Friends, it's time to reflect on the apocalyptic nature of so much rhetoric these days -- and I'm not just talking about the coronavirus. Many people seem to think that climate change, automation, plastic straws, or (you guessed it) Trump will finish us all off. It's ironic, given the fact that life for most people has never been better...
Check out this article, and then tell me your thoughts on the "end of the world". Is it...nigh? Un-nigh?
https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/03/17/the-luxury-of-apocalypticism/
And, while you're at it, if you haven't already you should take a look at the global scorecard for coronavirus cases and deaths. And, yes, I said scorecard, because, to the media, that's what every disaster is: a game conducted for their amusement. Note that, by any rational standard, the U.S. is doing far better than our supposedly superior and more progressive European rivals. Interesting, no?
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/coronavirus/
And now no doubt you've heard the line that the Trump administration is "doing nothing" to help Americans weather the coronavirus storm -- that all the hard work is being done by heroic blue-state Govenors. Well, think again:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/list-74-actions-taken-by-trump-to-fight-virus-bolster-economy
The media (left and right, but especially left) are a bunch of overpaid pimps. Add to this, the entertainment industry and the academic world, and you have thousands and thousands of ideological pimps who could care less about people, or how many die from this pandemic. Our Marxist Party (erroneously known as "Democrats") want the economy to crash because they think that will give the demented fool Biden a chance to redeem things if he becomes President. The worse the economy gets the better they like it. Marxist trash have always thrived on disaster, the same way that rats thrive on filth. If you are a left winger and have any complaints about my post, dial 1 800 EAT DUNG.
ReplyDeleteThis Corona Virus Dog and Pony Show will pass. In fact, I venture to say that millions of people will forget it every happened. What will NOT pass is the ever present B******T that our DemoLIAR Party assaults us with on a daily basis. Of course for all the stupid people who follow the Marxist ideology dished out by the DemoCROOKS, every day is a normal day in their brain-washed world. Yes folks, the Corona Virus will pass but the virus of Marxism will remain with us.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy: a very germane article on the prospect of the left, as per previous "the sky is falling" tocsins, will seek of the present situation dominant, dictatorial and transcendent political advantage. I see in it perfectionism; I cannot discern how ( except of course for the unimaginably advantageous childhoods the boomers were blessed withal)it might have infected the post WWII generations but as one dealing with mild OCD I see it at work. "Fie on the miraculous prosperity and all the good that brings with it; ah fie, it must be lacking in something, yes? We'll FIND it."
ReplyDeleteHere we go again:" its not perfect so lets discard it all and start at year one, yes. That's the ticket!"
Dr. Waddy: Thank you again for citing an article embued with empirical evidence and therefore free of the emotional assertion advanced by the rolling eyes and cavernous maw of Cuomo in his once in a lifetime grab for the Presidency.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy: The Federal governmental actions, presumably enacted by President Trump and his increasingly well supervised subordinates in this critical situation are very well documented in your cited articles.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy, the U.S. is earlier in this crisis than countries such as Italy. More importantly, we lack the data to make any meaningful comparison to other countries. As for what the "actions" that the Trump Administration has taken, all of them are actions that would be taken by ANY administration. It's the actions not taken -- such as taking the crisis seriously -- that is the key. Plus, Trump is still not taking the crisis seriously. He wants to have the pews full on Easter. That's 19 days away. As Dr. Fauci noted, we can start opening up less affected parts of the country when we have the data to justify re-opening. As he noted, we don't have the data now from this areas now, and we are not going to have it in 19 days.
ReplyDeleteRod: Isn't economic health almost as important as physical well being? Morale is certainly recognized as being a critical factor in combating illness. What is more commonly shared , sans direct and present illness, than concern about one's finances and living?
ReplyDeleteJack, economic health does no one any good if they are dead.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, I agree with you insofar as the basic narrative of American politics won't change once the virus recedes. For the foreseeable future, it's all about Trump. Some love him, some hate him, and some (believe it or not) are agnostic, but for those who hate him, seemingly EVERY news story exists to prove them right and Trump wrong. So be it.
ReplyDeleteDo the Dems embrace, even cultivate, a recession/depression in order to win in 2020? Not unanimously, I would say. An ordinary recession, of the mild variety, would probably serve well to defeat Trump. An extraordinary downturn, caused by an extraordinary pandemic, is less predictable in its political effects. The virus could just as easily reelect Trump as beat him.
Jack, the tendency of our elites to embrace predictions of doom is fascinating. Perhaps, though, it's a human universal? Prophets have always been popular, and seldom, with one glaring exception, have they shared "Good News".
Rod, President Trump is indeed obligated to take the virus seriously. He's also obligated to take the economy and our personal freedoms seriously. There's a give-and-take there, and no easy answers present themselves. I don't see that naming Easter as an aspirational date to turn the corner does any harm. We already see pressure to reopen businesses building. In some parts of the country, God willing, it will make sense by early April. I hasten to add that it's Governors who've put us all under house arrest -- and so ultimately it will be Governors who will let us free.
