Plague and Ulcers in Social Panic – The worst I ever “predicted” the situation of the Covid-19 outbreak in a column entitled “Fish Flu! Vegetable Flu! Air Flu!”, Written 14 years ago. Sorry, in that column I am rather cynical about people’s fears of death. The context at that time was anthrax, which to me sounds like an American railroad institution, Amtrak, but in Indonesian it means really “literary”: mad cow disease.

In summary, I say that because of human anthrax avoiding beef, because of bird flu avoiding chicken meat, then what if it continues and is surrounded by “fish flu” (don’t eat all the fish, move to eat vegetables), “vegetable flu” ( don’t eat all the vegetables, move on “eat” pranic breathing), and “air flu” (don’t breathe air, it’s finished Homo sapiens)?

Of course this is just a mischievous imagination. Just to tempt a human being who is “too dear” to life, in the sense of not having a shred of sacrifice in himself. So, if there is an epidemic, even just hearing the news, it has been accepted as “the end.” The attitude that made me write it as “a condemnation that invites further oppression”. I was only teasing, half scaring, but serious about his thesis: how fragile human life is in dependence. Especially if only “secondary dependency”: must eat beef, chicken, and so on.

Plague and Ulcers in Social Panic

This is really just a way to remind that when dependency becomes absolute, like the “air” code for the environment, that the neglect of humans studying their environment, especially after settling comfortably in a virtual universe, is a fatal denial.

I wrote in closing: “Mad cow disease and bird flu exist, not just stories in newspapers and television. So do new and old diseases, as well as new diseases that are truly new. All of them are threats to the continuation of the human species. You choose to panic and dodge behind walls or face it? Because bird flu really can’t be resisted by shamans. ” (Djakarta! March 21, 2006)

Unexpectedly, what for me today is the game of imagination being a concrete presence: Covid-19 causes masks of people everywhere, not least the positively indicated, some of them die, at a speed that is a “record outbreak”, taking place practically globally, especially in urban areas. Never before in the history of epidemics has mobilization taken place, effective or not, en masse around the world like this case.

For the first time a theme that is only found in science fiction, both books and films, becomes a fact: humanity versus whatever is clearly alien but has the potential to destroy, at least in part. The difference, what is called science here is not futuristic sophisticated. Aside from the virus, there is no new medicine. The most effective way to overcome it is ancient: enter the cave. Sure, I mean home, but what’s the difference? So, apparently there is more important than “progress”, which has been as if the goal of human life, and apparently not.

Everything that was originally a priority without ever being questioned has become no more important – political, economic, religious, sports, artistic, educational, security activities. Almost all of them are now defeated by one of the most important areas, which although it is indeed official primary needs, do not always get priority prioritizing the anticipation of a situation like this: health. Poker Online Manado

The virus refers to physical health, but what is more epidemic and takes more severe casualties than death is panic in every sense, from moral to social panic. If death dispels suffering, unnecessary panic kills more torture than death. If a moral panic breeds a decision without reasoning, the social panic that results shows the ulcers of life together.

These are ulcers that develop just as fast: (1) self-interest above the common interest seen in the price game; (2) arrogance which although born from lack of knowledge reveals social indifference and insensitivity which are prone to ulcers, both for today and for the future; (3) the tracking of political maneuvers in the interest of groups in various viral actions is misleading, including those who do not carry out any maneuvers but are waiting for the best opportunity in the disorganization of government authority.

However, in the gloomy day by day, human beauty still shows flickering of light, in the unconditional sacrifice of the warriors at the forefront, as well as the rise of the voluntary movement, which means healing the pessimism of the quality of nationality.

Please follow and like us: