It wasn’t too long ago when an essential part of living, was understanding death. And if not understanding it, then preparing and accepting death as part of life. Many of the greatest classic literary works from The Old Testament to Plato, to Shakespeare through to the modern-day dwell on precisely this idea; the simple unmistakeable knowledge, passed down through the ages, that we are mortal. That life, though abundant and joyous, is fragile.
In almost every generation we have seen what amounts to progress. Technology, medicine & science quickly spring to mind. These disciplines, all of whom require exactness and the most stringent burden of proof, have grown into such idealised beacons in our lives that we treat them like modern day Gods to be revered. As a result, we now see the media and our global leaders controlling us by this doctrine and Covid-19 has become the primary challenge to our science, our medicine, our technology and thereby, our society.
Covid-19 isn’t quite the brute we imagined it might turn out to be, but to those unfortunate to be afflicted by it (what virus won’t?) they will certainly know about it. But surely we must understand that it is one of many billions of tiny particles that build in human beings each and every second of the day. Many strands of virus and bacteria in their own evolutionary patterns have been with us since the dawn of time and in general, these help humans survive and evolve.
But here’s the thing. Statistics show that those who have underlying or health conditions, especially the elderly and obese, are those most at risk of death were they to catch Covid-19.
And I know it isn’t easy to admit, but these people will pass away from medical complications, or purely old age anyway; things kill us and we either survive, or we die. Perhaps it’s Nature’s way of saying that those who are unable to sustain their walk upon the earth, must now say farewell.
This is not a new phenomenon. It is simply evolution. Seasonal flu wipes out huge numbers—millions annually—and this is well-documented. So does a failure–in one form or another–of the heart, liver, kidney, as well as cancers, tumours and much more. And let’s list those killers that we so easily sweep under the carpet; hunger, cholera, typhoid, depression, suicide, road-accidents, homicide, natural causes, drowning, snakebites, idiocy and unfortunate twists of fate.
The expression “Life is a lottery” is true. Better still, perhaps, is that life is a path along which we journey. A path that is wide, mostly in youth, but at times it narrows as if passing over mountains, or alongside raging rivers upon perilous cliff-edges. Each step is taken into the unknown and we cannot always know when our path will be swept away or collapse under our feet.
Most will dance, swagger or march with sure steps along the line as meaningfully, and as lovingly as they can—while they can—until they fall, or veer off. Nowadays however, our world has become pretty good at making sure we don’t stray off the path. In fact, it has become so adept that we cannot even attempt anything that might make us slip over. There are strong supporting rails that line the pathway.
Some use these supports, others don’t. We’ve certainly learned that because the rails exist, we can rely on them. A consequence of this is that now it doesn’t matter what muck we eat, what chemicals we throw over ourselves, how little we exercise, how we treat our planet, or how we engage with others, there is a crutch of support waiting to help us up.
Increasingly, we are scorned for exploring the limits on our life path because, for so many, the pathway now doesn’t even exist. Only the handrail exist. And for this, as we are constantly reminded, we must be grateful to those who have provided it.
But by clinging to the railings, we have stopped understanding how to live well?
In lieu of recent events it now feels as if we’ve gone a step further. We’re actually trying to take on nature, trying to show it who is God. “We will defeat the enemy; we can save lives. All available lives.” Has our arrogance as a species spiked up to a new kind of supremacy?
For some, longevity is the bonus of living in these times (especially if one lives interesting, loving and full lives). But for others is the payoff—for living as long as possible—is an experience of painful, ghastly end-years.
Be assured, I’m not saying I wish people to drop dead or not be looked after. That is insane; we are well adapted in caring for our sick and our infirm. The last fifty years have seen a leap in medical and scientific advances, but viruses are never beaten. Pathogens change, mutate and reappear year after year, millennia after the next. It’s a ‘gimme’ that another will pop along out of nowhere. Each time humans take a hit and learn to immunise ourselves or, unfortunately, we pass away.
