Coronavirus
and optimism
There could
be nothing promising about a virus that kills people, is set to become a
pandemic and has already crossed the borders and ocean to infect people in
perhaps more than fifty countries as of now, and to belittle it could be as
stupid as Trump is – which in fact means minimum minimorum…now that is something
which would be interesting to hear coming out of the mouth of Fat Donnie – the commander
in chief who is only interested in getting reelected and not even that, for he
does not care if the population actually selects him, if the Russians somehow
steal the votes for him or he just keeps the power anyway by refusing the
results, that would suit him just as well…
On another
level though, the coronavirus does have some advantages, though it takes a sardonic
cynic perhaps to look at the prospect of having less people on a planet that
they have anyway brought close to Apocalypse – at the present for a multitude
of species and billions of animals killed directly or as a consequence of the Climate
change brought about by mankind…it is estimated that in the recent Australian
massive wild fires, a billion (!) beings have died – in such a careless, “Inhumane”
– think of the mirthful paradox here – manner, with total lack of respect and
consideration for other inhabitants of the planet.
Some of the
leaders of this ‘advanced’ age epitomize the thinking – although here we would
need a strong antonym for thinking – the attitude, the egotism, superficiality,
ignorance and catastrophic lack of EQ of billions that choose to select the
likes of Trump, Putin, Bolsanaro, Duterte, Xi – although here there is the
problem of the absence of choice, as in the case of Putin and so many others,
though so many love this kind of ‘leader’ anyway and opt freely for vicious,
murdering, monstrous thugs that millions love, not just opt for – Maduro and so
many others that have not gained power in absolute form, but still won so many
ballots…Salvini, Le Pen and so many others make the list, as well as some thugs
and thieves from my own land…
Then there is
the ‘crisis ‘that is threatening all of us economically and though I hate to
think about the consequences – hence the idea of writing for my ‘pleasure ‘to
let some steam off and find some other logic, sense and redemption…writing is supposed
to help your mind in the effort of
making sense of a crazy world (think of the previous list of ‘elected officials)
and put some distance between the worse aspects of your life and the same mind…though
here there is some controversy I would say, in the sense that there is a
happiness exercise called ‘count your blessings’ through which one is invited
to list every day the three or five things that happened during the day and
which are wonderful or anyway positive and there is also the practice of writing
about negative events with the idea that they would grow distant, as I said…but
then which is it…write about good or bad things?
Sonja Lyubomirsky,
a sensational expert on positive psychology, author of The How of Happiness,
indicates that the ‘count your blessings exercise’ is better practiced once a
week, in something of an opposition to what Tal Ben-Shahar and others argue, suggesting
a daily ‘Gratitude Exercise’, which might end up with far fewer blissful
moments if repeated daily…
Be that as
it may, there is less pollution now that activity has slowed down, with places
in Wuhan and elsewhere in China isolated by the infamous virus sending shock
waves through economies everywhere, given that cars, iPhones and everything
else depends on what they make in china, and the stock market has plunged, oil
prices have fallen, because there is so much diminished demand for it…which surely
translates into fewer polluting emissions into the atmosphere…though if we all
die because of the covid 19, the only gain would be for the rest of the planet,
the animals that would breathe in exultation, given that their worst enemy is now
gone…well, dogs, cats and my parrots would have to go feral and fend for
themselves and many would not manage and abide by the rule of the survival of
the fittest rule
