Coronavirus and optimism

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