We are in the never ending loop of undefined days. Well, that's not totally true. We have the case counts and death toll rising to give us some sort of benchmark for a passage of time. What is the number for the USA now? Just shy of 153,000? And there is no great rebellion, no massive rise in marches against this state of waves of illness and death. Any rebellion is, at best, localized. The political news has been astoundingly effective at deflecting the conversation away from the plague. One could stand in awe at it if the entire building were not on fire around them.
It is now the last day in July of this year and it just feels like some daze...if one chooses to not go out. Here in New Jersey, the governor has stated that he is going to put in place the previous lockdown measures if people do not stop gathering at 700 people parties, bars and restaurants down at the Jersey show, or just going to the store WITHOUT A DAMN MASK! I have lived in New Jersey for the majority of my life, and I can tell you one thing: no one cares and this weekend will be full of parties and hook-ups and drinking and gatherings everywhere is the blessed Summer sun...and we will be back on severe lockdown again very very very soon. The rise in cases seems to have bothered no one, the release from the imprisonment has made everyone forget about any crime they could commit and the repercussions of them.
We are all in denial one way or the other. I blame this on the lack of national solidarity on to do what is needed for the common good. Organized religion has lost a great deal of ground in the past decades, so sports and the government have had to pick up the needed slack. The concept of community has also broken down. If you don't believe me about things breaking down in the individual cohesiveness of morality, just ask any lawyer the kind of cases they are getting, the type of legal cases that are before a judge. And, while you are at it, ask any public school teacher what the students and parents are like. We are fractured and amusing ourselves to death.
Do not take my comments as an absolute. There are, and always will be, wonderful and caring people. However, in the distant past of six months ago, the actions of those who were selfish and cared for their own personal interests were not directly felt on a day to day basis by the general populous. But that has changed and the fact that there is over 4.5 million cases of the virus in the US, with no sign of stopping, speaks for itself.
This nation is fracturing on many levels and a crash of the stock market would just have it fall into an abyss. This is because there would be no way of hiding behind the illusion of a healthy economy. I say "illusion" because stocks have had their fourth straight months of gains while the GDP has fallen over 32% in the last quarter, a number that has surpassed the Great Depression of the 1930's. When the next quarter result comes in and that number is tragic again, I would not be surprised of the great reckoning arriving.
There are many who have entered this plague with their heads already in the sand as to the world around them. There are others who plunged into the sand when they could not take it anymore. But there are some of us who are just so damn weary of the same day repeating over and over again, like the character Raymond Rambert playing his one album over and over again every day, whose backs are growing sore and keeping our heads from just collapsing and diving head first into the sand just so we can stop the pain and maybe get a good night's sleep.
By the way, it is Summer out there. If you do touch your face to the sand right now, you will get burned. Trust me, you will be burned
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