If this were said via a panicked voice on a blackened movie screen in a theater, your heart would start racing. You could see the premise of panic as clear as day. But why have we become so numb to a reality that would have freaked us out as fiction? Well, isn't that the place where our brains fear to go?
We are heading into an abyss when it comes to the infection and death rate outside of the Eastern most places in the USA. New Your and New Jersey are not going down anymore, but are stable. That's nice to know, but there is still a risk and that, let's be honest, is scary. Within this moment the situation is as follows: You can go out without a mask and roll one dice to see if your number comes up. If you go out with a mask, it is two, maybe three dice.
And, I have to make this sidebar comment. People who have bravado (i.e. delusion) say, "Hey! I could get hit by a car every single time I go out! You always take a chance! Screw it!" Okay, well, that's true, the pick-up truck that plows into you without your seatbelt on will physically effect the parties involved in the accident. You took the chance, you pay the cost to the dealer when you get the wrong hand. But, what if that car had the chance to plow into your home as well? Or your mom's house or someone else's house you saw that afternoon? Our idea of individual freedom and taking personal responsibility for it within a nation that has not gone to an official war with a draft of its best and brightest is far from reality.
Arizona, Texas, and Florida are lighting up like a bingo board on fire when it comes to cases. With mask wearing having become a political issue, we have come as close as we could to any Old Testament Bible story crushing a nation as anyone in history. Religion on its own does not supply all the answers. Science alone does not supply all the answers. I love both very deeply and have faith in them. At the core of both is a very hard end point: there are no absolute or easy answers. Ever.
To follow blindly is a right we have within this country. However, there is always an effect after the cause. If you want to protest that the Northern White Rhinoceros was the last point of the Divine in the world, you are allowed to protest, write letters to the editor, get a press agent, have a Facebook, twitter, and Reddit page to state your beliefs. But the cause and effect of these beliefs and protests, outside of illegal activities of violence, will not effect others. Not wearing a mask and allowing close gatherings in a time of pandemic will effect others. All one has to do is look at the stats of deaths today and the proof will be there.
I honestly cannot find a link to the book "The Plague" within all this.....well, maybe there is one.
The character of Cottard is the only one happy when plague breaks out. This is because, as someone who was on the run from the law for an undisclosed serious crime, he feels free when the town turns into a prison. In the novel, Cottard tries to commit suicide and fails. The main character, Dr. Rieux, is called to him by M. Grand, something of a beautiful and absurd character who is Cottard's neighbor. When Rieux treats the man for his injury, he states that he (Rieux) must tell the police of this because, if he does commit suicide in the future, there would be deep legal problems for Rieux.
Normally, according to the book, this is literally nothing of any importance for the police. Official paperwork to avoid a lawsuit later. But for Cottard, it is the worst news. As he is on the run and hiding in Oran, to have the police even know his name is akin to being thrown in prison. Still, Rieux and Grand win out, and the police are called. Afterwards, nothing happens to him, except the plague comes to town.
But Cottard overplays his hand. Instead of laying low or even escaping to somewhere else via illegal means, he stays in town and makes a a great deal of money in the smuggling business as Oran is hurting for just about everything and those that are still alive will pay anything for what they want. In the end, the authorities figure him out via his noticed position in the illegal affairs, and he is arrested at the end of the book.
His character is really talked about in analysis of the book and that is a shame. Granted, he is not a huge character in the book, his presence has a great deal of importance. He was forever living under a death sentence, never knowing how or when he would be found. Within a city that was a lottery based death chamber, he felt at home and at peace because everyone was in his shoes for the first time.
Let's all go barefoot and never be happy in this present place, shall we?
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