I did not post anything yesterday.  That’s the first day missed in three years.  I am blessed, lucky, and there’s no explanation, nothing I have done to merit good health, the ability to consistently write. 

How much does civilization, not to mention bare existence owe to dumb luck?  What are the odds that you and I are here?  Your unique configuration of personhood, your style of outlook, is dependent upon a myriad of circumstances, the meeting of a particular sperm and ova, to pick just one pivotal circumstance.  Change just one detail, and the chain of cause and effect branches off in another direction.  Perhaps the difference would’ve been small, yet meaningful.  Or maybe drastic. 

Last night we watched a new HBO Max series called Station Eleven.  It is a post apocalyptic tale, about the near eradication of humanity by a fast moving plague.  The initial setting is Chicago.  I had reason to check out the story when I read that the plot is about the exigencies of rebuilding a society after the devastation of an event that erases the accustomed status quo with the efficiency of a divine hammer. 

I think that we are in the throes of such a socially devastating event, — the rise of the ultra right-wing, neo-fascist mindset which is propagated with the relentless efficiency of a virus, the contagion transmitted by the ubiquity of social media.  There’s no recovery from the nihilism effected by the rage-filled, eruptions of grievance.   This will run its course with attendant institutional failures, breaking of supply chains, neglect of education, improvident response to weather events, — all the result of the ignorance and incompetence that has always characterized the megalomania of those who have a taste for power.

I do not think that the corona virus is the nexus of our crisis.  It is but an accelerant.

I offer for your consideration the trailer for Station Eleven.  The title comes from a Chicago El stop.  This story is no Walking Dead clone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaAG-SwEa7k

How about some Pink Floyd to stimulate our spirit on this day!  Brain Damage by Pink Floyd.

Brain Damage

By Pink Floyd

The lunatic is on the grass
The lunatic is on the grass
Remembering games and daisy chains and laughs
Got to keep the loonies on the path

The lunatic is in the hall
The lunatics are in my hall
The paper holds their folded faces to the floor
And every day the paper boy brings more

And if the dam breaks open many years too soon
And if there is no room upon the hill
And if your head explodes with dark forebodings too
I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon

The lunatic is in my head
The lunatic is in my head
You raise the blade, you make the change
You re-arrange me ’til I’m sane

You lock the door and throw away the key
There’s someone in my head but it’s not me.

And if the cloud bursts thunder in your ear
You shout and no one seems to hear
And if the band you’re in starts playing different tunes
I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon

I can’t think of anything to say except…
I think it’s marvelous! Ha, ha, ha!