poorly led
* I wrote this screed on May 23, 2020, two days before George Floyd was murdered and man-slaughtered. The reaction to that incident pushed the COVID-19 pandemic to a back burner and before I had time to edit this piece it became irrelevant. Since that time new leaders have been elected but many are just as poor at the job as whosoever they replaced so, in my opinion, this essay recovered its relevance.
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Being alive is different than living.
Saving lives is different than living life.
Forcibly preserving lives that are not enjoyable or unproductive is not humanitarian or even good behavior ... keeping the living dead alive is not a virtue, but keeping them hooked on drugs or hooked up to machines is good business.
The living dead don't know that they may opt out because the "sanctity of life" folks, and the "we know what's best for you" folks won't ever discuss real autonomy. They aren't Pro Choice at any stage of life, or regarding any topic. They are loud and righteous however, when they dictate the terms, and tell us how to live, and to behave.
But I have questions.
You — an unhealthy POS — telling me what I can and cannot do in the best interests of my health and of those around me, do you understand how laughable that is? If health mattered, and you understood both the condition and the mattering, then you would behave differently, you would probably look different, and your words might carry more weight. But you don't care about your own health so your words on that topic mean nothing to me ... not even when they are backed by the weight of the all-knowing, best-knowing government.
The messenger matters and you knew that — you just couldn't do anything about it, to change it, to change YOU and yet you expect others to change their behavior just because the words you're repeating are backed by science, by university degrees, by the so-called consensus ... go fuck yourself. If you cannot admit that you don't know, that these are "best estimates" and not certainty, if you get caught in the lie now, it's unlikely those who can think for themselves will believe you in the future.
If it mattered and you were concerned, because you didn't believe yourself immune, maybe others would follow your lead but they don't because you can't even change your own condition so why would anyone believe in what you say?
Early during the pandemic and our response to it we ignored your credentials and your physical condition, we ignored your behavior and the do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do aspect of the declarations and decrees but alas, with a little more time and data and a little less panic and fear, we can finally see. We see those who would lead us are barely able to understand or conduct themselves according to the best, if inconsistently-prescribed practices. Once again those in power declare with their actions that there is, “one rule for us and another for everybody else.”
We are poorly led but it has not always been so.
We need better leaders but we get what deserve.
