The pandemic sweeping the world has brought a lot of things\nto light. Many, many people prefer to believe in something that isn\u2019t true, if\nit makes them feel better about themselves and their immediate surroundings.\nDelusion is the word for this state of mind and it seems to be a perspective as\ncontagious as the virus itself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As someone following, researching, and reporting on the state of the environment for the past 20+ years, I have always felt that delusion was widespread but only now, as we all face this monumental challenge, did this mental contagion express itself so ubiquitously. But looking back, this disease was always present and visible, though less recognizable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So many natural systems are extremely stressed out by human\nactivities, yet, little effort is being made to reverse these trends. The vast\nmajority of people don\u2019t do much of anything to make things \u201cright\u201d. As I have\nwritten here previously, I fully understand that most who are economically-strapped\nand time-limited are not in a position to do much given the way our society is\nstructured (i.e., they are dependent on a hyper-capitalist economy that\nexploits their labor and compels them to consume commercial products until they\nliterally drop\u2014by another well-known disease known as affluenza). However, if\none is on a ship that is crashing, it makes sense to get off the ship or at\nleast attempt (really hard) to redirect it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s briefly look at the current situation. Since the beginning of the outbreak, increasing numbers of people were calling for a return to \u201cnormalcy\u201d. Primarily, their appeal was couched in economic terms. The argument goes something like this: we absolutely have to save the economy, even if it costs thousands, perhaps millions, of lives. Now, we find this has become the dominant attitude; bars have opened (or are soon opening) in many parts of country. Despite warnings from key epidemiologists and virologists, politicians are feeling the heat from swarms of constituents (some strangely brandishing high-powered weapons).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All of this is happening despite the reality that the United\nStates has already witnessed the most deaths from this virulent, yet\nmicroscopic, virus. Thousands of first responders have lost their lives in\norder to save others. More will undoubtedly perish\/suffer as well, especially\nas hordes of people flock to bars, parties, and shopping malls. These actions\nare being criticized by some but these responses are being overwhelmed by our\ncollective compulsion to \u201cshop\u201d our way out of misery. And as with most\necologically harmful actions, the unwise decisions of the irresponsible and inconsiderate\namong us will make matters worse for all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet, how many are asking key questions that deserve clear responses? Was this pandemic inevitable? (No, it wasn\u2019t; I will likely write more on this later.) Why weren\u2019t we prepared (and why does the U.S. appear to be among the least prepared of all)? Why are first responders\u2019 lives being recklessly disregarded despite their exhibiting amazing bravery and compassion for an extended period of time. This extreme callousness by some leaders and residents alike is reminiscent of the way we treat our soldiers before, during and after combat. Absolutely despicable. Yet, the caskets keep getting filled and there is, yet, almost no accountability for the immoral acts of those in authority who have the power to mandate things like PPE for all responders, virus tests for all (not just the few and symptomatic), expanded resources to public health centers, and so many other consequential \u201clife and death\u201d programs and opportunities. Clearly, we need to really dig deeper and expose the lack of preparedness and other serious misgivings of our current government, media, and economic structures. Failure to do this serves to feed delusion and ensures that it maintains its hegemony in our collective psyche.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To be sure, I have one of the most serious cases of delusion. I claim to have dedicated my life to make things better for all. I have tried a lot of things and I continue to do so. However, I still go about my business like most others. I also don\u2019t have the courage to be a \u201cfirst responder\u201d nor the wherewithal to put my neck out there too far to expose the system for all its shortcomings. A blog that twenty people read doesn\u2019t count for much. Much more needs to be done. A lot, lot more (my next Blog). I realize this and I am still trying to figure out what is next for me and possibly for us. Yet, the more I think about it, the more delusion creeps in, particularly when the wave of delusion from so many others seems to be growing exponentially in force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If others wiser and more insightful than I have ideas for\nwhat we can do to cure delusion, please let me know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[I recognize that this blog is less optimistic than most that\nI write. It identifies a mental \u201cdisease\u201d that might be more difficult to cure\nthan the virus at hand. Any disease that is going to be eradicated must first\nbe properly understood and deeply investigated. To begin that process is my\ngoal here.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The pandemic sweeping the world has brought a lot of things to light. Many, many people prefer to believe in something that isn\u2019t true, if it makes them feel better about themselves and their immediate surroundings. Delusion is the word for this state of mind and it seems to be a perspective as contagious as … Continue reading “You Really Want the Truth? Probably Not. Most Don\u2019t.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-challenges","category-justice","category-solutions"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7BrNb-4h","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/solarutopia.org\/onehuman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/solarutopia.org\/onehuman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/solarutopia.org\/onehuman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solarutopia.org\/onehuman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solarutopia.org\/onehuman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/solarutopia.org\/onehuman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":273,"href":"https:\/\/solarutopia.org\/onehuman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions\/273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/solarutopia.org\/onehuman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solarutopia.org\/onehuman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solarutopia.org\/onehuman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}