I can’t believe it is May already, and I am only now sitting down to write about what has turned into one of the most historic years in global history. Considering how significant these events are, I should write something down for posterity’s sake so that those who live in another part of the great cycle of civilisation and get some insight into the fall that happens when a civilisation becomes too prideful. Like most people on the planet, I have spent the last 6 weeks indoors hiding from the visible death machine known as the CCP coronavirus by those who believe in freedom, as Covid-19 by those who believe in statism and communism, and simply as “the coronavirus” by those who don’t think deeply about politics. However, I live in Australia, and Australia is coming out of lockdown sooner that 98% of countries in the world, and with a lot more optimism that we can go back to living our lives as “normal” again. However, I don’t share this optimism. We got into this situation by being too optimistic, I don’t think more optimism is the solution. But I will no doubt get to that topic later on. For now I need to lay some of the groundwork for the story so far.
January 26th, was the date I started to panic about the CCP virus, known then as the Wuhan flu. I was aware of the virus before that date, but I wasn’t changing my behaviour before that date. On the 26th of January though I looked at my rent money of roughly $1500 set aside in advance each month for pay for the next month and spent it all on supplies as I was anticipating a lengthy quarantine. I bought everything: food, water, water filters, vitamins, medicine (including hydroxychloroquine), fuel, tools, fishing gear, and even yeast. I made sure I was prepared for the absolute worst case scenario because it was obvious in January this virus wasn’t like a previous pandemic, this virus was synthetic in origin. And to be clear, because the spin doctors are hard at work trying to associate anyone who claims that the CCP virus is artificial with people who claim it was deliberately released: I don’t believe it was deliberately released. It was almost certainly an accidental release because as ruthless and evil as the CCP are they wouldn’t ruin themselves like this. The spin doctors what to associate anyone who believes the virus is artificial with those who believe it was deliberately released because anyone who thinks viruses like this are deliberately released for political purposes are sloppy thinkers and probably have many other incredible beliefs that can be used to point derision at. Like lizardmen from space controlling the world in secret.
I actually bunkered down as best as I could in February by only leaving the house for work, and I ate through a lot of my supplies! I had to restock up again in March after two months of people telling me I was crazy for taking this virus so seriously and panicking about it. By the end of March I had several people telling me that although they didn’t take me seriously back in January about this virus when I first told them, they were taking me seriously now. Especially because I bought two years worth of toilet paper in January, and now they couldn’t even wipe their bottoms thanks to the Chinese diaspora demonstrating how tribal they really were by ruthlessly creating artificial scarcity for essential products at the CCP’s behest.
It was in March that the government finally noticed what was happening and ran in front of the group of people like myself who were busy preparing for a catastrophe, and declared themselves the leader of the movement they had been dismissing and deriding days earlier. It was official, Australia was under economic lockdown, and according to the Australian government 13 days before the USA was under lockdown, although, my memory tells me it was less than that. The next 6 weeks being at home alone were difficult to adjust to at first, but as I got used to it I started cleaning, learning how to cook (I’m most proud of being able to bake bread now), catching up on my reading, and evening pulling out an old guitar to start playing again. I’ve also had an explosion of new friends online which has been wonderful to have, so many like minded people like me who panicked with me in January and February so that none of us had to panic through April and May because we had panicked in a responsible and intelligent way: by taking actions to protect ourselves. We all had food, toilet paper, information, medicine, dank virus memes, and each other. It was only the people who had mocked us who were panicking now.
Finally, at the start of May the Australian government announced that the economic lockdown for Australia would begin to end on the 11th of May. Also, anyone who felt unwell for whatever reason could get tested, and if you needed a test to go back to work you could get tested too. So I got myself tested, and besides the pain, akin to a bee string up your nose, I came through as uninfected and ready to go back to work.
Which brings me up to the present week, with my first face to face conversations in 6 weeks, and earning money again in a global economy that’s taken a beating like nothing seen since the days of the black death. I will stop this entry here, as it’s just a recap of the last few months, and my next entry will begin to go into more details about my day to day experiences in the world during the age of the pestilence. It’s been 4 or 5 months since this thing escaped from a gain of function experiment in a Wuhan lab, and it is only the beginning. I don’t think life will ever return to normal: politically, economically, socially, and professionally. This is as many people have pointed out: the fourth turning, and we still have a decade of upheaval to go before things begin to settle down again. However, despite how bad things might look, when I stand back and look at the big picture, I am feeling optimistic about the future overall. Life is going to get very tough, but we’ve had it too easy for too long, man did not evolve in a garden of endless plenty, he grew up in the jungle, and try as he might to escape the burdens of living, he needs those burdens to keep him keen of mind, body, and spirit.
I am looking forward to this challenge helping me to bring the best out of myself.
Until next time: per aspera ad astra!
Sophisticated Nonsense 