I help to run a Motorhome forum, Jaws has joined but it’s a bit quiet for him. One of our overseas members doesn’t post much, but when he does it is always an interesting read. With his permission I’ve copied his latest to share with you all. Enjoy.
By now, the whole world has been made aware of COVID-19 and our political leaders have told us what each of us should do to stop it killing ourselves, our neighbours and our friends. Stay at home. Care for your community.
This applies to everyone. Homeless people must stay at home. The elderly must stay at home. The young must stay at home. Parents must stay at home. Workers must stay at home. Unemployed people must stay at home.
It is the best advice that can be given by our leaders, who have no clear idea how to stop the spread of a virus that is pulverising our way of life. They consult their medical specialists and discover that COVID-19 may kill so many of us that the way we live today becomes something that – one day soon - might literally only be taught by the light of a bonfire to young children by wheezing grandparents.
The world, for the next year or more will be modelled on this forum – motorhomeowners. We will have friends we never meet and we instead share and care for each other by typing messages, sent through copper telephone wires that were strung from tall pine tree trunks, stuck in the ground over a century ago.
Of course, things were simpler back then. All you did was walk to the local shop and get some milk, butter, bread, vegetables and meat that mostly came from local farms. Then, you went home, had sex with your partner and grew a baby boy who would grow up to be killed in a war with another country and a lovely baby girl who would one day grow up to walk to the local shop, if she didn't die of disease first.
Then, political leaders around the world realised that you could make more money and get richer by making nice things and selling them – exporting them – to your enemy. All you had to do was take the young boy and girl and encourage them to work in a factory and make nice things. You gave them money in return but only just enough for them to survive and no more. You built a complex transportation and banking infrastructure to encourage it all to expand.
This was such a success that every country in the world started doing it. Manufacturing nice things brought tremendous financial wealth. Some workers themselves began to earn enough money to buy some nice things as well. Nice thngs became so plentiful in their supply that their prices had to be lowered and even poor people began to afford a few nice things.
Then, in 2008, there was a world banking crash entirely caused by wealthy people. Not a single poor or 'just getting by' person caused the banking crash. However, it was decided that the wealthy people who were to blame were too wealthy to punish. Instead, the poor people were punished. It was explained to them (by wealthy people) that the banking crash had meant there was not enough money to go round now so jobs would have to pay a little less and healthcare and the cost of living would have to go up.
Ordinary people and poor people around the world took the new reality in their stride and worked longer hours for less money and in poorer health. It was the 'new normal'.
Political leaders around the world mopped their brows in relief that ordinary people had not rebelled and they quickly rewarded themselves and the wealthy investors who financed them with a small pay rise for all their hard work in convincing people about the lie that there was not enough money.
Then, four months ago, a dangerous virus was discovered. This happens from time to time as nature unfolds in all its true splendour. Political leaders around the world were slow to react or else simply denied it was a problem.
That was not a clever response. It wasted valuable time. Medical professionals eventually had to go public and speak the truth to the people. The political leaders rolled their eyes and shook their heads. Political leaders know better than to speak truthfully to their people. They know that ordinary people only put up with being treated badly if their leader promises them a jam sandwich in a few days time. Telling them that there is a dangerous virus heading towards them is the stupid kind of thing that only a health professional would do. Very reluctantly, world leaders told their exhausted working population to stay at home.
The reason for this was because if they caught the disease they would cause the collapse of their country's health service. Their health service was cash starved because world leaders can think of better things to spend the money on. Besides, all world leaders know that all you really need to do is tell people that they have a great healthcare package even if they do not. People assume that they are being told the truth.
This last month, as COVID19 really begins to spread and really begins to kill the most fragile in our communities, many world leaders have realised that they will crash their country's economy if all their workers stay at home and actually survive the virus. The nice things will not get made. The wealth will drain from the wealthiest people in society like water through a cotton sock. The poor people are employed by the wealthy and the wealthy are damned if they are going to pay them to sit at home. The wealthy people had a quiet word with the political leaders whom they finance.
Something needs to be done to stop the wealth leaving the wealthy. Poor people get very angry when they have nothing to eat. History shows us that they have a habit of kicking out their leaders, or worse. Wealthy people urgently need waterproof cotton socks to be invented, manufactured and delivered. This will stop the wealthy frm becoming poor. Employ all the workers to invent waterproof cotton socks.
