Some Adjustment Required

Another day, another +80,000 new COVID-19 cases reported.

Nothing else has changed.  At least nothing in the general ratios that mark the progress of the global health crisis we are living through.  Nothing other than the growth in total cases.  Which clearly indicates that at the moment we, humanity, are passive passengers on the trolley-bus of life while nature is both the driver and conductor – dictating where the bus will stop and how far away is the end of the line.  We are not in control of this journey, in spite of what the talking-heads of government try to deny. 

In another analogy, nature has us pinned to the floor and is calling out the knockout count, if not for us then at least for the way of life we have up to this point built for ourselves.  Governments, and those of us who are heavily invested in that former lifestyle, had better get used to the idea that it will never return.  When this is all over, if it ever is, in many aspects it will be a different world that we face.

My use of the word ‘we’ in the comments above can perhaps be narrowed a little to specific sections of humanity.  Even a casual inspection of the table of nations, updated continually on the linked Worldometers web site, will reveal that with the exception of China and Iran – who have or are getting things more or less under control, it is mainly the minority (in terms of overall population size) nations that make up the sub-group we refer to as ‘the West’ who are most in the firing line for this pandemic.  There must be reasons for that.  I could happily speculate on those reasons but I will leave that to yourself to indulge your own thoughts. 

‘The West’ is also perhaps the group that has the most to lose in any readjustment in lifestyle this crisis imposes, and is perhaps the section of humanity least prepared and equipped to make that adjustment.  

Perhaps there is some poetic justice in that situation.