kitten wrote:
rando, i am extremely baffled by some of what you're extrapolating by me going "hey, extremely weird thing you said, my dude." if you look at what you said, it's a pretty weird and pretty weirdly phrased aside. i was just taken aback for a moment.
K, sorry but I posted something like 10k words in 24 hours or so, and I did not post any markers for irony (maybe we should have small gallows icons? Ahem...).
I am presupposing a lot rather than asserting it, also because humour, especially the gallows variety, requires readers to figure out what the author is presupposing (success rate may vary, agreed).
I wish that I were this productive when writing papers, to be fair.
Let me try to recap:
My wife has shown a clear form of uncontrolled panic by connecting completely unrelated health problems to Co-VID19. Yes, we called the doc, and the doc said that she has something else and wrong diagnoses in this kind of situation would be paramount to suicide.
Also, the harsh language is originally a quote from late grandma, who once gloriously said "Oh, does your wife still [Snap here! The rest is too nasty!]".
Please forgive me but I grew up in that kind of environment in which verbal uppercuts were the daily diet (you know, rednecks from a small town in the Italian mountains: T-Rex levels of thick skins were expected especially at home). These are the moments in which I forget that normal people may not...enjoy them.
Besides, gentler language would not have
communicated how pissed off I was. Royally trashy and offensive? Yes. Effective? Too. Do I use this kind of language often? No, and I never use ethnic slurs, but for the rest you may be terrified by what I can say with the sole purpose of shocking people (Aside: I spent five years in Australia and people could also be that nasty for endearing purposes).
This is the personal domestic case, but the police is now arresting people displaying this kind of panic-based behaviour on a regular basis. Medicine (last year) students and trainees have been drafted in by the government to face the gigantic volume of psychological stress that people are facing.
Just to give you an idea, I will probably need to train medicine students from my Uni on how to give counseling in English. I am a linguist, but let's say that my English skills and pleasant Italian manners are much appreciated [insert stone-throwing at the author of this post after this comment].
My two cents are that I have been in contact with people who have been exposed to the general "panic pandemic" since day zero, so in terms of "stress load" I am seeing that the psychological toll is far bigger than the physical toll (but the economic one will be severe...).
By week 7 (if I am counting correctly), most people are snapping over trivial and not-so trivial matters, and thus under- and over-reporting situations on a daily basis.
Personally I am snapping over this issue, because a general problem with human beings is to try to "contagiate" calm people with one's panic in this kind of situations.
A looks at B and says: "I am freaking out! Why you are not freaking out?!" and B is under pressure to freak out ("Shared a pain, half a gain", an Italian proverb says).
Honestly, I cannot bring myself to panic about what might be a nasty flu, which can be avoided by standard prevention measures. I indeed am at loggerheads with family and relatives (and colleagues, and building administration...).
I generally suggest to deflect whatever panic you detect in others with numbers, rationality, and a well-oiled axe if language does not bring the point home. If my experience is anything to go by, workplaces will be pure chaos if the threat becomes real, for a week or so. After that, you may discover how to work while being stressed with a big structural problem looming large.
For the global situation...
As the situation is now outside certain countries (i.e. Italy, South Korea, Iran, China), the chances that the virus will spread and be a serious issue are, as far as I can see, unclear.
I perfectly understand that getting sick in the US is not exactly fun, but then the problem is
not the virus, but the pregress economical and political situation of the country, I would say.
I am also sorry, but you guys in the US seem to be ruled by media that exist only to instill fear, and most the population is happy to indulge. You are not under threat yet, and the bigger issues are still pretty much in the background.
If you still want to reason with a model, then numbers in Italy may be more indicative than numbers in China for "western" countries, for the simple fact that China works differently.
This is an entire country in which everything is built on the "community" unit, in the sense that each city block can become a potentially isolated social unit (since forever: claims exist that this model of urban layout was invented during the warring states period).
Having, say, one own's personal house and garden is very rare, and thus movement can be controlled very easily, for better or for worse. We do have beatiful balconies, though (ahem!).
My wild conjecture is that New York offers a good model of what may happen in big U.S. cities, or more in general cities with big buildings and delimited communities. Italy may be a good model for other types of human settlements.
If the risk arises, buy masks now, practice keeping one metre of distance from people, and turn off the media. Nobody ever needs panic (and yes, keep your lungs healthy). Set yourself at peace that some people will snap and you will want to kill them. Vent here, if anything: it's free.
Chomsky, Buckminster Fuller, Yunus and Glass would have played Battle Garegga, for sure.
But, yes, why increase risk?