Rod, your last comment is, if I may say so, typical of leftist obscurantism. You posit a simple choice: do what Democrats say, or die. It's not that simple. Whenever we let people leave their homes, they will be at greater risk when they do so. Would you have us maintain the lockdown indefinitely?
Dr. Waddy, that was not what my comment was. It was that economic health is not as important as medical health. No one is advocating keeping areas shut down more than is necessary. But, Trump has shown numerous times that he knows nothing about public health, and his advisors are saying that Easter is unreasonable from both a health and economic point of view. The delay in testing and having enough tests does not provide us with the necessary data in which to make any rational estimates as to how long this health crisis will last. Just because an area does not have a serious outbreak yet does not mean it won't have one in the future.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy:In having reread the article on "apocalypticism"; I think it is brilliant and far reaching.. You know,often when someone addresses me as being in "in denial" about such as the leftist mandated environmental holocaust, I say" that concept, you do know that it derives from practiced substance abuse counseling and that it has a very well thought out definition yes? Are you aware of it?Have you employed it or even a reasonable analogy thereof in criticizing my views? Have you?"
ReplyDeleteOh Gads, leftist opposition of "modernism" in favor of Rousseauvian images of congruence with nonetheless really nasty, nasty, Mother Nature: How dreamy and I could discredit it with one day in the deer woods. In being a hunter, as is most of her world, I have experienced a little of that which is the daily regimen of most of her realm. It is beyond justification or mitigation ; it simply IS! Having lived in slightly frontier setting without electricity for many years I have some unusual appreciation of the comfort and security derived from modern technology, for example, of its deliverance from the primal terrors experienced by those who could not dream of it (eg. expected loss of children.) I think much of the modern left both forgiveably bereft of this perspective but also arrogantly dismissive of any position which denies its typically airy, emotionally (and yes, drug induced) presumptions." "Why, we say global warming is paramount and if you oppose that, you are an ICK!(and of course that term is undeniable by the enlightened and opposed only by the mob)."
Dr. Waddy: That which is empirically contrary to the left is reflexively rejected by the left as having been proven unsupportable due to the emotionally supported standards of the future oriented left. This orientation gives them license (as they suppose) to block everything contrary to their airy views.
ReplyDeleteOh, the left is so confident in its views, yes?
Rod, you say the we don't yet have enough data to know when we can lift the current restrictions...but apparently we do have enough data to know that Trump is wrong? That doesn't compute. All he said is that he hopes we can get back to normal, in some form, by Easter. In some areas, he may be right. In others, probably not.
ReplyDeleteJack, you are absolutely right: "nature" is not an idyll. Nature gave us the coronavirus, after all -- and medicine, God willing, may allow us to defeat it. It's fascinating how much effort human beings expend trying to discredit humanity itself, but in the final analysis it's silly. Anyone who wants to eat twigs and berries is happy to have at it, but I would say that, once we started developing that pesky prefrontal cortex, the cat was out of the bag. We are part of nature, yes, but we also stand above it and beside it. We are special -- especially great!
Dr. Waddy: In one sense our sentient ability to analyze life gives a disadvantage to us not shared by any other animal. I think they react mainly to sensory stimuli and instinct and are free of speculation as to how much better life is for others or could be for them. Nonetheless, I wouldn't exchange my life for the life of a deer or an amoeba.
ReplyDeleteThe Achilles heel of most idealists is to be found in their often arrogant ignorance of the objective consequences of that which they blithely advocate.
Being a believer in an incomrehensible guiding intelligence in the universe (s)I think it very possible that nature's pervasive predation has some positive purpose (eg. that blameless animals may. upon death, ascend to something better(?) ). Are we included in that? Being intelligent, though as many philosophers have acknowledged, nonetheless unable, due to limited intellects, to grasp the overall purpose of our setting, we may yet be held somewhat responsible for our freely chosen behavior.
Just imagine a postwar Nazi being presented with graphic images of the death camps (it was done at Nuremberg and it devastated many of the defendants). Just imagine Stalin, actually a somewhat touchy guy, being assailed by 24/7 images of the Gulag? Just imagine today's left being shown creditable images of the consequences of their empirically unsupportable, emotionally motivated convictions, which they advance with such irresponsible zeal.
Jack, even though I was voted "Most Likely to Become an Amoeba" in high school, I'm going to cautiously agree with your assessment that we're better off exercising human reason, despite its limitations. Indeed, I embrace those limitations, and I acknowledge that God's plan, for humans and for all life, is beyond my ken.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy: I fully agree; he whose manifest purpose formed our world view is indiscernable in his intent,only in his view.
ReplyDelete