World on Pause

Today is the thirtieth of March. Online, I see tense, slightly anxious jokes about what may come in April, May, and further on into what many are starting to see as the Year of Disaster. It's a grim humor, a joke told with a wince, and each accompanying laugh is laced with nervousness, because it IS what it's feeling like. Humans are creatures of pattern recognition, and the pattern thus far for this year, to shamelessly butcher a collection of metaphors, has been an albatross carrying a broken mirror beneath a ladder to a black cat.

So now, as I look out my window, I see empty streets, with no children skateboarding or playing basketball, or laughing in the afternoon. I see almost no cars going by. I hear only wind and weather that seems to be getting increasingly erratic. No school buses come by in the morning or afternoon, to pick up kids for school. No schools are open. No ice cream truck comes by in the late afternoon to sell themed desserts, Lucas, or other such treats to kids. The neighborhood seems eerie, and quiet, and I look out on the image of a world on pause. Each of us huddles within our respective domiciles and waits for the next shoe to drop, waits for the next hammer blow to fall. Congress almost seems to be populated by people that give a shit, even as a handful of spiteful assholes make the news for spitting on produce and licking packages. People like those in an infamous MMO whose actions to spread a game plague formed models that the WHO actually took note of and are studying even now. ESPECIALLY, with these sorts of people doing this in real life, now.

Why do people do this? Who can say? A cruel sadism? A lashing out with the first illusion of power they've felt in a long time? Nihilists who genuinely want to watch the world burn? It might be all or none of these. Teenaged rebellion, looking to get a reaction, trolls being trollish. And for many who would never do this, there's the eye roll, the impatient and exasperated amusement that comes from seeing them receive legal consequences for their stupidity. A touch of schadenfreude that echoes their defiant attitude towards the notions of sanitation and social distancing. It gives us an outlet for our own frustrations at the current circumstances, a target to focus our anger and venom on. In a time when we all need to be acting collectively, when we all need to be cooperating with the CDC, keeping our heads down, and waiting for this virus to burn itself out, we snap and snarl at one another at the slightest provocation.

We are social creatures. This virus is splitting us into tiny clusters, breaking the bonds of social cohesion by making us mistrust one another, by putting that tiny thrill of fear into every interaction- did they wash their hands? Do they have it, or did they come in contact with someone who has? Will this person harm me? Because that's the real problem- a pandemic like this turns everyone we meet into a threat, a potential enemy, in our subconscious minds. The real enemy is a tiny, rapidly spreading viral parasite that nobody intends to catch. Our weapon is following instructions, maintaining hygeine and spacing. Don't mistake the victims of this modern plague for the enemy. And maybe sometime soon, we can take the world off pause and get back on with our lives.