Having Stage 4 Mantle Cell Lymphoma in the middle of a sane and functioning society makes me the broken one. My health is critical, and I wouldn’t make it if not for my dependence on others and the medical system.
Being immunocompromised in the middle of an irrational and dysfunctional society makes each of us broken. When I am in need, and someone snaps at me, is it because of my neediness or because of their frustration and anxiety at being in a terrible and abnormal situation.
I read in several comments and tweets yesterday that the economic and social stresses are too great, and perhaps the elderly and immunocompromised should die for the greater good of the society. I was appalled at each, but I understand where each is coming from. From their perspective, they are young, healthy, and do not fear the coronavirus. Death is something that happens to other people; people they don’t care about.
Our society and our infrastructure were designed only for a best-case scenario where all days are sunny, things would last forever, and no would need to care for or maintain anything. This pandemic is showing just how frail our systems and society really are. This is what happens when not all days are sunny, and what happens when you don’t take care or think about the capacity of your medical system.
And the saddest thing is, we probably won’t learn anything from it. Your health, my health, our health, should NOT be a profit-making endeavour. If it is not profit, then it is a non-profit. Non-profit agencies and corporations are dependent on society to make them work, which many people mistakenly call “socialism” without the foggiest clue of what that word means or the necessity of social contracts in order to make shared infrastructure work.
We are victims of our own hubris and desire to get the most we can for the cheapest while the few profit from our desire and scarcity of supply to our demand.
I don’t know what to say to this. I feel terrible and overwhelmed being a very broken person in the midst of a broken society where the young, the stupid, the uneducated, and the foolish want me dead so that they are not inconvenienced and their frail social ecosystem can continue rolling in entertainment, selfish/singular happiness, and financial well-being…. even if it comes at the cost of others’ lives.
#canceer #coronavirus
Absolutely. Well said.