Changing Priorities - Cultivating Virtue

'Delaying the peak'

'Flattening the curve'

More like: 'Managing the decline.'

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It is interesting to see the lines that our various governments are taking these days in this pandemic.

In the UK and Canada, there are newly-crafted laws against mis-gendering trans and non-binary people. The laws were happily used, and people were prosecuted and convicted.

Before the outbreak, the government with its bureaucrats were happy to police private lives of its citizens: developing task forces to target 'mean tweets', to fund and implement studies on bigotry and x,y,z-phobia, to 'call-out' men who didn't call themselves 'feminists', to push diversity quotas, and punish those who strayed from or contravened the new orthodoxy.

Now, in the turbulence of the Coronavirus, we're being told to 'lean on each other', 'not panic', 'be prepared to lose loved ones' - to engage in a stoicism and reasoned deliberation that has been all but bred out of us, and mobilise towards a common cause to act in the favour of the common good.

How, exactly, are we to mobilise ourselves? Around what, exactly, shall we rally? Well, we are in quarantine or self-isolation so that puts a damper on things... We cannot physically meet to rally, or protest, but more the point I want to make: what reason do we have to do anything outside of self-interest and the immediate interests of our families and loved ones? What is the guiding ethos outside of survival?

Our 'leaders' are attempting to cheer-lead for a social fabric that no longer exists, and which, in fact, has been slowly unraveled for decades by their very blithe insistence on 'progress'.

What they've called the 'expansion of the moral sphere' is nothing but the expansion of licence to those who are vain and narcissistic enough to demand it, and back it up under the threat of censure by intolerant human rights legislation.

Culture, patriotism, national identity and character, peoplehood, family - it has all been deconstructed, devalued, and pinned on top with a Pride flag. (To be clear: each of these terms should have as [*] next them reading: 'white cis male' - and I mean this in the technical critical race theory sense.)

But given the mobilisation that has occurred, I wonder if this time is not appropriately paralleled to World War II - not the frontlines, but the homefront.

I know that WWII gets invoked a lot in order to prop up the seriousness of whatever cause one wants to promote, but with the rationing of obvious scarcity, national mobilisation around sacrifice, the odd camaraderie and fellowship that people seem to develop when life expectancy for everyone is cut to a possible 4-6 months... It seems to make things richer, deeper, and people become more grateful.

The analogy is far from perfect: we cannot mobilise production and community nearly as well as in WWII - its baked into the very nature of this crisis that we are to remain in isolation, and I don't want to get sanguine or pollyanna-ish about this: I'm not hopeful for a large communal turn away from the vices that led us here, and towards the virtues that will help build a new future.

In every age, people have thought that they're living in particularly gloomy times. I hear that. One mustn't get too doomy. But this time we find ourselves in is unique, and a sufficient amount of doomy thinking should prompt productive thinking.

The imposition of limits can inspire the imagination: like haikus or one-stroke paintings impressive beauty can be expressed within constraints. And in the past, the sword has been a traditional cure for decadence, and perhaps pestilence, though tragic, unseen, and uninvited, can be as well.

This isn't hope for the light-bulbs to flicker on in the heads of our leaders, and for there to be a serious discussion about the re-orientation of society, globalism, manufacturing and production, supply chains, and global finance. It is not a hope for someone to come down from the mountain with revelations on life.

It is hope that in this trying time, people on the ground will come to terms with that has been lost, damaged, and hidden from sight by censures, demagogues, and post-modern moralists.

People hate each other less when they need each other more and share confidence, and building shared confidence occurs with honesty: radical honesty about objectives, costs, fears, and hopes; as well as shedding the pretenses of our age, hyper-individualism and neo-liberalism, that have been propagated for decades.

This is already being seen in small instances: there are the videos of young people partying on Spring Break, or people going to pubs and bars, or other gatherings. The majority of the public looks on in shock, dismay or disgust at how such people can be so reckless and selfish, and how such disregard for one's communal duties to protect others is being flaunted.

Moving forward, though, we on the ground will have to do more than criticise. We have to be productive and present positive goals and values, and cultivate the possibilities for them to be exercised.

People should be open and honest about abilities, skills and talents. Differences have to be recognised and acknowledged - a tough one, in our age, will be complementarity between men and women. This should be acknowledged in order to create coherence in families, couples, and groups. There has to be the cultivation of the reliable person: the nurturing mother, the providing father. There isn't time for chatter about what we've come to know as 'equality', 'equity', 'diversity' and 'inclusion'. Those are distractions that people can toy with when times are comfortable - what has such chatter done to keep us out of this situation? It is a time to focus on cultivating autonomy, freedom, and dignity. 

Self-reliance and self-sufficiency, even in small things, will be important. From growing plants and herbs, to learning to pickle (lacto-ferment!) vegetables to extend shelf-life. These can be easily done in a home during isolation.

Make beef jerky - or liver jerky: it is tasty, nutritious, and is very cheap. Try buying offal - cook up a beef heart. You won't believe it isn't steak. And if you cannot cook: for God's sake, now is the time to learn. Same goes for tools - buy some, borrow some, and learn to use them.

People who can be counted on to care for others who need help will have to step up and create others like them. This can simple like grabbing groceries for an elder or a friend in need. Who knows what will happen come Spring time, but possible repairs to homes may need to be done, and the person who needs help may be a friend, family member, or neighbour who has been laid off work and cannot afford to pay a contractor. Laying a helping hand can make a big difference, if you have the skills and resources. Finally, just sharing information one has with a curious friend and family member can go a long way in spreading information for skill acquisition in a time of quarantine and isolation.

Families will have to be valued more. There is security in a family, as well as love, care and belonging. (Of course, not every family is loving, and some families are broken, etc., but families shouldn't be like that. If you don't have a salvageable family, then there are going to be other issues to deal with. I'm no doctor, and the spread of this virus is fairly clandestine with its long incubation period and asymptomatic spread, so take this with caution: is the virus worse than living with your broken family? Do you have another safe place you can go? Talk to the folks there. Wait a bit to check for symptoms, and then, if you all feel certain enough, go there.)

Contacting family and friends during this time will be important - not only are you checking in on them to see if they are OK or if they need help, but people will know who to rely upon, and who is more or less extraneous.

Start up a book club with family and/or friends.

Pick a book you all enjoy, or pick something new. What comes to my mind are books like The Road, I am Legend, and Jaws, or perhaps something less morose like The Count of Monte Cristo, Swiss Family Robinson, Time Machine, or Old Yeller.

Try picking one of the Classics - one of those books by old dead white men that the academy has tried to throw out of their curricula: Plato, Aristotle, Conrad, Melville, Chaucer, Milton, Wordsworth, Homer, Cicero, Dante, Ovid, Dickens, Tolstoy, and so on are ripe pickings. 

Like the underground educational networks in Eastern Europe under communism - building shrines in the catacombs to venerate the memory of their culture - one can cultivate deep interest and perhaps devotion to the timelessness of things.

Though many people are isolated and/or have lost their jobs and have claimed unemployment, there are those who are still working and yet are doing double-duty as workers and parents, or as care-givers to the elderly, or those who are sick, themselves. Making time can be difficult - but the difficulty is the constant, here, and how one deals with it will illustrate one's commitment or desire to making the best of this situation.

I'm not trying to get all high-minded about this: reading a good book and chatting about it can really pass the time, and sadly most people will just binge-watch whatever NetFlix throws their way.

If reading books is too cumbersome then try a film - a good one. But when the comics become dull, when the irony ceases to elicit a smirk, and when the formulae become predictable there is always the option to turn to things more rich, sincere, and illuminating. These are stable in an unstable world.