Suddenly, as if by magic some world leaders have come up with a clever plan. Promise to pay everyone who stays at home very soon. Sooner than that, change the rule about making them stay at home in isolation so that it reads: “Except if your leaders want you to work”. Call those people 'front line' workers or 'essential' workers.
That way, the leaders will not have to pay many people to stay at home. The hundreds of thousands of workers who are becoming unemployed each week as the business they work for collapses because everyone is staying at home will be told to apply for new jobs. The new jobs will be working in businesses that are trying to stop the water draining out of the cotton sock.
Now, the leaders will not have to pay those financially desperate workers to stay at home. They will pay them slightly more – just enough – to work on plans to make waterproof cotton socks. Retired workers will be implored to volunteer to deliver waterproof cotton socks and emergency medical supplies and emergency food. Emergency and front line workers who have worked selflessly and bravely for little pay over long hours for months will now be rewarded. Their reward will be to have their 'front line' status diluted by a new army of 'front line' workers who will fetch and carry for them.
Soon, the world leader's plan will be rolled out. The working population will be forced to stay at home and be safe and at the same time they will be given 'front line' jobs and be forced to work. The cure will be found and the invention of the waterproof cotton sock will happen.
The president of the United States has today announced that the waterproof cotton sock has already been invented and everyone in his country should huddle close together in buildings called churches and celebrate by buying a chocolate rabbit. The president is not very good at concentrating for more than a few moments and he wants the dead people to die quickly and get those waterproof cotton socks out on the market stalls. And the chocolate bunnies. He shouts at those who point to the graphs that clearly show that COVID19 is only just getting it's teeth into the population. The president knows that the middle bit of the film is always boring and it is the car chase and explosions at the end that he is waiting for.
The leaders of Britain and France are still keeping to the script: everyone must stay at home except everyone who can work without sneezing or coughing or because they are facing financial ruin. Retired people will now work for free, children will soon be back at school because all their parents have magically become 'essential' workers and only the sick and the homeless must stay at home.
In the mean time, this internet forum shows what might have been: a group of people who share friendship and support and advice with each other but never meet each other. A forum that is powered by generous donations from those with enough money. A forum that somehow gets by while a viral infection threatens the planet with a lot of deaths – so many deaths that society will never be the same as it has been up to now and since those pine trees were stuck in the ground a century ago. A forum that is free, friendly and self-isolating.
By now, the whole world has been made aware of COVID-19 and our political leaders have told us what each of us should do to stop it killing ourselves, our neighbours and our friends. Stay at home. Care for your community.
This applies to everyone. Homeless people must stay at home. The elderly must stay at home. The young must stay at home. Parents must stay at home. Workers must stay at home. Unemployed people must stay at home.
It is the best advice that can be given by our leaders, who have no clear idea how to stop the spread of a virus that is pulverising our way of life. They consult their medical specialists and discover that COVID-19 may kill so many of us that the way we live today becomes something that – one day soon - might literally only be taught by the light of a bonfire to young children by wheezing grandparents.
The world, for the next year or more will be modelled on this forum – motorhomeowners. We will have friends we never meet and we instead share and care for each other by typing messages, sent through copper telephone wires that were strung from tall pine tree trunks, stuck in the ground over a century ago.
Of course, things were simpler back then. All you did was walk to the local shop and get some milk, butter, bread, vegetables and meat that mostly came from local farms. Then, you went home, had sex with your partner and grew a baby boy who would grow up to be killed in a war with another country and a lovely baby girl who would one day grow up to walk to the local shop, if she didn't die of disease first.
Then, political leaders around the world realised that you could make more money and get richer by making nice things and selling them – exporting them – to your enemy. All you had to do was take the young boy and girl and encourage them to work in a factory and make nice things. You gave them money in return but only just enough for them to survive and no more. You built a complex transportation and banking infrastructure to encourage it all to expand.
This was such a success that every country in the world started doing it. Manufacturing nice things brought tremendous financial wealth. Some workers themselves began to earn enough money to buy some nice things as well. Nice thngs became so plentiful in their supply that their prices had to be lowered and even poor people began to afford a few nice things.
Then, in 2008, there was a world banking crash entirely caused by wealthy people. Not a single poor or 'just getting by' person caused the banking crash. However, it was decided that the wealthy people who were to blame were too wealthy to punish. Instead, the poor people were punished. It was explained to them (by wealthy people) that the banking crash had meant there was not enough money to go round now so jobs would have to pay a little less and healthcare and the cost of living would have to go up.
