My response was to note that the 1918 pandemic, (probably) inaccurately known as The Spanish Flu, lasted officially for two years (January 1918-December 1920), infected a half-billion (with a b) people and killed 50 million (CDC number). Nevertheless, the end ushered in the Roaring '20s, with the most corrupt presidential administration until the present one, widespread disregard for the law and wild financial speculation ending with millionaire cab drivers dead broke.
I am not hopeful.
Coincidentally, Commonweal and The Tablet this morning published Austen Ivereigh's interview with Pope Francis in which the same question comes up in a different form. Francis's answer is better than mine. In part, the pope said:
We have a selective memory. I want to dwell on this point. I was amazed at the seventieth anniversary commemoration of the Normandy landings, which was attended by people at the highest levels of culture and politics. It was one big celebration. It’s true that it marked the beginning of the end of dictatorship, but no one seemed to recall the 10,000 boys who remained on that beach. ...How long does it take for a catastrophe to become an anecdote? Will we learn from this catastrophe? Answers?
At this time in Europe when we are beginning to hear populist speeches and witness political decisions of this selective kind it’s all too easy to remember Hitler’s speeches in 1933, which were not so different from some of the speeches of a few European politicians now.
What comes to mind is another verse of Virgil’s: [forsan et haec olim] meminisse iuvabit [“Perhaps one day it will be good to remember these things too.”] We need to recover our memory because memory will come to our aid. This is not humanity’s first plague; the others have become mere anecdotes.
But resurrection isn't about returning to normal, it is about transformation. How will we change after this immense suffering and death? What will we learn?
ReplyDeleteChallenging article at NCRonline. Some of you will be horrified by her comments indicating that she doesn't want to argue with those who have a non-orthodox understanding of the Holy Week events.
But, put that aside. She has a message for those who take it as they were taught, as well as for those of us who question the literal teachings while accepting the deeper meanings taught in the stories of Jesus' last week of life.
https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/you-dont-have-believe-god-witness-crucifixion-week
I read Jamie Manson's article too. I liked her point, "But resurrection isn't about returning to normal, it is about transformation. How will we change after this immense suffering and death? What will we learn?"
DeleteAs far as atonement theology, I don't worry about it any more. I figure I will ask the Lord when I meet him how it was to be understood.
St. Anselm didn't have an "orthodox understanding of Holy Week events" either if you mean "satisfaction theology" or "atonement theology." By coincidence, I read a 2014 article on touching on the subject by Gerard J. Hughes (S.J., of course) this very morning.
Deletettps://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/fresh-look-last-supper?mc_cid=04e9227c2d&mc_eid=26a3f6c658
If you are interested.
I don't enthuse over baking and cooking our way to resurrection, but I did like Pope Francis's more comprehensive:
"Yes, I see early signs of an economy that is less liquid, more human. But let us not lose our memory once all this is past, let us not file it away and go back to where we were. This is the time to take the decisive step, to move from using and misusing nature to contemplating it. We have lost the contemplative dimension; we have to get it back at this time."
Tom, the link for the article didn't work. But I was able to find it here. A thoughtful piece.
DeleteWell, Sanders has quit and now everything rests on the frail looking old man Biden. Unless the sub-micron superdelegates from the State of Corona weigh in. And as usual, my PA primary vote means squat.
ReplyDeleteMy Nebraska primary vote won't count for anything either. One good thing, they're really pushing mail in ballots here. We got our request forms in the mail a couple of days ago.
DeleteI see that Trump may have a financial interest in one of the companies making hydroxychloroquine. Why does that not surprise me?
I don't see much changing either way after the pandemic passes.
ReplyDeleteThere may be a period of self-indulgent buying and celebrating that will help the economy. I know I am dreaming of a decent haircut and eyebrow wax.
After the Black Death in the Middle Ages, labor shortages led to better pay for working people and the rise of the middle class. But the death rate of healthy young people in this pandemic won't be enough to give labor an edge over capital.
I like the Pope's larger point about memory. But the contempt for the aged, who carry collective memory, is pretty high.
