Want to shake hands?
(Remember what that was like, back in the old days of all the years B.V. (‘Before the Virus’)?)
Just like old days.
Hashtag SocialGathering
In the old days, B.V., self-isolation, avoidance of socialization, and anything that could be called “social distancing” from fear of germs was considered an indicator of need for psychotherapy.
Don’t forget that in the old days, there
was always a nonzero, actually not-insignificant risk of contracting nasty pathogens from ordinary social contact. That risk still exists; it is
drastically increased by COVID-19, but still exists quite apart from COVID-19. If SARS-CoV-2 were to totally disappear tomorrow, then the risk would still exist.
There is a rare worldwide shared cultural experience going on in the form of the pandemic and the resulting unprecedented social distancing policies.
By the way...
I snapped off and YELLED at an elderly relative. A month ago, he was terrified that he would die Any Day Now from the frailty and ill health of old age. Now, he has declared that coronavirus is “The End of the World”—quote-unquote; his words.
There is indeed a high probability that he will now die of coronavirus, given his age and general state of health—that he will now die of coronavirus, instead of dying of whatever scared him a month ago, and two months ago, and six months ago... [...]
Given the high risk to him, I do want for him to treasure whatever remaining days he may have—without being consumed by obsessive fear. But that is not under my control.
I have elderly family members whom I now have not seen in several weeks. They are now in strict isolation. They may somehow catch COVID-19 anyway—or, because they are old and in poor health, they may drop dead any day from something else. They and I may now be losing our last-ever opportunity to spend some cheerful quality time together. Or
any time together. We may literally never see each other in person again,
because of attempts to protect them from COVID-19.
It may be a reasonable trade-off. Or maybe not. Nobody is talking about this. Nobody even dares to think about it.
In my own life, to protect
myself, I am making some severe trade-offs. But I am doing that consciously, coldly, without fear; and there are individuals whom I care about sufficiently that for my part, I would risk COVID-19 to spend some time with them
if I could. There are also faraway individuals whose actual illness with COVID-19 I would personally attend if I could, even if they were to cough all over me—even though that would be almost tantamount to a suicide mission for me. Each trade-off must be weighed differently—
consciously, coldly, without fear...
As with several past bitcointalk.org April Fools things, it's more of a new/weird/fun way for people to interact with the forum and generate discussion, not a joke as such. Certainly it wasn't meant to somehow poke fun at the many real tragedies created by the coronavirus situation; it was meant to connect with the huge thing dominating the minds/lives of basically everyone on Earth.
Thank you, theymos.
Dear readers of the forum:
Some of you will die from the coronavirus. (—Some few of you: The virus has low lethality except to the aged or otherwise frail.) The virus may kill me, too; maybe, maybe not. That is acceptable: Life is risk, and death is a part of life. My only sadness is that sometimes, the worst befalls the best of people.
What is unacceptable is panic, bureaucratic “do something!” tyranny, and worst of all, hybris.
Also and overall, cowardice. Difficulty coping with the reality that life was never safe: It is just more unsafe than it was B.V., and is actually being made much more unsafe by panic reactions.
