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Punch Line?
So, it’s April Fool’s Day and nobody really feels like joking around. I wonder why…
April Fools
Maybe it’s because the world is under lockdown due to the COVID19 pandemic.
Maybe it’s because everything that people thought was important is now “non-essential“.
Maybe it’s because Spring has arrived but we’re all getting cabin fever because we need to self-quarantine.
Maybe it’s because we’re experiencing the existential horror of seeing how ridiculously fragile the veneer of modern society has become.
Maybe it’s because stupid people are spreading a disease that can be curtailed with common-sense behavior.
Maybe it’s because a simple disease has given license to governmental overreach at every level.
Maybe it’s because people don’t understand the value of human life.
Maybe it’s just not funny anymore.
Everybody’s Fool
Evanescence- Everybody’s Fool lyrics
I always liked Evanescence, even though most of their music is dark and depressing.
This song seems to really resonate with me today. There really aren’t any heroes to worship these days.
The cult of personality hasn’t got much currency. People who put themselves up on pedestals are stuck at home twiddling their thumbs like the rest of us.
We look around at all the things we thought were important and see that they’ve dried up and fallen away like leaves in Winter.
We look around at all the things they say are important in the midst of this crisis and seriously wonder how much of that actually is.
Certainly, the medical providers are and so are the people in the production and distribution of food.
How about the government? That’s a more difficult assessment.
Certainly, there are people trying to do their best for the community and to organize resources for the best possible outcome, but…
There are also people who just can’t help getting their claws into whatever they think is theirs. I think we’d all agree that those who seek to profit from a crisis are genuinely “non-essential” and it’s well past time they went home to twiddle their thumbs in the obscurity they desperately deserve.
Despite the fact that sports and entertainment have largely shut down for the safety of the players and the audience, we’re all stuck at home binging the crap out of every recorded medium we can get our eyeballs on.
So, the real question is whether or not entertainers are really “non-essential“.
Something To Say
Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something. ~Plato
Nobody can argue that doctors and medical staff are not essential. We depend on them and with good cause. They are selfless to a fault in most cases. It’s not a field I could ever have found myself in. There’s way too much ickiness. Blood and phlegm and vomit, oh my. Gross factor is enough to keep me far from it.
Nobody can argue anymore that farmers, food packing companies and grocery stores are not essential. We tend to take them for granted. They’re just there. Like air and water, we know we need them but we pay little or no attention even when we’re there. At least, we did until it became a luxury and a necessity to simply go there infrequently for absolute necessities. We see our food chain in a whole new light these days.
What we can argue about is whether entertainment is essential. If this goes on much longer, people who have been pushed out of work because of determinations of who is or is not “non-essential” won’t be able to pay for luxuries like Netflix to entertain them. When the lights start going out, who’s going to raise the spirits of people who have been sidelined as “non-essential“?
What we can also argue about is exactly how essential our governments are. As defined, in this country anyway, the government is meant to be a bare necessity. A general set of rules for conducting interstate commerce and international relations. There are clearly stated rights that are considered to be God-given.
Unfortunately, in order to keep a thing running, you always have the hangers-on, the seemingly indispensable bureaucrats who keep the machinery of civilization well-oiled. Problem is, oil costs money and the hangers-on feel entitled to a comfortable lifestyle for maintaining the machinery of civilization. The sense of entitlement grows with each generation and so does the machinery.
We’re left in a quandary these days. Just how much government do we really need? We want enough government to organize things and keep us safe from pandemics and hostile foreign powers but we don’t want enough government to trample on our well-being or even our pet peeves.
How much is too much? I think we’re finding out and I’m not sure we really like the answer.
Happy April Fool’s Day everyone. Don’t look now but your shoe is untied…