Ordinary people and poor people around the world took the new reality in their stride and worked longer hours for less money and in poorer health. It was the 'new normal'.
Political leaders around the world mopped their brows in relief that ordinary people had not rebelled and they quickly rewarded themselves and the wealthy investors who financed them with a small pay rise for all their hard work in convincing people about the lie that there was not enough money.
Then, four months ago, a dangerous virus was discovered. This happens from time to time as nature unfolds in all its true splendour. Political leaders around the world were slow to react or else simply denied it was a problem.
That was not a clever response. It wasted valuable time. Medical professionals eventually had to go public and speak the truth to the people. The political leaders rolled their eyes and shook their heads. Political leaders know better than to speak truthfully to their people. They know that ordinary people only put up with being treated badly if their leader promises them a jam sandwich in a few days time. Telling them that there is a dangerous virus heading towards them is the stupid kind of thing that only a health professional would do. Very reluctantly, world leaders told their exhausted working population to stay at home.
The reason for this was because if they caught the disease they would cause the collapse of their country's health service. Their health service was cash starved because world leaders can think of better things to spend the money on. Besides, all world leaders know that all you really need to do is tell people that they have a great healthcare package even if they do not. People assume that they are being told the truth.
This last month, as COVID19 really begins to spread and really begins to kill the most fragile in our communities, many world leaders have realised that they will crash their country's economy if all their workers stay at home and actually survive the virus. The nice things will not get made. The wealth will drain from the wealthiest people in society like water through a cotton sock. The poor people are employed by the wealthy and the wealthy are damned if they are going to pay them to sit at home. The wealthy people had a quiet word with the political leaders whom they finance.
Something needs to be done to stop the wealth leaving the wealthy. Poor people get very angry when they have nothing to eat. History shows us that they have a habit of kicking out their leaders, or worse. Wealthy people urgently need waterproof cotton socks to be invented, manufactured and delivered. This will stop the wealthy frm becoming poor. Employ all the workers to invent waterproof cotton socks.
Suddenly, as if by magic some world leaders have come up with a clever plan. Promise to pay everyone who stays at home very soon. Sooner than that, change the rule about making them stay at home in isolation so that it reads: “Except if your leaders want you to work”. Call those people 'front line' workers or 'essential' workers.
That way, the leaders will not have to pay many people to stay at home. The hundreds of thousands of workers who are becoming unemployed each week as the business they work for collapses because everyone is staying at home will be told to apply for new jobs. The new jobs will be working in businesses that are trying to stop the water draining out of the cotton sock.
Now, the leaders will not have to pay those financially desperate workers to stay at home. They will pay them slightly more – just enough – to work on plans to make waterproof cotton socks. Retired workers will be implored to volunteer to deliver waterproof cotton socks and emergency medical supplies and emergency food. Emergency and front line workers who have worked selflessly and bravely for little pay over long hours for months will now be rewarded. Their reward will be to have their 'front line' status diluted by a new army of 'front line' workers who will fetch and carry for them.
Soon, the world leader's plan will be rolled out. The working population will be forced to stay at home and be safe and at the same time they will be given 'front line' jobs and be forced to work. The cure will be found and the invention of the waterproof cotton sock will happen.
The president of the United States has today announced that the waterproof cotton sock has already been invented and everyone in his country should huddle close together in buildings called churches and celebrate by buying a chocolate rabbit. The president is not very good at concentrating for more than a few moments and he wants the dead people to die quickly and get those waterproof cotton socks out on the market stalls. And the chocolate bunnies. He shouts at those who point to the graphs that clearly show that COVID19 is only just getting it's teeth into the population. The president knows that the middle bit of the film is always boring and it is the car chase and explosions at the end that he is waiting for.
The leaders of Britain and France are still keeping to the script: everyone must stay at home except everyone who can work without sneezing or coughing or because they are facing financial ruin. Retired people will now work for free, children will soon be back at school because all their parents have magically become 'essential' workers and only the sick and the homeless must stay at home.
In the mean time, this internet forum shows what might have been: a group of people who share friendship and support and advice with each other but never meet each other. A forum that is powered by generous donations from those with enough money. A forum that somehow gets by while a viral infection threatens the planet with a lot of deaths – so many deaths that society will never be the same as it has been up to now and since those pine trees were stuck in the ground a century ago. A forum that is free, friendly and self-isolating.
