Ramble

Been a while since I hit the ol’ keyboard. Work has been nuts and although that won’t be for much longer, took more brain power than I am used to expending. This deficit left me with little mental power to write. This is more of a rambling diatribe than a serious piece. As if any of my writing is serious…

There is no doubt many millions of people are evaluating their lives right about now. Those for whom much has changed. Those for whom much is lost. Those for whom are just realizing that old age has sealed their fate in gaining employment in the after-life of this pandemic. I would be one of those folks.

Working all my life to chase the ‘dream’ I cultivated from a very young age, reaching it and then losing it, has been profound. As an adult, you think you can figure out what’s going to happen, how to fix any situation, what materials and paths are necessary to secure your future. It’s mind-blowing to find out that one unexpected catastrophe throws 60-years of planning out the window.

Chalk this surprise up to the Great American Spirit. We’re kind of something else, eh?

People that buy property on the coasts know there will be hurricanes. People that live in the Midwest, know there will be tornadoes. People that live in the mountains or way up North, know there will be blizzards. You just take your chances on the odds of it actually happening to you. There are things you pay for protection, like insurance. Maybe you save a little money in the bank. You might build a shelter underground. All in all, not surprises, just a spin of the roulette wheel.

Few, however, consistently plan for a pandemic. The past 20-years, I have spouted that it won’t be a nuclear war that takes out humanity. It will be an insidious unknown airborne bug or some sort. Voila! It is starting. Now, I do not believe COVID-19 is the one that will wipe us all out. I believe it is the first indication of what is coming, though. It brings me no pleasure in being right about this prediction.

I sound like Debbie Downer today…sheesh. The new technological reality we will experience soon, was coming anyway. Those of us from the technology world (and yes, I am old and an IT dinosaur, but still know a thing or two) have seen it coming for years. I don’t mean Bots taking over the world and mankind. Just the reliance on humans for basic tasks such as, manufacturing, cleaning, and clerical-type jobs, is going away. This pandemic somewhat validated and accelerated this hypothesis. We knew it would happen eventually, we just weren’t ready.

There was no time for the government to spin the projected future early enough for it to be palatable and understandable to the carbon units. This is usually laid out in long press campaigns and subliminal messaging. Geez, now I sound like Connie Conspiracy. There is no time for alternatives to be in place to accommodate the Luddites left in the wake. There is no time for the technology to be installed that handles the “in-between” scenarios. We are in a gap.

Debbie Downer is back. The likes of what we will experience next is going to be something that will test the Great American Spirit, unlike anything before. The polarization of this country is not between Republican and Democrat. Liberal or Conservative. Haves versus the Have-Nots. It is between the realists and the fantasy believers. To sound even harsher, the smart versus the stupid. No bias showing there, eh? That last statement is not meant to paint a broad stroke about intelligence. I know some very smart people that are stupid at times.

In this new fantasy-land there is approximately a third of the country, who follow a fictional yellow brick road, and want their reality to be the only way. They give up any semblance of logic and critical thinking to let the mind and soul be controlled by their secret beliefs. Damn the facts, science or truth disproving those beliefs.

The problem is the rest of us are letting the tail, wag the dog.

Cliches, what would we do without them?