Watching the news over the weekend, Spain put more than 200k people on another lockdown due to outbreaks. We’d had it under control. The plethora of US anti-mask videos of those behaving badly in the middle of a pandemic are everywhere. And finally, seeing the UK open their pubs on ‘Super Saturday’ because they’re ‘the heart of British life‘, made me sit up and question who we are as humans. And where the hell we’re all going.
Some punters headed out to their local from 6am, with one man in Manchester describing his first pint of Carling like ‘an angel p**sing on the tip of me tongue’
The metro – UK
Here in Spain there is fear about the Brits coming now that the border is open to them, and bringing their drinking and love of a pint – or 10 – with them. Boozy holidays and bad behavior didn’t stop after our lock down. So much so, it required them to be hustled onto flights back to their home country to keep the Spanish police safe from their escapades and abuse.
How have we homo sapiens made saving ourselves something political and a culture war? ‘No one’s going to tell me I can’t die for a drink if I want to.’ The creed of the alcoholic or just your every day death cult member. Animals with much smaller brains than humans have more survival instinct. Hell, this virus is better at surviving than we are.
The mask wearing boycotts and grocery store rants do not happen in Spain. These are a special gift the US gives the world. Twitter is littered with these people abusing others in stores and ‘patriots’ spouting speeches from the graves of our hallowed Founding Fathers. As though the US Constitution was another holy book written by men who could imagine the future we live in today.
I said it 4 months ago before Covid decimated the US. And, sadly, its truer today. This is like watching a slow motion train wreck where all the passengers are partying and leaving the heavy lifting to the train driver. But he’s nowhere to be found. Are we really this dumb?
But then I saw this video. And it made me realize our current predicament didn’t start with this virus or this political cycle. It’s been going on for decades and we weren’t paying attention. As if the entire post-WWII period was the roaring 20’s, and as long as the stock market was booming, and the champagne flowing, we didn’t bother to sit up and take notice. And now that we’re forced to? As a species, we’re angry. Not at what we should be mad at – but the fact that we have to pay attention. Because distraction is so much easier. We didn’t want to look at the climate crisis, income inequality, or justice and social inequality. That’s too hard to solve. And they tell us there are good people on both sides.
The next 24 months will be telling for our species and our planet. I’ve heard people say it’s all Darwinian and that nature is editing. But that’s not a good enough answer. I’ve seen some of the faces of those who’ve been ‘edited’ so far, and there are many amazing talented people in there. And no matter what you think of me, I’m was almost edited myself.
Will we rise to the occasion or will we fail ourselves and each other through our selfishness? Before this, I would have told you we would hit the breaks and swerve – even at the last possible moment. But now I’m not so sure. The US was always a symbol to the world of so much promise. The Shining City on a Hill. I hear it every day in Valencia. ‘I always wanted to move to America. The land of opportunity.’ But I think that’s over now as Europe and the world pulls away from us, as we bungle our pandemic response and expose our newly-acquired inability to lead in a crisis. And there is nothing to replace it. Vacuums like to be filled and you can hear the sucking sound of extremism and authoritarianism. Just like in the cartoon video above – the train is speeding up and the tracks behind us are gone. The future of humanity is up to us. And sadly, it’s binary right now. But are we so fatigued by a little mask-wearing inconvenience; will we choose our own survival or just have another pint? Cheers, mate!🍻
Viva Espana 
I’m honestly terrified.
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Agreed. It is scary. But as in any major upheaval in the billions of years of history of our planet, in the midst of chaos there is opportunity to fundamentally shift. But will humans make this shift of go the way of the dinosaurs?
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I love how you choose to place the blame on our President. Can we blame him for the resurgence in Spain and other countries as well? People are people no matter what color, creed, who they love, religion, or where they live. If you do not take personal responsibility for your PPE then you are endangering yourself and others. The President should not have to tell you something you already know!
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I don’t think I said I blame the President for the whole shebang. But certainly, his lack of leadership and toxic rhetoric hasn’t helped the US to fight the virus aggressively. He could put on a mask at his rallies and his supporters would follow his lead. And save lives in the process. But its surging in places all across the US and thats local leaders across the country who, in some cases, couldn’t wrap their minds around what the rest of the world already knew. I said before so many times ‘Our present is your future. Take heed’. To everyone I knew back home. But the culture in the US is individualistic and wearing a mask to protect another is sometimes viewed as an infringement on personal freedom. Its weird since they have traffic lights, drunk driving laws and drivers licenses in America. The US isn’t a lawless free for all. Not sure why masks in a public health crisis is the hill they want to die on. As to Spain – I don’t think the PoTUS is responsible for our latest outbreak or in any way responsible for the coordinated aggressive govmt response to the crisis here. I’d never believe that. As others have pointed out – it’s from those not wearing masks and also imported from tourists after the border opened. The restrictive fatigue? We see it here too. Ppl are tired of the restrictions and mask wearing but the virus isn’t tired. We are lucky here and culturally in a good position to lockdown areas here as outbreaks happen. Communities are close knit. I hope, in this moment of so very many things flying at us, that we can take a pause. As the head of The World Economic Forum said – we need to take this moment to reimagine the future. What we do know is that it cant look like the past. Or we are well and truly screwed.
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Sadly, we live in the area that is back on lockdown. The area called A Mariña is 14 counties along tne Lugo coastline 80 kms long. Two weeks ago there was a protest march here because the Alcoa plant in San Ciprian that employs 1000 locals, will be closed. It was way too many unmasked people marching so that, along with the tourists caused a new outbreak. Right now it’s just for 5 days because Sunday there is an election here. People can’t go out to vote in a quarantine. But it most likely will be extended for 15 more days. There were almost zero cases around here for months, now suddenly, there are 100.
https://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia/amarina/2020/07/05/marina-rebasa-centenar-largo-contagiados-sanidade-cerrara-cinco-dias-accesos-costa-0000-horas-hoy/00031593941987893754337.htm
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I’m so sorry to hear this, Carol. Please take care. It can turn on a dime. Its that 2 week lag we saw here. As cases started to climb. I hope you guys don’t go thru more of that. We cancelled my our Lugo reservation and booked further south towards Santiago. We want to make sure our trip is still a go. I’ll be thinking of you guys. Sending good vibes your way.
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How are things up your way, Carol? Was thinking of you guys this week.
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Your words ring loud and true!
The US is a band of crazies, fueled by the biggest baby of them all. So many videos like this popping up every day. And it’s from all age groups.
We’ve forgotten human decency. And while it’s always been here under wraps, this “government “ is reveling in the chaos.
I don’t condone destroying property in a protest, and I certainly don’t condone destroying property in a temper tantrum meant to save lives.
I’m readying my house to prepare to move overseas in a year or so. There’s no intelligent life left on this side of the pond (Canada excluded).
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It really is an upside down world now. You’re right about it being ‘under wraps’ before. Now that it’s out in open its hard to ignore. No place is perfect. But there are places less perfect than others. I do love Canada. Used to drive up quite a lot from Seattle. My son said we needed the chaos to learn lessons – way back in 2016 (and he was only 18). He might be right but the lessons will be painful ones.
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