With new research coming out of Oxford that predicts that up to half the population of the UK could have already been infected with COVID-19, suggesting that as few as one infected person in a thousand even needs hospitalization, it appears that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and we can finally disembark from this suicidal crazy train of mass hysteria. New York governor Cuomo is now backtracking on the “lock down” response, apparently coming to the reasonable conclusion that it’s been a pretty terrible idea, and that if anyone needs to isolate, it is the elderly, sick population for whom the virus pose a threat. Why was this not an option two weeks ago? Instead, the United States transformed almost overnight into a fear-paralyzed asylum, with the inmates unable to escape the doomsday headlines that corporate news and health agencies puked up on a regular basis. It triggered the greatest stock market crash in history, along with a series of the most bizarre, dystopian events ever to have been witnessed. The fact that it happened is grim enough, but that it occurred on so little information is haunting.
On very little data regarding COVID-19, world governments leaped gleefully into a yawning abyss, pulling their citizens and entire economies in with them, thereby threatening the world economy, peace, hundreds of millions of lives, and civilization itself in the process. And for the most part, citizens have allowed it to happen. We have cowered in abject terror at the endless stream of hyperbolic headlines that seemed to imply that Armageddon was at hand, and that we had better huddle with our toilet paper hoard and pray for a quick death. And yet, what continues to be predicted is not happening. COVID-19 is spreading rapidly, yet all signs point to the relieving, albeit embarrassing, reality that most cases show very little in the way of symptoms. When headlines begin to appear like this, calm begins to return, and we begin to face uncomfortable truths about our nature as a species. The fundamental lesson to be learned by the COVID hysteria is that we as a species are prone to periodic bouts of mass hysteria.
But this descent into global mass hysteria was the most dangerous and destructive in history. The hysteria itself was apocalyptic, not the virus. The hysteria had the power to destroy civilization, not the virus. It’s a crucial lesson to learn from this insanity.
It is clear that our fear has the power to end us as a species. It’s like a loaded gun, embedded within our very nature, ready to spring forth with full fury, and spread itself to others, activating their own innate fear. And it can emerge at any time, and on no basis in reality whatsoever. And while this was by far the worst mania to hit the human race, it won’t be the last.
