It is hard to read, or write, or listen, or watch anything live without being reminded of the pandemic.
And maybe it is worth keeping it front and centre of our attention so we can continue to be fearful and stay within the guidance of experts.
I am not going to mention it in my post. Because I don’t need to.
But it’s made me reflect.
What is our society built on? Or rather, who is our society built on?
Towards the end of 2019, as fires raged through Australia burning down every house, tree, and any living being in its path the world was content that it wasn’t in their backyard.
People who were drawing attention to the climate crisis, and who continue to do so, are ridiculed.
The claim being – the world can’t just stop and reduce pollution. It is impossible.
Kids need to get practical.
With every politician and all the climate deniers were screaming that polluting businesses can’t be shut down. As without them the whole society will capitulate.
And so we watched on. We watched the fires rage through Australia whilst those in power didn’t solve a thing.
Barely are we 3 months away from it, before the pandemic spread like fire on Earth. Now we have something in our backyard.
It doesn’t burn you. And yet it burns.
It burns everything in its path.
It doesn’t discriminate on race, religion, or colour.
It doesn’t give one flying falafel about your borders.
It doesn’t wait. It doesn’t think. And it certainly does not care what businesses it shuts down.
And what is being done?
Quarantine. Businesses shut. People asked to stay indoors.
1.3B populated country has just stopped. Nobody cares what fuel your car uses, what meat your fast food chain serves, and certainly no one cares how good your fur and leather clothes are.
We cannibalised Earth.
And it has taken one mutation of virus to remind us how fragile we really are. As a society. As nations. As whatever other artificial names we’ve given our selves as a group of people.
We are apparently everything, apart from being people.
Eventually this pandemic will come to an end. There might be 50,000, 100,000, or 1,000,000 deaths. I don’t know. But it will pass.
What happens then? Do we go back to being our ugly selves?
Do we continue to canniablise mother nature?
Do we continue to build fragile societies?
Or do we change?
I don’t know the answer, is the honest answer.
Humans are fickle.
We fought over toilet roll, when hunger should’ve been high on mind.
At the first hint of panic from the unknown we flooded to buy freaking toilet roll?
And yet, when refugees are fleeing from war zone, not knowing when the next bomb drops, or where it drops, and which one of their loved ones is lost – we claim it isn’t our responsibility?
We literally give more value to our own arse than being compassionate about someone else’s life.
We cannibalised humanity.
There are real humans. And then there are… no-one.
I am not going to call them heroes. It’s a stupid term artificially created to group one set of people against others.
Medics, innovators, research scientists, the cleaners, the low-paid dirty job doing workers, the ones who know it is their job to be out, and be seen, and do something to resolve the pandemic. They are the humans.
I hope we begin to be human again.
I hope you are human.
I hope I am human.