United We Stand, Divided We Fall (The Bandicoot — Leaner and Nosier than the Ferret)
Yes I know, I haven’t yet mentioned the ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM — the corona virus. I thought seeing as the whole world’s chattering class was pretty much all over it… have you noticed that there is practically no other news — no terrorist attacks, no de-frocking of paedophile priests, not even some Hollywood scandal, for Christ’s sake!
But on reflection, there are maybe some of the side issues arising out of such a pandemic which might bear discussing by The Bandicoot. The first thing which caught my attention was what happened here in Australia. As news — and panic — spread, people ransacked the supermarket shelves. Lemming like, they rushed in, snatching sometimes bizarre items in an attempt to safeguard themselves from shortages. For some weird reason, the shelves were stripped of toilet paper! It is problematic in this country today, whether one can now find any. Up until these ‘preppers’ did this, there was no shortage of toilet paper in the country. They caused it. Together with other items they selfishly grabbed to give themselves some feeling of security. Their needless, mindless selfishness caused hardships for many others. Hey, and why toilet paper? Covid -19 is a respiratory tract disease — lungs, not bowels, stupid! Hey, we know it’s serious, but panic only leads to chaos. Remember the story of Chicken Little, when an acorn fell on her head — ‘Hey, the sky is falling…’ It’s actually an ancient cautionary tale, but never more relevant than today.
I think we are all becoming aware, that this thing will not go away soon. It is also becoming clear, that this is a pivotal time in human affairs. The post-covid world will not be the same as before. The follow-on will no doubt bring great changes in the way the world operates. But it is this panic, rather than the pandemic itself, which has potential to cause enormous problems.
Very recently I was reading a ‘doomsday’ book, a novel based on the plot that a large piece of space debris, an asteroid large enough to extinguish all life on earth — was headed straight for the planet. The novel — ‘Countdown City’ by Ben Winters — eerily sort of foreshadowed this panic behaviour, and went on to catalogue the rapid breakdown of civil order. As I think on this panic reaction, it seems to me that we are back to — or still talking about (incidentally my next blog topic); how necessary it is to teach each young generation Civics/ethics. Civilization is not an innate thing, it is one of Humankind’s most marvellous inventions. It is something that needs to be taught. Understood. Isn’t it. A people properly schooled in civic responsibility, will behave in a civil, responsive way. Perhaps at no time in recent history, do we need to understand this. The best advice is to apply the principals of Critical Thinking to all so-called advice or news. Cross-check with other responsible sources. Recently a friend told me that one Australian state had intended to close all liquor stores. Imagine the panic buying rush this would cause. So I checked: not true. The state in question was acting sensibly; to stem any such over-buying by limiting the amount of alcoholic drinks each customer could purchase. Imagine how much chaos and confusion such mis-information could cause.
Other than this lemming-like rush to stock up on bog-roll, the economic destruction which is happening all over the world as an unavoidable flow-on effect of the pandemic, threatens the very basis of civilization, not at all helped by those self-styled ‘preppers’ whose response to all this is to panic buy, stock up on anything, arm themselves, and hole up in the boonies somewhere. Yes Ok, they will feel justified, and perhaps they will survive. But what they tend to overlook is that without all of the accepted adjuncts of civilization, Humankind is no better off that other animals. The notion that arming oneself with a cross-bow, or even guns, will make them safer, ignores the fact that others might do the same… Also, to be a hunter, one must return to a nomadic life, with all of it’s attendant miseries. Forget three-square a day — and no Maccas to fall back on! They tend to forget that without access to real medical attention, they will soon find themselves back in the Middle Ages, teeth falling out, boils on the arse from bad nutrition, their children dying of simple illnesses. No transport systems, no phones, no electronic media — the list goes on… And hey, home brew beer mostly sucks. Truth is my friends, originally we created civilization, we are by now a product of civilization — it is always a work in progress, isn’t it? It’s all we’ve got — it’s us! We mustn’t just throw it all away for the sake of perceived personal advantage. We are all in this together, so let’s all try our best to make it work, always better. There you go, I feel better for the venting. I actually deserve a proper, cold beer now, made by experts in white dust coats, not a dodgy, soupy brew made by some grubby Alewyfe.
And remember this: ‘United we stand, divided we fall’
