I’m sitting here in Mexico in a big beautiful house we rented for six weeks. When we rented the place, we had four weeks’ worth of confirmed guests who were planning to visit here. It was going to be a great experience, spending quality time with some of our closest friends.
Then the world went crazy over swine flu.
Some friends may still have made it, except that the Mexican government recently announced they were closing all nonessential private businesses (including restaurants). Now my wife and I are in a strange town for the next month with not much to do, no visitors coming, and few ways to make new friends. What are we going to do?
We’re going to make lemonade out of this Swine Flu, so to speak, and you should too.
The “eminent pandemic” (as the W.H.O. puts it) has been a major inconvenience to millions of people. Public events are being canceled, travel plans scuttled, and parents are having to find ways to deal with their kids who are out of school.
What’s the upside of all this? What can we gain from it?
If you read this blog often, you know it’s about liberating yourself from the societal norms that pressure us to behaving like sheep. I encourage people to strive to live their ideal lives instead of living how everyone else expects them to.
Try to use the disruptions caused by the Swine Flu as reason to evaluate your life and what’s important to you. Also, consider how you are reacting to the news in comparison to society as a whole. This may offer some insight into how you let social expectations influence the way you live.
For instance, how do you value facts versus sentiment? How easily are you swayed by hype and sensational stories? What were your first thoughts when you heard of Swine Flu? How much of what you hear about it in the news do you take at face value?
What do I take away from the situation? There are both personal and societal reflections to be made.
On the personal front, the situation has reinforced that friends and social interactions are as important to us as anything. My wife and I have been crushed by the fact that we won’t be spending the time with our friends that we had so looked forward to.
On top of that, the potential closing of public places including restaurants and bars here in Mexico leaves us with little opportunity to meet new people. Luckily the Internet provides a way to talk to people (please, make a comment on this blog!), even if it is no substitute for face-to-face conversations.
On the societal front, it’s clear once again that fear is an unusually strong motivator for most of society. It’s also amazing to think about the influence that the news media has over all of us. A tiny smattering of facts has consumed so much air time and page space that we all owe it to ourselves to consider what the majority of that time and space consists of if not fact.
You may draw other conclusions, and that’s great. The Swine Flu story has become such a unique and widespread piece of public consciousness that it gives us a great opportunity to learn more about ourselves and our culture. If you want to share your thoughts, researchers would love to hear what you have to say.
Whatever you conclude, at least you are thinking about it instead of just accepting what you are told, and that’s a critical skill necessary for living an extraordinary life.
What have you learned about yourself or society from Swine Flu? Let me know in the comments!
photo by Jim Linwood
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Reminds me of a book I once read called “On Mexican Time”.
Sounds appropriate. I do have time on my hands. I’ll have to check it out.
Here are my thoughts: First of all, props to the photographer and you for a little Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy love.
Second of all, before I go any further, let me say that I have not donned a surgical mask, and I am getting on a flight for Boston in under a week and will not be wearing one then either.
The panic that many people are showing seems to be a little over the top.
However, – and remember this comes from a cynic – the nay-sayers who compare this current situation to the general flu and tack it up to a mere media-driven ratings-generating craze, are too cynical for their own, and potentially millions of other’s, own good.
Consider, if you will, if the Bush administration had announced in 2003 that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was woefully unprepared for certain types of disasters, and announced their belief that if a hurricane were to hit New Orleans that there could be catastrophic damage the likes of which would not be fully recovered from for a decade or longer. No doubt, the media would have latched onto the announcement and started reporting multiple stories of small natural disasters from around the world, and NBC would have produced an epic miniseries called “Typhoon” within two months. There would be stories of people moving away from fault lines and coast lines and of islanders heading to the mainland for fear of a volcanic eruption. These would represent a ten-millionth of a single percent of the population, but they would be the stories that were covered. There would probably be an increase in reports that we should expect more powerful natural disasters in the near future as a result of climate change, too.
And most of the rest of us would roll our eyes and change the channel.
