We are not the pinnacle of Creation, or the high point of evolution, depending on your religious orientation. Or the descendants of extraterrestrials from Remulac. God, or Darwin, or Remulac, did not wind us up and set us ticking through the world repeating the same old crap under a different name, expecting different results. Each of these purportedly omnipotent sources is by definition way smarter than that.

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It has come down to this: we have neglected and abused the Common, and now the Common may well kill us off.

Your life depends on how much money you can accumulate, however you can get it. Food, shelter and medical care are commodities for sale. You are on your own. Good luck.

Many of us act like we're happy under this absurd arrangement. People have said that it's "The Human Condition," or "Nature's Way," or "God's Will." That last argument means if you were born rich, you did something right; if you were born in misery, it's your fault. If they don't like that unhappy theory they cite Bentham: "The Greatest Good for the Greatest Number." You can make a lot of money saying that, these days.

Except this doesn't work anymore. Your life now depends entirely on the Commons. It always has. We borrowed from it freely, and cooked the books.

Pandemics wipe out populations of ignorant people and staunch individualists, alike. If you ignore the Germ Theory, you can infect others, most likely starting with those you care about most.

Say it's all a hoax; say a "lockdown" is all just a plot. Decide you know as much as people with decades of scientific experience and real public health accomplishments. We're talking about the kind of people who brought us indoor plumbing. That has worked out really well for all of us. What's not to like? But go ahead, bet the lives of your family and friends on your personal opinion. Go with, say, "Rush," or the beloved President. Lots of people will agree with you, according to them. They can't all be wrong, can they? Why would they lie? They have nothing to gain. But those scientists, just plumbers with all that grant money from George Soros, right?

What's this argument really about, really?

It boils down, as arguments do, when we manage them with respect. This one is about just one issue: whether you are responsible, in any way, for other people's wellbeing. Or not.

It's a tough choice, and it's yours to make. As a person of integrity, you act on your word. Either by wearing a mask and staying six feet apart from everybody; or by standing shoulder-to-shoulder at ball games and church picnics and political rallies, boldly unmasked! It doesn't matter what you say at that point, your actions are doing the talking.

Regardless of which side you chose, you probably call this Solidarity (it just means guarding each other's backs.)

What if you're wrong?

Would you change your ways, or would you refuse to give up?

If you say we are responsible for others, and the pandemic turns out to be nothing but a Democrat plot against our beloved President, what harm have you done?

Or, if you say it's everyone for him-or-herself, and the pandemic wipes out several million people, maybe including your own family, then what?

(Gotcha alert. Stick around. You walked into this with eyes wide open.)

Oh, yes: the Economy.

But we're all acting in our own self-interest, because that's what makes Growth, um, sustainable, we're not responsible for the other passengers on the subway with nothing to eat cause they've nothing that sells because, um, our duty is to put our own mask on first I mean oxygen not N95, um, for the Common, um, thing. Right?

And if they get sick?

So now it comes down to which Common is the Common: everybody's personal wellbeing, or the so-called Economy. And they are: The. Same. Thing.

(That was the aforementioned Gotcha.)

It won't do. We're literally "all in this together." Ship-at-sea together. There are still Incontrovertible Facts even a "Rush" can't mess with, and this is one: what's happening now is happening to all of us. If there is a leak at my end of the ship, your end will sink too. That's the Common.

When the infamous business version of the cost-benefit analysis that now drives public policy neglects the Common, it neglects the Economy, everyone's wellbeing, and life itself. All the present upheavals we are all experiencing so disproportionately today trace back to this abuse of the Common as a commodity. The impacts of this are so awful that it qualifies as a centuries-old public health pandemic in itself.

Time's up! Fortunately, we have a choice.

We are not the pinnacle of Creation, or the high point of evolution, depending on your religious orientation. Or the descendants of extraterrestrials from Remulac. God, or Darwin, or Remulac, did not wind us up and set us ticking through the world repeating the same old crap under a different name, expecting different results. Each of these purportedly omnipotent sources is by definition way smarter than that.

Life is an interactive process. We change and are changed. We got here by diversity and adaptation, and as soon as we stop diversifying and adapting, we're history. Without us, not even history. This is the game we can really lose.

"Capitalism" is not the Law of the Jungle. It was made up by people. Some we could name. Now it has not just failed, it's on fire, and will burn to the waterline like a ship at sea. It's a great analogy: with a deranged captain still barking orders about imaginary borders or boarders or something, we cling to a burning, sinking derelict without rudder or compass, giving all our water to the officers while we die of thirst. Or we will crowd ourselves into a smaller boat, and head out into the trackless unknown with little else but hopeful hearts.

The longer and harder we cling to the past, the worse it gets.

(Article changed on June 14, 2020 at 19:23)

Authors Website: https://attentionage.com

Authors Bio:

I'm an old Pogo fan. For some unknown reason I persist in outrage at Feudalism, as if human beings can do much better than this. Our old ways of life are obsolete and are killing us. Will the human race wake up in time? Stay tuned...