Division; the real cost of covid
This bloody pandemic sucks a big fat hairy one in more ways than one.
Wearing masks sucks. Not being able to travel or even spend time with family and friends sucks big time. Not having the freedom to choose how to spend your days feels like a bad mushie trip involving George Orwell and some weird fat talking pigs.
Tbh there are very few positives I can find in this pandemic affected time.
Life does seem to simplify during lockdown. More time to be a family without the external time constraints of school, work, after school activities and the myriad other things we agree to on a daily basis, is a refreshing reminder of what’s truly important in life. In kind, it certainly does provide opportunity to take pause and reflect on goals and direction, something that tends to take a back seat in the mayhem of daily life with kids.
But that’s about it;
Working at home whilst overseeing home schooling and squeezing in household chores is pretty much the clusterfuck it sounds like. Having literally zero space and time to oneself is akin to sharting in public, the primal urge to escape in panic almost tangible at times; and the associated close proximity of your spawn, who seem to have developed all of your own annoying idiosyncrasies and none of your good ones, quickly becomes far from entertaining.
So no, it’s not fun on the whole.
But there are things worse I see festering and ballooning..
And one of these is division.
Now we’re all used to differences in opinion. Be it religious, political, spiritual, lifestyle or whatever, we are all well versed in the ebb and flow of sectarian debate. Sure we argue, even fight about it, but in general, we end up agreeing to disagree and continue on with our own lives, tolerant of the other’s existence, until the next idealogical argument pops up and we rinse and repeat.
But not when it comes to this pandemic..
This is polarising. It’s fanatical. It’s definite.
This is not Collingwood vs Carlton. This is not Christian vs Islam. This is not feminine vs masculine. This is not one group vs another group.
No, what is so scary about the devisive nature of this situation is it’s husband vs wife. Mother vs son, friend vs friend. It’s 1 vs 1.
It’s literally breaking apart the very core of our collective society; our immediate families and friendship groups; and reforming them into these horribly angry, derogatory, narrative based, one-eyed moshpits of black or white opinion, hellbent on mocking and ridiculing the other without desire for resolution.
We are devolving from vital immediate communities into these hodge-podge(yes that’s a scientific term ?), confirmation biased, global “groups” that pat themselves on the back for being so “woke” and enlightened that they can’t even entertain outside opinion as constructive anymore, and resort to name calling and personal attack.
It is breaking us all down to, and exposing, our very core beliefs and values; often hidden from view for the sake of community, family and love; now laid bare for the world to see, and once displayed, unable to be stuffed back in to Pandora’s box.
This is fast becoming a primal issue, based on what the individual personally believes they need to do to survive..
And that is totally contrary to what it means to be a community, as us social animals, humans, are. (Oxford dictionary: “the condition of sharing or having certain attitudes and interests in common.” – how very researchy if me ?)
We are literally engineered to live in tolerance of one another. To help, give, take, support and care for our fellow humans. This is one of the primary reasons we are the top of the heap. The apex species on this fragile planet.
Our power as a species is in the simple premise that we are stronger together than alone.
I don’t know the answer to our current woes, i don’t think anyone does right now. But i would really like to believe that we are all trying our best to do our best. For each other. For our future.
I don’t even have an end goal to this post. I guess it’s just an observation in sadness. A comment on what I see as a terrible human casualty being overshadowed by ranting and raving, blaming and rhetoric.
You can decide what to make of it. ✌️