But then Katrina would hit, and while all of the over-reaction would still seem like over-reaction, there would probably be several million silent nods of the head to the administration who prepared ahead of time for a disaster. (Although, I imagine, with a proper response from the government, there would be far less to report, and so what MIGHT have happened – and, of course, did – would not fully be realized and so the credit for averting a disaster would go ungiven.)
My point is that preparation for disaster will ALWAYS seem unnecessary when the disaster is seen as unlikely or commonplace. “We get hurricanes all the time, it’s bad, but it’s not that terrible. A few people die, a few lose their homes. No big. Relax, Bush.” Or, “The flu rampages the world every year. Millions die. It must be a slow news year to be making a big deal out of this one. The worst that could happen is what happens every year.”
Here’s the problem: this virus is neither unlikely to spread, nor is it commonplace.
It is a virus, the type of which the world has not seen in 90 years. When that virus reared it’s head, 20% of the population of the world suffered from the disease, and anywhere from 50-100 million people died. Those numbers are enormous. And not just the deaths. Remember, living through something like this is not to be thought of lightly either. In some cases, survivors were disabled after their “recovery.”
Now, granted, that virus killed by cytokine storms which, so far, there is no evidence to suggest that the swine flu is capable of – but the swine flu does seem to be capable of killing those with strong immune systems – something more common strains typically do not do. But the virility and contagiousness of this thing is on par with Spanish Flu from nearly a century ago.
There is no way to stop it. There is no way to kill it, since it’s not alive. It can only be contained. But its growth is exponential. Successful containment must happen BEFORE it appears to be needed. Once the common man believes that there is a problem, it is too late. It won’t stop until it runs itself out, Spanish Flu style. And I think that we are far too naive about what global outbreak will look like.
How many cases are there worldwide? Percentage-wise, zero. Zero point zero zero zero zero …. Why on earth are we freaking out about this? Because if we don’t freak now, and that number gets a little closer to a tenth or even a hundredth of a percent, it will be too late. Containment is possible this early; it won’t be then. And that tiny percentage will grow to…what? Spanish Flu levels? Possibly. Keep in mind though, that if it were to reach those levels, we’ll be looking not at 330 million infections, but on the order of 1.34 Billion sufferers.
I guess the question is, how bad will it get before the bulk of the population decides it’s worth inconveniencing ourselves to starve this thing out? And will it be too late?
For a great historical read that is not primarily about the Spanish Flu, but does contain a few chapters when it sweeps through its character’s lives, check out The Given Day by Dennis Lehane (author of Mystic River and the excellent Shutter Island).
As I write this, I just found out that the building my sister works in (whom I will be visiting in Boston soon) has nine confirmed cases of swine flu. Awesome.
Please don’t hear me saying that the masses are not in fact unduly controlled by fear. This is a fact which the media both capitalizes on and perpetuates (as does our government, no doubt). I’m just concerned that we are all the villagers to the media and government’s boy who cried wolf too many times, and we may all end up bitten if we don’t pay heed this time.
Hey Tim. Thanks for sharing a thoughtful argument in favor of (potentially) over-preparing. It’s a shame that the talking heads don’t spend more time explaining why preparation is important. Maybe a thoughtful discussion just wouldn’t keep us all glued to the television as much. You’re right that the “boy who cried wolf” syndrome is a real danger both now and in the future.
Sadly, the W.H.O. hasn’t done much to let people know why they should or shouldn’t panic. The new 1 to 6 rating scale they use focuses only on the spread of a disease, without any indication of how severe infections are. Maybe they should adapt the system to include severity as well? How about an A to X rating where “A” means almost no one will die from infection and “X” means Spanish Flu levels of mortality.
-Corbett
Keep preaching it Corbett! Progress would not be possible without deviation from the norm! Loving your blog. Sending positive vibes from the Dominican Republic! :0) Jill
Thanks, Jill. I’m glad you like the blog. Here’s to progress. Enjoy the Caribbean!