Thoughts on the Pandemic

Hi Folks,

Although this is technically a Raney Legacy blog, it would be ridiculous to ignore the elephant in the room, so at least to start, let me combine the themes.

My immediate family has survived a lot over the years. I am perhaps the least tough of all the family members and have drawn inspiration from all of them: my daughter, my wife an her family, my brother, mother and father. There has always been an aspect of tragedy and triumph in the Raney family and the three remaining members have the challenge of their lives ahead of them. My family is wonderful, and I have great friends and appreciate every one of them. All of you know who you are. And I thank you. I am very lucky even if I’ve fallen upon some hard times as have many of the rest of you.

When I was younger, I used to think about being drafted, or a nuclear holocaust. When I was in my twenties, I had a dream about an earthquake in New York that would occur in 2025. Some kind of premonition. Never forgot it. As well as alien invasion dreams. Maybe it was some movie I saw or because I saw something in the night sky in the PS 117 playground in the 70’s in Briarwood. For real, it was not an airplane, folks. I have never discussed it since with people that were there. Perhaps I should’ve. But in some ways, I’m glad we didn’t. What could we do about it? And what would come of it if we did?

When the Berlin wall fell in 1989, it allayed some of my fears, removing the threat of nuclear mutual Soviet-U.S. annihilation. But now, we can see the results of subsequent failures of leaders in their wake. The rise of Putin and the various puppet-master’s disciples now rising to power. Wittingly or unwittingly. Remember the witless can bring forth end times just as easily as those that have the wits and choose to do so regardless.

In my opinion, in New York City we have driven straight to the edge and any number of factors could’ve or may still drive us over. There are some good signs and the tales of bravery and miraculous recovery all of us have seen on television are quite touching. However, philosophically the one thing I’ve feared most – and I’ve discussed privately with many close friends – is what do human beings do when confronted with life and death decisions? This is way beyond raging at injustices on social media. But this is reality right now, we are living on borrowed time and we are throwing dice here with every action we take, collectively will decide how close to the cliff we will drive (Even though I don’t drive. Oy…).

I used to discuss this idea in terms of the environmental crisis which is probably 10 years or less in the future.  We are now being shown how things can unravel right now piece by piece, our health system, government, economy, social and humanity and we are not in a war or confronting a terrorist attack. War in the past was in a way much clearer. The enemy was clearly defined. World War II was probably the clearest war humanity ever fought. Good vs. evil was so easy to understand. Now I fear it is like a chess game between puppet masters and renegades forces of good against a (near) invisible enemy.

When you go outside you see all manner of people. There are those who wear no masks, walk right next to you, ride by with their radios as loud as possible to make a statement, basically, “Fuck you, what are you going to do about it?” And there are others who cross the street when they see you walking down the street with your mask and gloves. It takes all kinds. There are homeless or down-and-out people that are way worse off than you. You can’t really help them and now you can’t even get near them given they are exposed to the virus way worse than you. And your wallet under the circumstances might be the difference between life and death for them.

The most fundamental decision any of us can make is your life vs. mine. Whom do I choose? And coupled with that there are ontological questions. And what kind of person are you? Do you have sociopathic tendencies do you believe that people are fundamentally good or fundamentally evil, are there grey areas or are these grey areas the coloration in your personal brain matter? Is narcissism a harmless personal failing or if coupled with access to power, a fatal cocktail that can lead to the death of untold millions. I don’t think you want me to answer that.

As an arm-chair theorist – is this psychological aspect malleable or not? In other words, do people who commit atrocious crimes against fellow human beings permanently broken or redeemable. I can’t answer this and since I have yet have been exposed to this type of crime directly, I dare not. Again, we are all confronted by things we hoped not to think about, and it could get way worse if people influence each other towards dark places in combination with all the factors I have discussed above.

As noted in USA Today article, we now have signs that our democracy is a “Three-alarm fire” status. This is not hyperbolic. The situation in Wisconsin was an early sign of what is currently unfolding in our country. With an interaction of several shocking factors. Voting, laws, overturning by partisan judges and the actions of a few officials that inhibit the lives, rights and ultimately the existence of us, the masses.

As the husband of a Venezuelan I can tell you right now, they have seen the unraveling of a democracy to absolute chaos in twenty years and began whispering in my ear in 2016. Those of you who thought that could never happen here, I ask you, how do you feel now?

The gruesome part is that thousands of people lined the streets in Venezuela protesting the government and still Maduro is in power and many paid with their lives. Because we are getting to the point where we may need to have that happen here given the failing of our institutions to address the lawlessness in our current government. Now, given the pandemic such an action will kill us all. So that is basically, pick your poison.

Who will survive democracies or autocracies. Putin is placing his bets on autocracies and puppet states and may be winning the battle. Those of you that reject this idea as Capitalist propaganda, I truly pity you. You will be part of the infighting that will kill us all.

Have any of you thought of the idea of militias, false prophets on the street corner or online, crime groups or simply the collective masses of people that have been routinely marginalized, rising up to say, “Time up, we’re not listening to your bullshit anymore. I will try to remedy that by whatever means. You lied to us, now I’m not listening anymore, I’m acting.” You may dismiss these ideas as dystopic mania. I truly hope I’m wrong. Writers who muse through certain avenues, get some things wrong but sometimes, they are spot on.

Given being landlocked in my apartment, inevitably I am driven to documentaries on Netflix, Hulu and PBS Frontline. Any one of these can drive you to throw your hands up in the air about the stupidity and shortsightedness of human beings and collectively, our governments. But raging against this in the living room or frowny faces on social media is not really going to do something. Educate yourself, and in the smartest way you can try to act in a responsible intelligent way. If your heart is true, it will eventually lead to a resolution, mistakes and all. It’s daunting but each of us has to ask, and act in some way. For those of you already doing that, I personally thank you. I only hope I can live up to that myself and not just rage about it in a blog.

Think of it like the pandemic virus. It starts with the actions of one person and spreads to your neighbor street, town, city, state, country and the earth. Only replace the word “infect” with “love”. It could be the difference between life and death of all of us.