History Does Repeat Itself
History Does Repeat Itself
Our stupidity during the times of pandemic is nothing new
“Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.”
George Carlin
As we are heading towards the possible third wave of Covid, people seem to have forgotten, the impact of our stupidity, mismanagement, and corruption during the pandemic.
Humans have been acting the same way every time a pandemic grips the world. Nothing is new.
Modernization and technology do not change our basic human nature. It's just, who we are.
Everything that happened in the current pandemic was predictable. We knew there would be a shortage of essential supplies. We knew, there would be a second wave. We knew there would be vaccine hesitancy. Nothing was new. And yet, we failed to manage it, miserably.
A movie and a book that I want to recommend today, talks about the mentality of the masses and the administration, during a pandemic. You will relate to them instantaneously because we all have faced it, this time. And both of these were written way before the first case reported from Wuhan.
The Plague by Albert Camus - 1947
Camus is one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century. I wanted to read this book since the start of the pandemic.
The Plague talks about an outbreak of bubonic plague in a North African town, Oran, and how the lives are stuck in horrors of loneliness, helplessness, and death.
"...that a loveless world is a dead world, and always there comes an hour when one is weary of prisons, of one’s work, and of devotion to duty, and all one craves for is a loved face, the warmth, and wonder of a loving heart."
This one is a must-read, especially during the pandemic.
Contagion - by oscar-winning filmmaker Steven Soderbergh
It's a 2011 film about a viral pandemic that started in Taiwan (a Chinese colony), originated from bats, spreads through fomites, and comes under the SARS category. Sounds familiar, isn't it?
The movie depicted, scene by scene, everything from lockdown, to people hoarding essential stuff to vaccination, the way it is happening right now.
If you don't have time to read, you can watch the movie instead.
All the best!
See you next week.
Ciao!