Perils

 I am beginning to think that maybe we really are approaching some kind of cataclysm, like a cliff over which we are all driving—think Thelma and Louise.  Why?

Well, first we have this Pandemic thingie. Normally, a thing like COVID would be treated as a blow to humanity, but one that we would fight using science, defeat, like polio, or small pox, and then move on.  But now this awful disease has turned into a Political War, with one side trying unsuccessfully to use science to encourage/force people to adopt the cure, while another side uses conspiracy theories and false claims to freedom and liberty to reject the cures. Why false? Well, by agreeing to live in a civilized democracy, we all agree to live by rules of law. Such rules are adopted so as to prevent one person from harming other persons by reckless actions.  We have never agreed that, by living in the American system of democratic governance, everyone is free to act in any way they choose, regardless of the consequences.  Quite the contrary.  We agree to be restrained to protect others.  We agree to abide by auto speed limits, and to use a variety of driving habits so as to reduce traffic hazards. We agree to adopt many rules of personal behavior to protect others. While we allow people (perhaps foolishly) to own firearms, we also agree that we will use such firearms in responsible ways, so that innocents do not become injured or worse by irresponsible gun actions.

Yet, despite the abundance of protective laws and regulations, a group of Americans has decided that public health protective measures do not apply to them.  They opt for “Freedom”, or perhaps “Liberty” instead of common sense science-based measures intended to reduce the threat of this pandemic spreading to others.  Apparently, their reluctance is based on rejection of science, with no science base on their side.  I assume, because such diseases as COVID 19, are silent, and never announce their presence, that they are assumed to be missing whenever one of the anti-vaxxers enters the room. The virus apparently would simply never dare to presume on their presence, and thus they will always remain safe. The fact that they might still transmit the virus to others is apparently irrelevant to their deliberations.  Or, more simply, they do not care whether they transmit this deadly virus to others. THEY DO NOT CARE.  I see little difference to perhaps driving through crowded streets at 80-90 miles per hour, with no regard to other traffic or humans in the streets—NO DIFFERENCE.

It is bizarre that, more than 18 months after we began producing and distributing an apparently safe and effective vaccine, we are still in the 70 percent range of people who have been treated.  I can only assume that, now that the FDA has released the vaccine for distribution to children, we will see the same lack of compliance on the part of parents. They will assume their children are also immune. That some, perhaps many of their children will suffer the same fate as adults is apparently beyond their ken. Yet, somehow the actual statistics—FACTS- escape their attention. To date, we have nearly 46 million cases, and 745,000 deaths. These data are either disbelieved, or more likely just ignored.  Think of Smallpox. Consulting Wikipedia, we find the following:

“During the 20th century, it is estimated that smallpox was responsible for 300–500 million deaths. In the early 1950s an estimated 50 million cases of smallpox occurred in the world each year. As recently as 1967, the World Health Organization estimated that 15 million people contracted the disease and that two million died in that year. After successful vaccination campaigns throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the WHO certified the global eradication of smallpox in December 1979. Smallpox is one of two infectious diseases to have been eradicated, the other being rinderpest, which was declared eradicated in 2011.”

And then, remember polio? That was such fun growing up in the 1930s-1950s. Again, from Wiki:

“The history of polio (poliomyelitis) infections began during prehistory. Although major polio epidemics were unknown before the 20th century, the disease has caused paralysis and death for much of human history. Over millennia, polio survived quietly as an endemic pathogen until the 1900s when major epidemics began to occur in Europe. Soon after, widespread epidemics appeared in the United States. By 1910, frequent epidemics became regular events throughout the developed world primarily in cities during the summer months. At its peak in the 1940s and 1950s, polio would paralyze or kill over half a million people worldwide every year.

The fear and the collective response to these epidemics would give rise to extraordinary public reaction and mobilization spurring the development of new methods to prevent and treat the disease and revolutionizing medical philanthropy. Although the development of two polio vaccines has eliminated wild poliomyelitis in all but two countries (Afghanistan and Pakistan),^[3][4] the legacy of poliomyelitis remains in the development of modern rehabilitation therapy and in the rise of disability rights movements worldwide.”

Ahhh, yeah, remember those iron lungs? Such fun weren’t they?

And so, apparently we Americans have learned nothing from the history of diseases. The immortals of our world, narcissists all, continue to ignore even common-sense rules of behavior. And I remain in awe of how we reached this position of sheer stupidity in America.

And then we have American politics, which now begins to resemble politics in places and times such as the 1930s Germany.  Exactly how we moved from World War II to a presence in which we seem to be supporting the equivalent of the wrong side in that conflict is entirely unclear to me.  Remember please that Donald Trump arose within a family in which daddy was likely a Nazi supporter. So he comes by his racism, misogyny, corruption and all around air of “I am superior to all other mortal beings” honestly. But exactly what happened to the rest of the Republican Party is unfathomable.  Apparently, all of the leadership of the Republican Party comes from the fringe of that party, that part of the GOP that is essentially anti-Democratic/autocratic. None of them seems to believe in the rules of democracy, as we have defined them over the past two hundred years. Instead, they seem to be heading towards a future America led by an autocrat, with a small group of leaders beneath the autocrat. One might define such a system as a pseudo-monarchy. Note that such systems morph over time from semi-democratic to completely autocratic. Remember, Hitler was actually elected by the people of Germany, as was Mussolini, as was Vlad Putin.  Note it may well be the case that more Americans now no longer want a democratic system precisely because it is changeable and produces uncertain political leaders.  It may also be the case that many Americans have been polarized by social media and far right pseudo-news to a stage at which they no longer believe in democracy.  Remember that autocracies are simpler. People no longer have to think, because their leaders do all the thinking for them.  I fear that is our future, and the America I have known for my now almost 87 years may be coming to an end.  I am now too old to consider moving/migrating to another more enlightened nation—New Zealand anyone? But were I 30 again, I think I would be seriously contemplating such a move.