Nowadays, as a result of cushioning our bodies in the cotton wool of pills and medicines we forget that we’ve always had the mightiest of protection via our million-year-old immune system?
Are we simply too fat and poisoned to realise that it is our current life style choices which are, in reality, killing us?
Ask those at the twilight of their life if they were to do it all again, would they live a full life, or a long life? I bet you’d get most wishing for the former.
Ask a second question. Would they take the small risk of catching Covid-19 and dying, or assist in the denial of their grandchildren’s prosperity and freedoms that they themselves have, often through great personal cost, built and enjoyed through their life? Without question the majority would happily forgo a year or a month or two for the future happiness of the planet’s next caretakers.
But we’re not allowed to say this–not openly. Even with our supposed ‘freedom of speech’, this kind of utterance is taboo. How dare anyone claim that one life is worth more than another? How dare we compare one age to another. That’s ageist. Well, I have news. A child’s life is worth a great deal more than any infirm elderly sufferer. It just is, and it always will be.
In the same breath, we’re not really thinking about the health of our elderly who have, up until now, been wholeheartedly ignored; we try to keep them going, come what may, and to me if feels like a lame excuse for real ‘care’.
The media and operational classes have all but abandoned our children. At the moment, the uncertainty and furore will deny a generation of children—now boxed in by steel railings while they tread life’s path at its easiest—the innocence of childhood.
Let’s go further. A generation of our youth—already harnessed to their screens with the fake notion of existing in online communities—can no longer physically engage with one another; no hugging or clasping hands, no dancing, or even sitting together. A generation who will not comfort their elders, or visit pubs and clubs, theatres, or football, or go shopping on the high street, or even pop round to each other’s houses. A generation who will never see or experience the magnificence of the world.
Have we sliced them off from the age-old traditions of human community in one brutally swift movement without even realising it? Or, is this part of a plan cooked up by a global powerhouse in the name of control? Because the more I look at it, that’s exactly how it feels.
I desperately hope that the above is the extreme variant of life hereon-in. But even if it isn’t, fear has been injected into their young hearts and this awful inoculation contains a diktat; a new sense of conformity and fearfulness that will be hard to erase. Oh, and of course they’re the generation who will be picking up the bill. And how will do they do that? By staring into computer screens of course.
And what about those who are approaching their ends? The fear has been planted within them too: Will they survive the next wave? Will they spend their last few years shut away, as if they don’t even exist, from the people they have tendered to all their lives—enclosed behind walls, like prisoners?
But of course, they exist; they exist as statistics to back up the fear, should they die of a condition we now know is as dangerous as the ‘flu.
And anyway, who wins in this so-called war of science, or fear? A few leap to mind. Online vendors. Artificial Intelligence. Political controllers. Totalitarianism. Big pharma. A very, very small body of people who have control over what people, see, hear, think and do.
Makes you wonder what kind of world we want. A relentless fear-agenda driven by the unrelenting media, unleashed on our children, or perhaps something fresh.
I believe there is another approach.
How about re-learning that wonderful timeless value of common sense stemming from an entirely re-vamped school curriculum that teaches kids how to really live life and how to work and communicate in the future and not in the past.
And how about re-engaging with local communities from top to bottom, binning out-of-date models to discover fresh, wholehearted approaches to encourage what it is to be human, to find our spirit once more, our joy, our health, our vitality.
How about formalising a new chapter of health, especially eating, exercise, and mental well-being and embracing methods which have been around and successfully used for millennia but denied because the science tells us not to.
We should welcome companionship, love and laughter, and ditch models which play into the hands of lies that contains and restricts humanities’ basic liberties.
It’s about turning our attention towards our hearts, our feelings, and our ability to see life as it should be played out. It’s about humanity taking back control and undoing our programming; un-knotting the fear and division used to create anger and strife.
First off, perhaps we should start by accepting our glorious mortality.
James Erith is the author of ‘Eden Chronicles’ a six book fantasy series set in Yorkshire.
In book two, Spider Web Powder, a virus quickly sets about destroying the world – within days – spread across the World by particles in dreams...