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As long as we have the flu staring us in the face from every corner of civilization, let's start our discussion with how it went from a 24-hour trifle to a life threatening affliction. I'm no medical expert, but I heard that the improper use of antibiotics had a lot to do with it; flu-stricken users wouldn't finish their whole course of antibiotics because they felt recovered before their infection was eradicated. This let antibiotic resistant 'super germs' escape to infect others, who, in turn, took an incomplete course of antibiotics, and the flu just got worse and worse. In my youth we wouldn't let the flu stop us from playing road hockey. We'd be over it by the next day. I got it in 2002, though, and it took me about a month to feel normal again. I stayed at home in bed, and took no medication. It is definitely getting bad. And do doctors still prescribe antibiotics? We have penicillin. We should limit the use of antibiotics to the fewest possible cases. Maybe they already have. And what was the origin of this strain again? Wasn't it people living enclosed with their livestock? So, after the SARS epidemic they must have got kicked out of the chicken coops and been forced to move in with the goats. Something like that, right? Pretty stupid. I hope they're not going to be allowed to try their luck with the wildlife next. However, if turning back this threat were a simple matter of only quitting antibiotics and separating certain hapless peasants from their livestock, why are the governments of the world making such a fuss over it? Perhaps there's a further reason, one to do with the inevitable results of overpopulation. Crowding, coupled with poor hygiene, gives way to disease and death, as we've learned and experienced in the West since at least 1348. And the world's current population is many times now what it was in Medieval times, increasing the likelihood of an outbreak. The only way to avoid disaster is by every last person staying clean, and our governments apparently don't trust us. They've got us all on satellite surveillance and must have caught too many of us picking our noses when we thought we were alone. Incidentally, while churches might be closed, I haven't lost my sense of being watched over by a higher power. It helps me stay disciplined in my isolation and gives those satellites a lot less to look at. No one thinks they're dirty, but I've been making a real effort at keeping myself and my home clean in the last few years and the motivation to sustain this effort strikes me as uncommon. Still, most of us are probably up to it. And once you get used to feeling clean, you get hooked on it. (The Germans are very clean, by the way. I understand why they are so indignant over these new laws.) Unfortunately, there are always those who won't wash - for whatever reason - and they pose a growing menace as the population balloons. It only takes one to kill us all, and the chain of infection must be broken. I get the logic, but can we humans cope with the restrictions? We're not just creatures of logic but of love. And we communicate love by touch. Now they're practically making it illegal. We want to kiss our loved ones. Now they want us all in masks. Are we to do without love? Christ! If so, for how long? This must present an especially dismal prospect to the young, who naturally want to taste life to its fullest. And the artificial world of TV's and computer screens can at best only imitate their lives in the real world as it was. While I need to think that our leaders are doing the right thing with these changes, they could be making a mistake. They have been known to get things wrong in the past. They were wrong about antibiotics, for instance. And the way they make their decisions, all it would take to declare a nationwide emergency is some quack with a flashy presentation. Now Dostoevsky's Idiot knew he was an idiot, and, however tragic, he was pleasant; but when an idiot assumes a high office, I swear the guy never knows himself. Or what if this is all the result of some rapidly aging, super-rich tyrant entering his 'germophobic' phase? Hey, it happened to Howard Hughes, didn't it? Let's hope it wasn't contagious. In closing, I would advise my friends to keep themselves and their rooms ready for inspection. And if you come down with the flu, don't tell anyone. You wouldn't want to end up in one of those health camps. Above all, avoid slipping into a mask mentality out there. That means that if someone just had dental surgery and can't wear a mask in the grocery store, find out if he's lying before you surround him in your masks and beat him with frozen chickens. Maybe he's already in enough pain. Below you may see why I shun the news media, whose ratings, I'm told, were at an abysmal new low before this virus hit. | ||||||||||
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| © 2020. Statements by David Skerkowski. All rights reserved. |
Saturday, August 22, 2020
Mask Mentality
Wednesday, August 12, 2020
How to Stay Happy
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I took my mask to the bank with me today because I wanted to stay safe - safe from being refused service for not wearing a mask. I heard Wal-Mart has started making all customers wear them. Incidentally, if you're in there, please report any DVD's like Mike Myers's Austin Powers because its largely comprised of my blogs and music from 2007 and earlier. I gave no permission for Myers or Blue Rodeo to use my comedy and my music in their production. Bring this DVD up to the cashier if you see it and complain for me, please. Once was enough of having my eyes offended by that creep in that store. Still I'm prospering, odd as it is for these times, though I guess it's easier to save money when they shut everything down and leave you no place to go but home or work. My job is secure, I think, since it's in the food industry. I find that it helps me to stay healthy, being able to exercise in my job. Some of the product is heavy and hard to reach, but I appreciate the struggle and know it's good for me. I heard about the marches in Germany and I understand. Maybe I haven't been fair with the Germans in my blogs. None of them now had anything to do with World War 2. It's an entirely new and innocent generation today, but they have been culturally sensitized to tyranny by their disastrous history. I can see why they are suspicious. These super rich jet-setters come down with a mysterious flu, and then they say we all have to wear masks and shouldn't have normal sex anymore. It looks bad, all right, but the appearance could be even further from the truth. I think it's brave to protest, but I'll be playing along this time. I can't see why governments of the world would impose such punishing measures on us without good cause. Certainly they knew it would be unpopular, but they still found it necessary. I learned my lesson when I stuck my neck out to protest the last war. You can't blame me for staying out of this debate. But I can offer some tips on how to cope with the crisis. For starters, even though some of these new restrictions may affect you intimately, you must not take it personally. Remember that the whole population is suffering along with you. To apply this to myself, it would be a mistake for me to take the sudden closure of all big venues as a deliberate move against my formerly stated goal of filling stadiums. I'm afraid I'm just not that important. And thinking like that would only make me angry as hell for nothing. There's a much happier way of looking at it, by considering how much harder it would have been on me had I chosen to be a star ten or twelve years ago. I would have ended up with a lot more to lose at this point. You see? So, even though my job is ordinary, I feel better off for it. That's how you turn it around, it's all in how you think. By mutual agreement, we must wear masks whenever we unload a U.S. trailer, but I don't do much unloading. There are times I'm glad I have access to mask, like when I face a dusty clean-up at work, or when they're doing construction on the street. There's even a bright side to those. I don't see my life changing much from social distancing either. I live alone anyway. And instead of letting the news media dictate my day, I try to live it for myself as much as I can. For example, the story of the week for me would have to be those crazy geese I encountered in that park. Is it normal for them to be so far from the water? A bunch of geese, grazing at my feet like buffaloes. What a sight! But they're destroying that lawn. I don't even want to walk over it anymore, and it was such a nice shortcut. | ||||||||||
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| © 2020. Statements by David Skerkowski. All rights reserved. |
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