07-04-2020, 16:40
I vacillate between beneficent but strictly applied state socialism and anarchism. Anarchism relies on the implicit goodness of man and unfortunately we are all bombarded with bad influences from an early age so ……...
……… In the case of Covid I think I'm more of a Socialist. Good people like Doctors and Nurses can only do so much work for so long. Places are only as big as they are. The number of beds in an area is limited by the size of the bed and the space available. The facilities to store drugs and equipment also have a physical size. We have acquiesced or actively agreed, to those limits because we voted for them and did not protest or rebel, just as we are either agreeing, or acquiescing to the lockdown. There a millions of us, we could have the power to effect change, but we don't bother. We live the quiet life.
I would do a lot to protect you Salts, or Dancing, because you have families and people who love you. For myself? No! I'm not valuable. If I contract the virus my plan is not to seek medical help. I'll try to recover, but if I don't, please don't take me to hospital, don't use a bed or a ventilator for me when someone younger and more needed by the planet might miss out. I'm not afraid to be dead. When my partner was alive I used to tell him that if we were ever caught up in a terrorist-style incident I'd run towards the gunman, not because I'm incredibly brave (but I am stupid enough to do it!) but because my partner wasn't capable of running away. Me attacking the terrorist would have been his only hope of surviving. (You're thinking no wonder he played in goal!)
This is clearly a horrible virus but it has proved far more infectious in terms of world media and responses to perceived danger than through sneezes and lack of handwashing. After the First World War 200,000 died in this country alone of Spanish flu'. PMs never end up in hospital ……….. well no Boris isn't actually unprecedented. Lloyd George collapsed seriously ill in Manchester during the flu', and Churchill had a heart attack in 1941 mid-war. Until two days ago the rise in the number of deaths led the news for days. The last two days the figure has been announced more quietly, not just because of the Boris effect, because the number went down. Down isn't news.
It's patronising to stand outside applauding and banging tins for our NHS workers if that's all we do. We need to recognise there is only so much a human being can do. We need to make sure they have all the support in future we actually think they should have. Naturally some circumstance is always eventually going to make provision inadequate, but don't turn workers into sandbags failing to hold back the flood. THey can't be expected to risk drowning every day to save some useless old buffer like me!
There are 8 Billion people in the world aren't there? Forests and oceans will be heaving a sigh of a relief if a virus does for a few of us.
Apparently the virus can live for three days on plastic, so the protective equipment might not be so much protection as a temporary home.
I'll sign off. Scientists are wonderful. They are brilliant. They can save us, but they also made nuclear bombs. They have great wisdom, but they have to take their trousers down to crap.
……… In the case of Covid I think I'm more of a Socialist. Good people like Doctors and Nurses can only do so much work for so long. Places are only as big as they are. The number of beds in an area is limited by the size of the bed and the space available. The facilities to store drugs and equipment also have a physical size. We have acquiesced or actively agreed, to those limits because we voted for them and did not protest or rebel, just as we are either agreeing, or acquiescing to the lockdown. There a millions of us, we could have the power to effect change, but we don't bother. We live the quiet life.
I would do a lot to protect you Salts, or Dancing, because you have families and people who love you. For myself? No! I'm not valuable. If I contract the virus my plan is not to seek medical help. I'll try to recover, but if I don't, please don't take me to hospital, don't use a bed or a ventilator for me when someone younger and more needed by the planet might miss out. I'm not afraid to be dead. When my partner was alive I used to tell him that if we were ever caught up in a terrorist-style incident I'd run towards the gunman, not because I'm incredibly brave (but I am stupid enough to do it!) but because my partner wasn't capable of running away. Me attacking the terrorist would have been his only hope of surviving. (You're thinking no wonder he played in goal!)
This is clearly a horrible virus but it has proved far more infectious in terms of world media and responses to perceived danger than through sneezes and lack of handwashing. After the First World War 200,000 died in this country alone of Spanish flu'. PMs never end up in hospital ……….. well no Boris isn't actually unprecedented. Lloyd George collapsed seriously ill in Manchester during the flu', and Churchill had a heart attack in 1941 mid-war. Until two days ago the rise in the number of deaths led the news for days. The last two days the figure has been announced more quietly, not just because of the Boris effect, because the number went down. Down isn't news.
It's patronising to stand outside applauding and banging tins for our NHS workers if that's all we do. We need to recognise there is only so much a human being can do. We need to make sure they have all the support in future we actually think they should have. Naturally some circumstance is always eventually going to make provision inadequate, but don't turn workers into sandbags failing to hold back the flood. THey can't be expected to risk drowning every day to save some useless old buffer like me!
There are 8 Billion people in the world aren't there? Forests and oceans will be heaving a sigh of a relief if a virus does for a few of us.
Apparently the virus can live for three days on plastic, so the protective equipment might not be so much protection as a temporary home.
I'll sign off. Scientists are wonderful. They are brilliant. They can save us, but they also made nuclear bombs. They have great wisdom, but they have to take their trousers down to crap.