In the meantime, Songs for the Covid-19: “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” or “Live and Let Die”?
Anything less than a comprehensive, global strategy, the goal of which is to eradicate the Covid-19 Pandemic forever, must be led by the leadership of the United States. If the President of the United States abandons this required role and hands it off to a patchwork of tactics pieced together by local Governors and local Mayors, said failure of National leadership is a recipe for disaster, perpetual partial fixes and no ultimate success. It is an admission of failure to offer just a hope that enough people with strong immune systems will survive with sufficient antibodies to preserve civilization. This is a strategy of no strategy at all, just “Survival of the Fittest”. Failing to prepare, always begets preparing to fail.
Now that Donald is dismantling his task force of scientific experts , it is fair to say that he and his minions are effectively announcing that the Trump Presidential administration is clueless how to handle the fight against the Covid-19 Pandemic, and that they are further declaring their abandonment of all responsibilities to lead or fight. Like the true cowards that they are, they have cut and run. Their only focus is to find someone other than themselves to blame for the cause (China) and for the extent (which they will eventually shape and deflect upon all of the State’s Governors).
It is time that we admit that the “New Normal” is not so new after all. If nothing else, Donald and company have been successful at highlighting that our old gray mare has not been what we thought she was supposed to be for a long time. The ideal of a humane democratic republic fueled by an enlightened capitalistic economy which protects the least able among us, a “secular humanitarianism”, has long since yielded to a “Survival of the Fittest” and a “Thin the Herd” mentality in our political and economic lives. And what our Covid-19 Pandemic is making increasingly clear is that just as in the animal world on the plains of the Serengeti, “Thinning of the Herd” is the natural, normal order of life”. Eat or be eaten. And get it while you can!
The idea of an equal value and an equal dignity for each human life is NO longer the value proposition for which we once strived to form a more perfect union. That quaint notion, which modern, civilized, evolved thinking once posited and declared quite clearly in such foundational documents as our Declaration of Independence, no longer exists…if it ever did. From day one, our frontier actions were not quite consistent with our written words. Those pesky Native Americans were obviously not as equal as our fellow, white European settlors, and if they could not or would not adapt to survive in our culture, well we would just have to thin their herds. And black skinned African slaves, who we kidnapped from their African homes to serve us as slaves, were eventually rated at only 3/5 human, at best. In truth the slave ships, where shackles and chains were preferable to arbitrary whippings, killings and being thrown overboard, were the breeding grounds for a much lower rating, a zero human dignity valuation as the measure. Blacks were barely a part of the conversation. And our history of sacrificing the lives of young soldiers as cannon fodder in foolish, misguided, exploitative wars is the worst disregard for human life of all. So, our current devaluing and discarding of the old and the frail to the trash pile is not a great leap; nor is it very difficult or much more of a leap to consign to eternal poverty the lives of those whose “dollar” merit is low on the “Gangster Capitalism” scale of usefulness.
At the risk of being overly cynical when a Pandemic comes along, the conventional wisdom seems to be expressed rhetorically as, “Why not just look at Herd Immunity as a necessary house cleaning, getting rid of the accumulated, human debris that is just taking up space”. There are so many un-necessary people, whose feelings, aspirations or hopes we need not bother valuing. Like the Kurds, or Ukrainian soldiers, or Central American, asylum seeking children…or the stiffed creditors who can be and were easily screwed in simple, multiple, bankruptcy proceedings… as long as your Daddy is rich enough to pay your legal fees.
The concept of a sliding scale for the valuation of human life has always been with us. Some people, some groups have always been, and always will be valued less than others, expendables. Today, Donald and friends are calling out the frail and the elderly as the expendable “costs of clean-up”, and Donny et al could care less…as long as it is not their number being called.
So, my fellow voters, if you want to change the game to include more humanitarianism in our politics, November 2020 is your last chance. Compassion, empathy, decency, and selflessness will all be on the ballot, along with competence and character. Get with the program folks; otherwise, the next four years will be more death, disease, and economic collapse; more Trumpian “every person for themselves”. And if you have not noticed, our entire infrastructure is rotting away; not just bridges and roads; institutions like our education systems, and our political, social and religious systems…hell our environment and climate change may do us all in before we can even get around to start fixing stuff.
The game plan has got to change. And the way to change it is to organize and take to the streets, because even if the Democrats do win the Senate and the Presidency, Washington is still going to need to hear from the people loud and clear and often in large groups around the country. So, all of you young people with good immune systems, start organizing . Crowds six feet apart with face masks will do just fine. Just make some noise. And you don’t need to get all dressed up in military uniforms with military grade weapons locked and loaded. In fact, some of those over-armed “numb nuts” are ready to be converted, so get busy. There is a whole lot of hard work ahead.
It’s time to vote and put the “Pluto Rats” out to pasture.
