JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

Santa Maria della Salute in Venice, built in the 17th century in gratitude for the end of an outbreak of plague. Photo taken 2015. I hear the water is clearer now.

It was cooler all day yesterday, probably the last gasp of the Siberian winds before summer fully sizzles, and might it have something to do with the absence of cars, buses and people on the streets?

Those of us who have settled in to climb our mountains of tsundoku (books we own and have not read) should give a thought to our extrovert friends who do not know what to do with themselves with the malls, restaurants, bars, entertainment venues shut down. Try not to gloat when you remember how they used to taunt you for staying home.

Some weeks ago I filmed an interview with Dr. Connie Alaras, a professor of comparative literature and scholar of millennarian groups. (Watch it here) Their beliefs center on the coming apocalypse. “Like the end of the world?” I asked her. “No, but it will be a great transformation,” she declared. The end of the world—as we know it. The beginning of something new. The other day I sent her a text to ask if this is it. Today she replied that this is that transformation they’ve been waiting for. (Note on 4 April 2020: I respect their religious freedom but declined to join her in celebrating people’s birthdays. Beliefs involving the arrival of a messiah are so easily hijacked by politicians.)

This is my chance to apologize for a column I wrote in 1993 about the meeting of one such spiritual community. I made fun of the ritual, the members, the prophetess who was “possessed” by the Santo Niño and spoke in the voice of a child. It was disrespectful and classist, and my being an atheist does not excuse it. I’m sorry I was an asshole. (The congregations that insist on holding public services for large groups of people despite the danger to themselves and to society at large are another matter.)

Lord (Full name: Lord Charlemagne, therefore adjective: Carolingian) sent our group chat a list of developments to be optimistic about. Chinese coronavirus hospitals shut down as there are not enough cases to keep them running. Indian doctors have successfully treated covid-19 with a cocktail of antiretrovirals and antihistamines. More recoveries, and progress in finding a vaccine. Evan sent an interview with the Nobel laureate, biophysicist Michael Levitt, who was a great source of comfort to the Chinese at the peak of the covid-19 outbreak there. Statistics show that the spread of coronavirus will eventually end.

Eventually. As in it will get worse before it gets better, but humanity will survive. But don’t let your guard down! Cheerful paranoia is key.

This pandemic is laying waste to the global economy, but it’s also showing us what we must do to ensure the survival of the species. We cannot go on the way we have, casually destroying the environment, poisoning ourselves, and allowing a few absurdly wealthy people to have more than everyone else combined. The first thing this pandemic has spotlighted, right after official ineptitude, is the ridiculous gap (Gap?? Abyss!!) between the haves and have-nots and the lack of safety nets for the poor. They can’t work, they won’t get paid, how will they and their families eat? Ignoring appeals to avoid panic-buying* is one thing, but posting your food hoard on social media is repulsive and idiotic.

A few weeks in lockdown and in Venice the canals have become clear. Dolphins and swans now cavort in them. The carbon emissions that the world’s governments have not succeeded in reducing (because economies depend on the ability to spew carbon) are being reduced. They’ve had no choice but to shut down factories. The air is cleaner. Our surroundings are cleaner. We are seeing what the world looks like if human impact is minimized.

Obviously we have to come out of our houses and go to work at some point, but we have to change. If capitalism, industry, travel and tourism go back to the way they were—and more, to make up for lost time and revenue—we will have learned nothing from this catastrophe, and are truly, undeniably, doomed.

* The answer to my question, Why is the German term for panic-buying (hamsterkaufen) “hamster-buying?” is: Panic-buying calls to mind the way a hamster stuffs its cheeks.

PS to the telcos: The internet and social media are all that’s keeping 13 million people from running amok, so PLEASE.