The power of the church

I feel this very strange sense of surrealism, not the Magritte type of surrealism, the 'this doesn't feel real to me' type surrealism. I guess it's because I don't work full time any more and I keep pretty much to myself and I stopped partying like it's 1984 back in 1984... ok so I carried on for a couple more decades but I did stop eventually.

I guess it's not helped by the bizarre inputs I keep picking up. Like Trump saying he wants the epidemic over within the next twelve weeks, or to have the churches full at Easter, at the same time as the governor of New York is stating there is a storm coming and he's lacking critical supplies.

Then we have a national shutdown in the UK but no resources to actually enforce it. And rather a lot of people ignoring the restrictions anyway. Plus the  restrictions seem to be getting ever more vague every time a minister, without the merest hint of irony, clarifies them. For instance, there is the instruction that only people in essential jobs should be working. But the definition of 'essential' seems ever more flexible. Apparently it is 'essential' to carry on building skyscraper apartment blocks that only the top earners and visiting oligarchs can possibly afford, but staying at work these masses are.

But it also includes DIY stores because apparently they supply essential equipment for home maintenance. Ok, so I can just about get the DIY stores although it is tenuous ad coming out with an armful of wallpaper seems to be stretching things but I'll buy it. It's when it gets to Sports Direct that things start to stretch my credulity past the breaking point. Sports Direct tried really hard to justify staying open as the nation needs to keep fit whilst in lockdown and their particular brand of cheap sweatshop produced tracksuits is apparently the way to do that. Interesting.

The cold hard fact is that governments around the world, of all styles and colours, need to find a balance between death rates and the economic impact on the country. Some countries regard life slightly more valuable than others. I think, at a very base level, most of western Europe including Italy, France and Spain, regard life more highly than say the USA, Brazil, China or Russia.

Russia for one has been very quiet thus far on the impact of the virus reporting very very low rates of infection. Curiously they have had a dramatic increase in the number of deaths from pneumonia though. Make of that what you will. Xi on the other hand has warned officials not to hide new infection cases which is eminently sensible but one suspects the impact on any individuals in China daring to be so careless as to catch the virus from this point forward will regret it, as will every associate they have come into contact with in the past couple of weeks and their family. As noted before, I see how this type of authoritarian control might seem appealing its just once you have that kind of control, you don't relinquish it. So once you give it away, you've lost it pretty much forever so you either live with it and stay within the rules or get set for a lifetime of suffering until you conform.

Anyway, it is the USA that will be the most interesting spectacle. Trump wants to open up asap but it does not take a cynic to understand where his motivations really lay, and they are not with the citizens of that great country. If he gets his wish to pack the churches at Easter, so in two and a half weeks, he'll be personally responsible for really getting the epidemic started in the USA. By Easter, as Cuomo has warned, what is already happening in NY will happen in other cities and states across the USA. And sending everybody to church as Easter should just about bring the US health service to its knees by Memorial day in mid May.

But heh, I am a pessimist by nature, so I am happy, very very happy, to be proved wrong and will send Donald a big bunch of roses and an apology if he's right and I am wrong. Should I get my credit card ready do you think?