Time Stands Still - 2020 in Review Part 2
"Caught somewhere in time, Caught now in two minds"
We were still in March 2020 when I ended part 1 of my year in review. One thing that became clear to me then was that the information zeitgeist was being bombarded with memetics. Long-term individual unemployment was being spoken of casually in the corporate media. The term “essential worker” was not yet viewed as a slur to most and the fact that liquor store employees were included in that group was yet to be questioned. This new paradigm was still very new and people seemed to be punch-drunk by what was happening. Taking into consideration everything I was absorbing, I began to talk about how this was going to be the perfect opportunity for a trial run on Universal Basic Income. When examining long-term unemployment combined with a society 2 paychecks from being homeless, it just made sense UBI would be rolled out as at least a temporary measure.
Recognizing that we were in the midst of a “health crisis,” I imagined I was someone who wanted to implement single-payer healthcare. As with UBI, I couldn’t envision a more opportune time and am honestly floored a real push hasn’t been made on that front. With an incoming left of center neo-liberal White House, I believe those cards are now fully on the table and the deck may be stacked.
Returning to people’s reactions at the end of March, it appeared to me that people were in denial and may have advanced all the way to the “acceptance” stage in a matter of a few weeks. There was not a protest to be found. Most people had become docile prisoners in their own homes. The right to “free speech” AND “assembly” were under attack yet, with the exception of a rare few, no one was asking whether this was helpful, or more importantly, how harmful this was going to be.
Another phenomena people have forgotten was time appeared to stand still. But was it that? Or was it enormous changes happening in such a short period of time that it felt as such? People were discovering a routine in which the only constant was “sheltering in place” and other actions dressed in dystopian language. The idea of the “panopticon,” where everyone has to be in a position to be monitored was something I mentioned often. Remember, anyone could be infected. We were experiencing our own version of the Salem With Trials except it was the “invisible demon” that could attack at any time. Whenever I looked at Anthony Fauci, I imagined Cotton Mather.
More to come in part 3