I know that some of the people I most respect in the world are telling me that I need to have some 'epistemic humility'. That is, that since I'm no expert and I have not been trained in anything relating to contageous diseases and reading patterns, I need to have the words, 'I don’t' know,' very close at hand.
However, I really feel convicted about this. So this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to write down my view, and if I'm wrong, it will help me be more humble. I don’t know what will happen if I'm right. Perhaps that is the danger.
I am quite certain that in the years to come, we will find that here in North America, we will find that we majorly over-reacted to the COVID 19 novel Corona virus. Here are my reasons.
1. We have a health cult in our culture.
There has been an advertisement up in Winnipeg called, "#savethe100". It is an add sponsored by our provincial tax dollars put into our car insurance company. At face value, this is something everyone can get behind: "100 people died in car accidents last year in Manitoba, let's all drive safer and get that number down to zero!" But the subtle undertone is this: in our hands is the power of life and death. If we just take the right precautions, if we just eat the right food, if we just do the right exercises… we'll live even longer, healthier, etc. No one would ever say, 'we'll never die,' but there is a strong implicit message: we are gods. It follows to me that when a virus comes through our culture, we will try to do something only God can do: extinguish death. But the problem is we can't. So we just keep adding restrictions and health measures, we keep banning more and more substances thinking that if we just find all the things that lead to death and make them illegal, we can live forever. I've seen this pattern in our culture long before Corona virus, and this to me is just the latest manifestation of it.
2. We are narcissistic as a culture
If you want to hear language that is the most historically narcissistic then watch sports. You will not get in more than ten minutes and you'll hear something like this: 'This is the first time a left handed pitcher has gotten three strike outs in Baltimore in history'. Who really cares about this? But the point is that the commentators have to make you feel as though you are watching moments that will be talked about for generations to come. That is one of the main things that makes live sports intoxicating. You were there. Certainly, there are some moments that live on a few generations. But those are few and far between, and most of even these will be forgotten in the next 60 - 70 years. What does this have to do with Corona virus?
We have been trained to think in terms of making history, being present for the great moments of history, etc. We say things like, 'this has never happned before,' and it stems from a subtle narcissism that wants to make ourselves the centre of history. We want to be the ones that were THERE for the great ____________ of 2020. But for the most part, we live pretty uneventful lives. Therefore, knowing that tendency in our culture, I am predicting that Corona virus will be something that is a relatively small blip on the historical map, perhaps only demonstrating how foolish we all were to lock down the culture for something like this.
3. The news is inflammatory
I'm really sorry, but this is the one that I just can't see how people can't see. I have spoken to many people about this simple fact: 'remember, one of the most powerful tools of news media is fear. If you are afraid, you will tune in. So they will always hype things up'. Everyone responds with a sort of, 'Yes, I know that! Do you think I’m stupid or something?' But all of a sudden, the news media is gospel truth. Even worse, some people think that the Corona virus is likely WORSE than the news media is saying. But if we consider news media for the past 20 years, it has almost always overblown events in the world. On this basis alone it is worth considering that the Pandemic is overblown.
These are my reasons for beliving that the Corona virus Pandemic is being overblown by our culture. I want to be clear and say that I'm not saying that there will not be big issues that come from this. I don't know what is going to happen in our culture and in our economy because of this. But I am quite certain the restrictions and the lock down have been a great exercise in folly.
