as the numbers ( inaccurate though they be...one presumes the totals are higher ) rise and economies grind along with increasing difficulties around the world, garnering a functional overview is pretty much beyond anyone's ken...who knows what is actually going on? no one...with what can only be presumed to be faulty data we are left with an examination of minutia...you can learn a lot by looking at microcosm...what we can learn is that people are fearful and show the "brutal courage" of the poor at once...
"essential workers" from gaza...
to the united states continue to work through the pandemic...one question i have is what is "essential" here...work? or income? i am thinking the latter is the more central motivation for "brutal courage"...millions are out of work and the "social safety net" is in dire condition ( seen your well hyped $1200 yet? )..so people are taking risks when and where they can ( not all are "essential"...i, for one, am supposed to stay home..unless i need a big mac or a six-pack of coke ) to keep making the bills and eating...
that people are willing, or find it economically necessary to take these risks puts paid to some drone business writer's contention that workers will welcome the subversion of their jobs by automation now that covid-19 has appeared..( and while we are discussing punditry...krugman over at the times is maintaining that "american democracy may be dying" and that "authoritarian rule may be just around the corner"...well.. i have pointed out that this could be the reichstag fire..and elsewhere i have pointed out that "american democracy" has been a somewhat iffy proposition from at least 1789...krugman may be catching on )...they probably won't welcome it until there is a guaranteed universal basic income...which is unlikely to happen given the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps, i got mine you get yours" mentality the hegemonic culture pounds down our throats at every opportunity..for example...
i am prepared to believe the ceo of the corporation i am "furloughed" from is still knocking down his $39,000+ a day while i am sitting here...and i am prepared to believe that the only reason there may be an effort to get some ready cash into the hands of the masses is so the upward redistribution of wealth can continue...greed needs a fix...so...the numbers tell an incomplete story...but they still contain illumination...paradigm shift is in the air...
and for the most part the media seems to be preaching one of retreat...from virus...from stress...from large swathes of life...this seems unacceptable to me...not that groups of, say three people i do not know, can't shut me up and turn me into the detached observer...it is that this borders on stoicism and i always loathed a stoic retreat from life...senneca was useless as a philosopher....stay engaged...the times may be "interesting" and so stressful...a retreat into binge watching netflix only strengthens the hegemony's hold.
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