Journaling the Coronavirus (COVID19) Pandemic, Reflection #41
April 22, 2020
Capitalism is simply a word used to describe the social and economic structure of how our culture exchanges goods and services for other goods and services. It is a formalized system of trading. The problem is not about capitalism versus the loss of lives of some people. It is about all people. If the economy is stopped, like it is now, then untold millions are going to die because of a lack of ability to trade things like money for services or goods like food or whatever.
There are about 220,000 people who die every month in the USA of all manner of causes. Illustrating one cause, in this case the virus, and then making it stand out glaringly and holding it out as being the single cause we can’t stand to have people die from…to the point where we allow all these other unnamed and uncaused people to die is simply unconscionable. But here it is with us right now and right here.
The dying from all the other stuff that the economic stoppage is going to cause has really not begun yet, and the loss of things that were once the very definition of what it was like to enjoy the American experience of living will begin now and go on through the rest of everyone’s lives who are living today. So many people in America have lived so far from the survival level that they have lost sight and understanding about how it is to live at a survival level, where comfort isn’t even considered anymore, where relaxation becomes a forgotten back item, where trust does not exist between any members of the culture who are not directly tied to survival.
I fought, I struggled and I have lived within the constraints in my country, unfair as many of them have seemed I did so not to have live at the survival level I saw and participated in when I was with the CIA in so many countries abroad (122). Most of the world lives at that survival level and it was always wonderful to come home and go to bed at night dreaming dreams about how to bring the rest of the world to where I was and to live in the conditions I lived in. To watch that all go away in a blinking instant, to watch all that disappear when it did not have to and to lose the ability to have those dreams any longer is the cause of my grief. I do not live in shocked surprise, as many are experiencing already across this once great nation…but I live in a ghostly world of waiting, waiting for what has to be coming, as the country gets the summer surprise of all time…one which ninety some odd percent have no clue is coming and will be utterly shocked by having to participate in.
I do not write this to depress or to express my own looming bout of depression. I don’t think there is any way to stop this runaway train now. The mass media that might have saved our entry into this unstoppable descent failed us so badly it is beyond description. Get yourself ready to take care of YOUR tribe. Identify who is in it and then value them deeply because you are sure as hell going to need them…and they are going to need you. You shouldn’t have to read any of this from me. It should be stuff being said by every intelligent and educated advisor in this government, but it is not, and will not be, because they are insulated and they are not going to go through almost any of this with you.
Are you Involved in a TRIBE?
This young man observed how tribes can be influenced good, bad or ugly
Always good to Here Your Thoughts and Experiences during these Challenging Times
Mr. James, I have not read your Coronavirus Reflections every day. Today, I read a random number of you ‘reflections.’ Your writing is one of warning to people who have not experienced ‘lack.’ I read you had served in 122 foreign nations on behalf of the United States government. Most people live within a cocoon of their own making. Shunning the hard work of learning about ‘survival’ at the most basic level. In order to learn, one must be immersed in a situation where they must draw on basic instincts. The basic needs of air, water, sustenance and shelter are not luxuries. Without the first one, man can live possibly three minutes before brain death; the second, maybe twenty-one days before organs begin to shutdown; and, without sustenance to fuel the body a little longer – but not much. “…Most of the world lives at that survival level….” In some nations around the world economic warfare has starved certain civilizations out of existence. On one humanitarian mission, in the 1990s I saw such situations created by tribal warfare. The survivors were not concerned about lack of electricity, grocery stores or gasoline. As we flew low-level above the tree tops, we could see abandoned villages and slaughtered cattle. Not one human was seen. Flying in other parts of the African continent, put our crews face-to-face with emaciated men, women and children. This is the most dire situation in a survival situation. (We know what warring nations can create from seeing it first-hand in Vietnam.) Without laboring on those points, most American truly have “… lost sight and understanding about how it is to live at a survival level.” One of your reflections discussed the new forced economic situations Americans are ‘beginning’ to face. Even when the country begins to “open again,” the engine which drives our economy will be so badly damaged that recovery will take longer that one year. All the cash which has been dumped into society will actually be worth less. “In the Keynesian view, aggregate demand does not necessarily equal the productive capacity of the economy…” and vice-versa. Economic stability “… is influenced by a host of factors and sometimes behaves erratically, affecting production, employment, and inflation….” (Retrieved from Bing to make sure I had my thoughts right.) So, without laboring – think I said that above – I agree with you: People “should” be “… discerning about what you are reading and learning.” At this moment our society has the opportunity to “learn” what it means to be without – to be in solidarity with the poorest of the poor. We are a heartbeat from making the most serious of mistakes.
This is a brilliantly conceived and written comment and everyone should read it. My agreement and congratulations on getting it up on here.
Semper fi,
Jim
I’m not as blessed with expression as you are but when I read your thoughts and ides I realize that you are expressing the exact feelings and thoughts that I am experiencing, I have been ready for this my whole life since I came back from the war, but I must say this twist of fate wasn’t exactly how I pictured it!! Never the less I will humbly say the tribe is ready and has always been ready. Victory will be surviving and nothing more; ergo to add a bit of glamor to my deteriorating situation I will say in the hypothetical words that Leonidas might have said in 480 BC when faced by the overwhelming masses—“Come and Get Some” Semper Fi !!!
I do so pray that we do not get put into a position of fighting our own. To do so would be with the greatest sadness and abhorrence. They know not what they do, is a phrase supposedly spoken by
Christ up on the cross. I quote it because it is so applicable to anyone who has not been involved in the heat of ground combat. Finding out what to do, should that combat occur, is a deadly
series of nearly certain terminal actions. So, let’s hope and pray it does not come to what you ana I are truly afraid of. Thanks for the great supportive comment.
Semper fi,
Jim
The storm is coming fast. With
The meat processors shutting down will hit the stores across the nation soon. Other shortages will soon hit too. Our enemies, ie China, are doing their best to sway public opinion to their point of view. China has declared ‘total war’ on the United States. Read the article on oilprice.com. It will open your eyes. Prepare for the worst and expect it to be worse than that. Let’s get back to work and fix this shit now. If not now, it will be fixed by the bullet soon!
China has nothing to do with shutting the U.S. economy down until it lays flat and cold as ashes.
The United States is solely responsible for doing that to itself all by itself. We will only discover
who gained by all this later, when it’s over, and we rise like Phoenix from those ashes. Let’s hope this
time that we are more than motivated and ready to go after the people who’ve done this and take a much
more total and painful toll on them then we did after that first salvo they fired back in 2008.
Semper fi,
Jim
when this is over we will look back an d see how gullible we Americans were to the hype of media an d some so called health experts who led us to shut down our entire economy except the govern elite. look at Sweden for how a country should handle this. they never shut down or had stay at home orders an d they did fine. I think every death has been attributed to coronaviras to inflate the death toll an d scare Americans.
It is looking that your analysis is spot on jb,
although this kind of conclusion will probably never make it to the mass media airwaves.
Look how much attention they have been able to garner and how much money they have made.
This whole debacle calls for
a complete review of how we handle and allow media in this country.
The wonderful thing about a democracy is that if enough people want to change things then they can.
Semper fi, and thanks,
Jim