"At this point Father Paneloux evoked the august figure of Bishop Belzunce during the Marseille plague. He reminded his hearers how, toward the close of the epidemic, the Bishop, having done all that it behooved him, shut himself up in his palace, behind high walls, after laying in a stock of food and drink. With a sudden revulsion of feeling, such as often comes in times of extreme tribulation, the inhabitants of Marseille, who had idolized him hitherto, now turned against him, piled up corpses round his house in order to infect it, and even flung bodies over the walls to make sure of his death. Thus in a moment of weakness the Bishop had proposed to isolate himself from the outside world, and, lo and behold, corpses rained down on his head! This had a lesson for us all; we must convince ourselves that there is no island of escape in time of plague. No, there was no middle course. We must accept the dilemma and choose either to hate God or to love God. And who would dare to choose to hate Him?"
(To begin, for reasons I am not sure, it seems Camus got this historically wrong according to what I could find. Still, it is a relevant story, even if it is false.)
It seems that things are not holding together very well out there, and I did not expect any different.
As I type this, the television is announcing that the number of virus deaths in the USA is: 140,563. That is an insane number and it is only going to rise. Florida has an 18% positivity rate. To make it simple to imagine, if you have five friends in a room, one has the virus. Make that picture be in every square mile of Florida. Yeah, that's huge. But the people of the nation seem to not care.
The story Father Paneloux tells shows that biology and humanity will get their way if you ignore them. In most of the country, the virus is spreading and it does not seem to be slowing. Here in New Jersey, we are going down or are steady. From what a friend told me on the phone yesterday, you would have idea that there was a pandemic going on in the shore town of Asbury Park. Other than the restaurants being outside, it was the same. No masks, people close together. Okay, well, let's hope the heat and being outside helps keep the transmission low.
It seems that people are not taking this seriously in most of the country and that wearing a mask has become a political thing. Again, I won't go into that, simply because it is just something I have a hard time believing, that science is now a political Make Your Own Story. Well, we are paying for this and paying for it hard. The virus is just doing what it does and spreading like crazy, with the added bonus that wealthy and powerful people can get a test at any time and have results come back very quickly. Meanwhile, the working class have to wait in their cars for hours and have to wait over a week for the results.
People can tolerate a great deal of inequity for a certain amount of time if the suffering is kept to a minimum and when the poor cannot really taste the difference between the divide. But a test for a virus is a test that works for all people. The poor now realize how screwed they are when they cannot get tested and the upper part of the economic spectrum can get a test a day without any problem.
This country has seen a wave of protests that have once again shown the racial issues that we have forever seemed to deal with since, well, forever. One would have to be foolish to think that this virus did not act as the gasoline that was lit with the match of the violent acts which happened in Minneapolis. The people in my beloved city rebelled and took to the streets. This led to places all over the world having mass gatherings to protest inequality, showing a global rebellion.
In the book "The Plague", there is only light reference to actual riots in the streets. But, it must be noted that the main character Tarrou was a political revolutionary, a former rebel who has seen the fault in his way of life and is now simply trying to be, as is stated a saint who does not believe in God. But it is he who starts the volunteer squads who help with the plague when the local authorities are helpless due to the machinery of bureaucracy. His rebellion now takes form of fighting against the plague and even gets Rambert, the trapped journalist who is trying to escape, to join the fight.
If we are to believe, as Camus states, that this world is absurd and the only thing we can do to find meaning is to rebel against it to become happy, then we are now at a point where everyone can rebel and the fruits be shown. If we were to all fight against this pandemic, all of us do our part, the unification of the people would lead to a sense of hope. Think London during the Blitz of WW2. We would see the similarity within humanity before any difference. Well, ideally anyway.
But now, with the wealthy and famous behind their walls and the common people who feel powerless;ess choosing to show their power by not wearing masks, there is no unity. This has, I believe shown the level of selfishness within the country and the lack of unity that was always under the surface, with the virus and the protests causing the truth to be exposed. I can only imagine that the tide will turn when those who have been able to be far away from the majority of the country, as well as those in the larger community who choose to rebel by not wearing a mask or take precautions, will have themselves or others close to them die. from the virus.
Why does this remind me of the the gospel passages that speak of "weeping and gnashing of teeth"? It is mentioned when Jesus talks about the of the unrighteous ones upon the time of judgement. I can envision, rather easily, the look on a doubter''s face when they or someone they love gets the virus and is in the ICU. There is no religious talk here, just the moment when someone realizes they could have stopped a tragedy and did not. People chose their path and the results just happen.
If all it takes to rebel within this pandemic, if nothing else but to be a rebel against a foe that has killed over 140,000 people, please...just wear a mask and be that rebel.
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