“In times like these, it is helpful to remember that there have always been times like these.” – Paul Harvey
I have used this quote before, but in view of this last week’s extraordinary events, I thought it worth reusing it.
I have not lived long enough to have seen everything, but I have seen a lot, from the assassination of John Kennedy (which happened when I was in 2nd grade) through the death of my wife (two years ago). Along the way I saw a President resign from office, nearly saw WWIII (with nukes flying) begin three times, watched the fall of Saigon, the Berlin Wall, and the Soviet Union, lived through several stock market crashes, watcedh 9/11, and experienced the loss of the Space Shuttles Challenger and Columbia (both while working at Johnson Space Center).
Yet the panic I have been watching over the last week seems unprecedented. Not that I was not expecting some problems. I updated my resume last weekend, because I work for an airline in an overhead position. (Tech writers are always overhead.) Since then, I have watched every city get locked down, watched professional sports cancel their seasons, and panic buying in the supermarkets. (Really people, buying out toilet paper for a respiratory disease? Why are you not buying Kleenex?) And yes, on Thursday I was told next Tuesday is my last day at my current employer’s until airline traffic picks up again. (As I said, it was totally expected.)
And on the news, this mantra is repeated over and over:
When in trouble, fear or doubt,
Run in circles, scream and shout.
(Hat tip, Robert Heinlein.)
Running around in circles shrieking “we’re all gonna die” is not going to change anything. We all are going to die. That is because death is apportioned like birth – one to a customer. But most of us (except maybe those that run out in a blind panic into a busy street shrieking “We’re gonna die!”) are not going to die tomorrow, and likely not of the Wuhan flu. Yes, some of the elderly are at serious risk, but those elderly are always at serious risk.
And taking precautions is wise, if only to slow things down. (Death rates go up when health care gets saturated as it has in Italy. Slowing the rate of transmission means fewer people are sick at one time, spreading the length of that number over a longer period of time. This mitigates saturation.)
But, please, don’t rush out to get toilet paper so that you get some before the hoarders get it first. (Or at least hoard something sensible, like Kleenex.) Listen to the Conservatarian podcast #117. It has good advice.
As for me? I will be busier working than ever. While I won’t be going to the day job, I have a bunch of books I now have time to write. As well as writing more book proposals to get more books to write.
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