At what point did you / will you take the coronavirus epidemic seriously?

[Northwestcoug]

Ha! Good one.




Ha! Another good one.

Maybe JL will change my mind, but nothing will fundamentally change... this will be but a small bump in the road. There will be a shadow of fear that lingers for maybe a year and there will be small resurgence of FUD during flu season next year. But then it will be largely forgotten.

I didn't say this is going to happen. But a guy can hope!

[beefytee]

Maybe JL will change my mind, but nothing will fundamentally change... this will be but a small bump in the road. There will be a shadow of fear that lingers for maybe a year and there will be small resurgence of FUD during flu season next year. But then it will be largely forgotten.

That would be wonderful, because it means the economy while taking a huge hit, rebounds quickly.

I am hopeful

[Jeff Lebowski]

Ha! Good one.




Ha! Another good one.

Maybe JL will change my mind, but nothing will fundamentally change... this will be but a small bump in the road. There will be a shadow of fear that lingers for maybe a year and there will be small resurgence of FUD during flu season next year. But then it will be largely forgotten.

Lol. Hard pass on attempting to change your mind on anything.

[Walter Sobchak]

Lol. Hard pass on attempting to change your mind on anything.

Heh. You got nothing old man! Nothing!

[Walter Sobchak]

I didn't say this is going to happen. But a guy can hope!

Abandon hope all ye who enter here...

Well, I think they ought to look at us as a country that understands freedom where it doesn't matter who you are or how you're raised or where you're from, that you can succeed. I don't think they'll look at us with envy. It really depends upon how our nation conducts itself in foreign policy. If we're an arrogant nation, they'll resent us. If we're a humble nation, but strong, they'll welcome us. And it's -- our nation stands alone right now in the world in terms of power, and that's why we have to be humble. And yet project strength in a way that promotes freedom. So I don't think they ought to look at us in any way other than what we are. We're a freedom-loving nation and if we're an arrogant nation they'll view us that way, but if we're a humble nation they'll respect us.

George W. Bush, 10/11/2000

[SCcoug]

A handful of the hastily thought out crisis decisions will become the new normal whether they're justified or not just like every other crisis. Hopefully the ones that stick won't be too awful.

[Northwestcoug]

Abandon hope all ye who enter here...

Not gonna get dragged down into an argument where Pat Buchanan will inevitably rear his head. I'm not talking about the Bush Freedom Ideal of the 2000's. I'm hoping for something more existential that leads to positive change. So that we can as a nation realize what we got wrong with the pandemic, and be humble enough to learn from other countries. And vice versa.

[Goatnapper'96]

I'm curious. List one or more of these fundamental changes. TIA.

I think I am with you if you are skeptical this will result in any change. It might lead to more social isolation which won't be a good thing, but as far as preparedness goes there is no way that will be a mobilizing concern for more than a couple of years. We are not a culture that plans. We just aren't.

Or perhaps I am insulated to some extent so I am not grasping how negatively this is impacting peoples lives- that might be possible.

[Walter Sobchak]

I'm not talking about the Bush Freedom Ideal of the 2000's. I'm hoping for something more existential that leads to positive change. So that we can as a nation realize what we got wrong with the pandemic, and be humble enough to learn from other countries. And vice versa.

Because the US has a track record of self-reflection after tragedies? like, for example, 9/11?

By way of a reminder... a handful of Hollywood actors convinced a small (but not unsubstantial) portion of the US population that childhood inoculations are dangerous.

[old_gregg]

i swear, if john prine dies...

[Jeff Lebowski]

i swear, if john prine dies...

Dammit. I love that guy.

[myboynoah]

Aw hell. Joe Diffie has died of COVID.
I hope his gravestone has an epitaph written in John Deere green.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/29/us/jo...rnd/index.html
So bummed about that.


IMO, this pandemic is serving up some hefty portions of humble-pie to our hubristic society.
We can't tell the future; we don't have all of the information; we can't have the answers immediately; we need to respect the aw(e)ful power of Nature. We are not in charge.

Of course humanity needs to continue to struggle heroically to save lives and maintain society, but I hope we take pause to recognize how fragile life really is, how small we really are. To paraphrase Aeschylus: when all is well, a mere shadow can ruin it like a wet sponge blotting out a drawing.

</>needle-neck wankering<>

Both salient and insightful. Thank you.

Well said. Remarkable just how fragile everything is. We are going to come out of this fundamentally changed.

Humility for one.

We've been spared huge epidemics for an unusually long time. Polio was just 2 generations ago. We are not as scientifically advanced as we think we are. This will happen again. The environmental damage by humanity will also make it worse.

The US is inextricably linked to the rest of the world. We depend on them as much as they depend on us. We are a good nation with great ideals, many of which remain out of reach. We would do well to be humble enough to learn from other countries. Hopefully isolationism as a political philosophy is dead. RIP.

Human society in general is fragile. Most developed countries are not too far removed from major civil unrest. Any calamity that is prolonged can destabilize any one of them. At least in the US, let's stop playing games and realize that strengthening the safety net for the underprivileged is not socialism, and can help strengthen our country. In other words, medicare for all FTW.

Years ago when we were enrolling our oldest in a Tokyo international school, her Australian teacher remarked how American students seemed to bring a certain confidence with them in about everything they did, whether in the classroom, on the stage, or on the athletic field. She said that was unique to the U.S. I thought about that later that year when a study showed that U.S. high school students scored in the bottom half of international mathmatics test scores, yet scored at the top when asked about how confident they were in their answers. I thought about that again a few years later while walkng to work the week after 9-11. I felt unsettled, even insecure; something I had never felt before as an American overseas.

America (I'm sure I'm offending Canadians by using that term) has benefited greatly by having two oceans to shield it from a lot of the bad stuff that has happened to the rest of the world. Not this time.

We shall see.

[Northwestcoug]

Both salient and insightful. Thank you.





Years ago when we were enrolling our oldest in a Tokyo international school, her Australian teacher remarked how American students seemed to bring a certain confidence with them in about everything they did, whether in the classroom, on the stage, or on the athletic field. She said that was unique to the U.S. I thought about that later that year when a study showed that U.S. high school students scored in the bottom half of international mathmatics test scores, yet scored at the top when asked about how confident they were in their answers. I thought about that again a few years later while walkng to work the week after 9-11. I felt unsettled, even insecure; something I had never felt before as an American overseas.

America (I'm sure I'm offending Canadians by using that term) has benefited greatly by having two oceans to shield it from a lot of the bad stuff that has happened to the rest of the world. Not this time.

We shall see.

When I first met Mrs. NWC she would always bristle at when a US citizen would refer to 'America' as only the US. I thought it was weird. She's a US citizen now; I wonder if it still bothers her. I'll ask.

[beefytee]

Canadians fall in to that same boat. i.e. shielded by two oceans.

The term America(n) never was a big deal where I grew up in Canada. Lots of people use the term. A North Carolinian transplant in my ward had us sing America the Beautiful one Sunday. This was back when we did the practice hymn after sacrament meeting because the hymnbook was new. So she got to get up and explained that she chose it because we were all (North) American.

I had always heard that South Americans didn't like the US using the term. Don't know if that is true or not though

[Color Me Badd Fan]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-...11Tjim?ocid=sf

45 people out of 60?

I don't buy it that no one coughing at that thing. Someone was coughing or Rudy Gobert got to the mandarin oranges offered up as refreshments.