Every crisis has two constituencies—those directly affected (in this case, anyone who actually contracts coronavirus), and everyone else, who experiences the secondary consequences. I’ve always been a part of the latter group, thankfully. Adrian Chen tweeted the other day that coronavirus “is revealing all the sickest parts of American society like tracer dye,” which is a pretty good description of what widespread disasters always do. For us bystanders, this one is pretty different, though, and more existentially distressing in some ways: There is no tangible event to focus on, the panic precedes the danger itself, which amorphously stretches out across weeks or months, and the main action we can take to be helpful is to get the hell away from one another. To a greater extent than other crises, with the exception of the 2008 financial crash, we are the villain here: our political leaders, our institutions, and even our own callous lack of seriousness and preparation. It’s hard to evaluate how much we could have reasonably done to stop the disease’s spread, but if you must blame someone, you might just sort of blame everyone.
#119: Stop Making Sense
#119: Stop Making Sense
#119: Stop Making Sense
Every crisis has two constituencies—those directly affected (in this case, anyone who actually contracts coronavirus), and everyone else, who experiences the secondary consequences. I’ve always been a part of the latter group, thankfully. Adrian Chen tweeted the other day that coronavirus “is revealing all the sickest parts of American society like tracer dye,” which is a pretty good description of what widespread disasters always do. For us bystanders, this one is pretty different, though, and more existentially distressing in some ways: There is no tangible event to focus on, the panic precedes the danger itself, which amorphously stretches out across weeks or months, and the main action we can take to be helpful is to get the hell away from one another. To a greater extent than other crises, with the exception of the 2008 financial crash, we are the villain here: our political leaders, our institutions, and even our own callous lack of seriousness and preparation. It’s hard to evaluate how much we could have reasonably done to stop the disease’s spread, but if you must blame someone, you might just sort of blame everyone.