DJ Trump, and with more than 300M deaths, far more than all other countries besides the US. Mexico is #3 in deaths, even though far down the list at #13 in cases. That means that they aren’t testing enough, of course, they possibly the worst on that count.

The rest of the Top 21 are filled with the major European and South American countries, all with more than a million total cases. The other Euro/American countries are farther down the list only because of their lesser populations. Andorra, in fact, has the highest case per million rate in the entire world, closely followed by Montenegro, Czechia, Luxembourg, and Slovenia, all higher than the USA, btw. This is significant, in that East Europe had low Covid rates for a long time while the more Western countries were literally wallowing in it. Africa still rates well, notwithstanding the fact that blacks in the US have done poorly—obesity, perhaps? These are questions that need to be answered. I still suspect that Africans have better genetic propensity to deal with the virus, but that is my instinct only, no proof. But by far the big winner is Asia, east Asia, hands down. And I’m not talking about just China, either, though if that was their goal in supposedly releasing the virus, then it was brilliant.

But no, all of east Asia dealt well with Covid, and the method is simple. At the first outbreak you lock down, and only loosen up when the virus is contained, strictly. At the first sign of an outbreak, you do that again, ‘rinse and repeat,’ as they say. Why the freedom-worshipping degenerate West is incapable of that, I don’t know, but I hope that we figure it out, so that we can survive to live another day, and mix democracy with some discipline and common sense. For that is the task to which we must put ourselves, if we are to successfully deal with Global Warming, which I honestly doubt that we are able to deal with as a civilization and culture best described as Western. Whether the Chinese, other Asian, Islamic, or African cultures will do any better is an open question. Unfortunately the world is so intertwined now that if one goes down, the others are likely to go down with it, China being the only possible exception.

There is a possibility that might follow a vertical level of distinction, though, as opposed to the horizontal distinctions that typically divide countries. And that is that a minority of like-minded people from each country might find common cause in forming shadow governments at remote locations all connected by Internet, so that the fruits of civilization can continue and be documented while the greedy capitalists all destroy themselves in their rush to riches. Higher altitudes and far northern locations would be perfect for this, of course, given the rising temps, which the capitalists will attempt to mitigate with fake clouds and phony air conditioners, while we happy hippies (for lack of a better term) continue our lives in comparative bliss at remote locations, all connected by Indra’s net. And yes, Buddhist thought would be a good addition to any wild plan: first do no harm, and then help your friend.

A smaller version of this already occurred at least once in the western Dark Ages, in remote Ireland, Istanbul, and the sands of Arabia, to whom we give thanks for the fact that we even know that our forbears ever had a classic civilization which rocked the world until it rocked the boat. Without them all was lost. But next time may be different due to the intertwining of world society, hence the need for vertical stratification. You’d think we’d learn our lesson about the dangers of our freedom disease, but it seems we haven’t. We lost big in this pandemic, and it remains to be seen if we’ll do better in the next. Of course the right amount of freedom is the greatest thing in the world. No Westerner wants to live in a creepy control state like so-called Communist China, which is not Communist at all but merely autocratic, if not totalitarian. Thus the resounding call of the Buddhist Middle Path, in which opposites get reconciled in the dialectic of social survival. We are a young species and a brilliant one. The challenge is to use that brilliance with foresight and perseverance.

Coronavirus Update (Live): 126,033,749 Cases and 2,766,299 Deaths from COVID-19 Virus Pandemic – Worldometer (worldometers.info)