Pending Triage

 I need to make a confession: I secretly want this whole COVID thing to spiral out of control so that all the anti-vaxxers get it, overwhelm the healthcare system, and perish in a fantastic display of schadenfreude. 

There, I said it. It's been whirling around the back of my cranium and I've been doing my best to suppress it. I know it's a perverse notion born of the sarcastic, dark laugh from humanity's inner demon. I want to see the idiots suffer, and suffer fatally, so that we can all learn our lesson and move on as a species. Yes, I know that would be unfortunate and tragic. Yes, I know that such an influx of patients to the healthcare system would cripple services for those that are vaxxed and have done everything right. No one would win. But it sure would be satisfying to see the idiots lose, wouldn't it?

Gah. I hate that I feel that way in the first place; it's so petty and mean-spirited. And it makes the assumption that I a) know more/am more intelligent than the people on the other side of this divide, and b) my opinion is worth more as a result. Is truth not subjective in an elemental way? Yeesh, that last sentence opens an ugly door perhaps left closed. What I'm getting at is that I think there's a need to acknowledge there may be more to the world than my immediate experience and point of view. So yes, maybe the anti-vaxxers are onto something. But probably not. 

It's become clear that humanity is no longer on the same team, at least in this regard. Not only that, but now it has two distinct and opposing teams competing against each other. And if either side has their way, the showdown would result in the total annihilation of the other. It sucks to see that we're so easily so divided.

Lately I've been transfixed on the question of why this has become a divisive issue. I understand the particulars of the debate; I even sympathize with the notion of not trusting one's government. Politicians are, after all, shifty creatures. But the science is dispassionately conclusive. Then there are microchips and autism and magnetizations and freedoms and erosions of liberty, et cetera and et cetera. Quite frankly, all this has been played out and fails to interest me.

What really has piqued my interest is what sort of societal and psychological conditions have resulted in a strong contrasting debate over something that, I thought, was so simple. What has enabled humanity in 2021 for a huge swath of the population to act out so fervently versus 1921? Something has stained the fabric of humanity, and a simple wash cycle won't get it out.

Is it social media? Foreign manipulation? A growing disdain for government? Maybe an abandonment of scientific reason in exchange for emotional and instinctual truth? A desire to belong to a passionate tribe? The need to feel smarter than your neighbours by seeking out conspiracies? Or maybe life has just become too easy for its own good.

If you have any ideas, let me know.

-Cril

My mast ain't so sturdy
My head is at half
I'm searching the clouds for the score

My lady avails herself
Of marked down freedom
Forever cashed out to no more

She put the blam in the blame
Bullets bearing the name
Of each tigress who's left you a tooth

Save the skins for a pelt
And the rest for a belt
That can't open
No nothing
Can't open
No nothing

Young liars
Thank you for taking my hands

Young liars
Oh thank you for taking my hands

TV on the Radio - Young Liars