I can tell the kiddies about Nixon, Vietnam, journalistic ethics, and the importance of public education and civic awareness. But I can't figure out how to download photos offa my phone, so I am irrelevant.
In answer to Tom's question, when will the catastrophe become an anecdote? That will happen when the kids who survive and remember this thing get to be our age, And they try to tell their grands the lessons they learned. And it will be, "Grandma's talking about the old days again. But we do things better now". But the crisis is always the thing you didn't see coming, or more likely, were in denial about.
ReplyDeleteMore musings later, got to take a shower and wash the grocery store cooties off. Having kicked the doomsday meal down the road some more.
The paper towel mask I constructed from a video worked well for grocery shopping. The cloth solutions such as the bandana mask were too suffocating.
DeleteI'm getting indications my Chinese UV-C sterilizer lamps are in FEDEX Pennsylvania. Oh please, let it be true. I know one front line nurse to whom I'm giving one. If they get here, I'm ordering more.
DeleteBless FedEx and your efforts, Stanley. I am still amazed that we are reduced to cobbling up PPE in our homes for this thing. In one Michigan county, 65 percent of the infected are health care workers.
DeleteThanks, Jean. I finally cracked into the FEDEX tracking system. The FEDEX tracking site wasn't responding to the tracking numbers the Chinese company gave me. My OR nurse friend gave me a trick and it worked. I pumped the tracking number into Google search, fedex tracking link popped up, click and voila, the packages are on the truck for delivery COB today.
DeleteYes, I think these health care workers are going to have PTSD. I don't know the numbers but people ARE being saved. But not nearly all.
Yes. Dire conditions in Detroit. In case you want to get more depressed.
Deletehttps://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2020/04/running-out-of-body-bags-people-dying-in-the-hallway-coronavirus-has-michigan-hospital-workers-at-a-breaking-point.html
Bret Stephens in the NY Times partakes of a thought experiment in which he looks back on this era from 2025. It's pretty pessimistic.
ReplyDelete"The pandemic provided a ready-made excuse for democratic governments around the world to obstruct opposition parties, ban public assemblies, suppress voting, quarantine cities, close borders, limit trade, strong-arm businesses, impose travel restrictions and censor hostile media outlets in the name of combating “false information.”
Remarkably, the tactics met with comparatively little resistance, partly because they were advertised as only temporary, and partly because the concerns of civil libertarians paled next to calls to “flatten the curve.” But as the lockdowns of 2020 were extended from spring to summer and then to early fall, a process of normalization began to take hold."
He goes on to predict that, because the restrictions killed the Democratic National Convention and Biden's ability to campaign, Trump wins in November.
Lots more bad stuff besides this.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/03/opinion/coronavirus-future.html
We saw the ultimate in vote suppression yesterday in Wisconsin -- mail-in ballots that didn't get to the voters on schedule and only five voting sites for the whole city of Milwaukee. Nothing like a pandemic to excuse the inexcusable (Trump says the Ds are complaining because he endorsed a great judge) It will be replicated. Why not? No skin of Lindsey's nose.
DeleteBrett Stevens is a regular Merry Sunshine, isn't he. Though to tell the truth, the thought had crossed my mind that the "emergency" measures and restrictions might grow to seem normal over time. But it blows my mind to think that Trump could win the election after having mishandled so many things so very badly. His feet need to be held to the fire the closer the election approaches.
DeleteThe countries such as China which experienced the virus first, and are now starting to resume normality might give us a clearer picture of what the path forward might look like. I was just talking to a friend from church who corresponds witb some Catholics in China. They said that things are getting better there, and offered to send a box of masks to him. He asked them to send it to the church office, and the pastor could offer them to medical people or anyone who might have an urgent need.
DeleteJust heard a discussion of voting in Florida later this year. The election supervisors are supposed to -- and think they have to -- encourage mail voting. (Mail ballots came late or not at all to voters in Milwaukee.) At the same time, they said none of them are equipped to count all the votes if they come by mail. So some people will have to brave the virus if it still around. (In Milwaukee there were not enough poll workers to open more than five voting places.) Looks like there is no alternative to letting POTUS remain in place, at least until he destroys WHO.
Delete