Fresh Baked Crow with a Side of Optimism

Takeaways from the latest teaching moments of the Current Crisis.

I nearly deleted my last post for my profound embarrassment but the lesson is too instructive to waste. I’ll go even further and point out that I’d thought this media-driven mass hysteria would be done before the end of March. That I didn’t think a lockdown of businesses and what is essentially mass house arrest of the entire First World could be prosecuted so long speaks more to my overestimation of human nature than anything. 

It’s nothing to get bitter about, though. Just “take the L,” as the young folk say, except in my case the L stands for “lesson.” I’m not losing anything. Just the people who had jobs and businesses to attend to, and are now facing bankruptcy, foreclosure, permanent financial ruin, etc. 

Those people probably voted wrong anyway, which is why the media is keeping smugly silent about the millions of private disasters going on across the republic. If there’s one thing a lot of people have figured out, the media might not be the enemy, but they sure as hell aren’t your friend.

Meanwhile, it’s achingly apparent the people in authority declaring these lockdowns, with the occasional opening under capricious and stupid restrictions, are enjoying their power too much to give it up now or ever. Despite the occasional act of defiance on the part of small business owners, it now appears plausible some governors will attempt to cancel summer and fall, clear on through Christmas. That “second wave,” dont’cha know. We might have to do this for years until we get either a vaccine or an outright cure! Or wherever else the goalposts are moved.

They’ll get away with it, too. One lesson I’ve gleaned from this is it’s that people will put up with anything, even when they know it’s wrong, even when it hurts them. They will do as they are told and grumble most heroically about it later in hushed tones among their closest confidants. This is not a condition specific to Germans between 1933 and 1945. It is what it is. If someone ever writes an update to Charles Mackay’s indispensable Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, our Great Pandemic Panic of 2020 will make for a most illuminating chapter, with historical cross-references to back up the principles of mob psychology at work.

This rural crossroads town was barely hanging on when my wife and I moved here in 2016. The empty storefronts began filling up and everything was going great until, oh, mid-March of this year. Everyone say, “Thanks, Karen!”

The other lesson, naturally, is never to attempt predictions on when things like this will end. This pandemic may not be entirely a hoax, but it’s been certainly hyped. This is a case of mass delusion bordering on hysteria, and there are enough people out there high on this crisis to keep it going until it stops.

I’m still deluded myself to entertain some optimism, though. People are beginning to realize there’s a class of people in charge of things who don’t merely dislike the public they’re tasked with managing, but hate them and wish them harm. As a better blogger than I puts it, real change will not occur until the Dirt People understand the Cloud People don’t like them, not one bit. It’s getting a little more obvious than normal. But, then, this is the New Normal, isn’t it? It’s what they keep telling us.

The media act as amplifiers and speakers for this class, and they like to hear the peasants/hicks/what-have-you scream as they burn, too. Most people know better than to admit they trust the same people who brought us Gulf Wars I and II starring Saddam Hussein as the New Hitler, and with Weapons of Mass Destruction in the sequel, but they still do. A minority of a minority is blinking the scales from their eyes. Maybe not enough to make a difference, but it’s more people than the day before. There will be more tomorrow.

I’ve predicted the breakdown of trust in already fragile institutions, but bureaucracies are immortal, and the cognitive dissonance of the public, their ability to forgive and very literally forget once things start more-or-less working again, is how that immortality comes to pass. A corner has been turned, but if it takes us anywhere it’s to the glum resignation of subjects of the Soviet regime standing in lines for basic items. In our case, we even have handy decals on the concrete to show you where to stand, and arrows inside the store to direct your movement in the aisles.

If I’m optimistic, it’s because I feel something really messed-up, but also exciting is going to happen. I don’t know when, there’s no telling when, but  a new “normal” is coming. Given my experience so far, the safest thing to say is it’s not going to look like anyone thinks it is, and it’s a chump’s game to speculate.

Be cool, stay safe. The old rules of this fallen world still apply.

A timeless visual parable.