Us and Death foretold

 

Do you remember the shock when you learned of an aviation disaster? 

For a few hours we felt full of anguish watching the recovery of the remains of passengers at the crash site on television, unless it was possible. 

They were "a few hundred" of corpses. But the scythe of death surprised and pained us even when the number of dead was limited but it referred to some basketball star, just to give an example, and to his daughter. 

The cry of the media mourners was planetary. 

Not today. Not today. 

In Italy there is talk of over 600 deaths a day and here in the United States the second pandemic wave now stands at 2000 people who died in 24 hours. 

The 260,000 American deaths from the virus are the equivalent of three wars fought by the United States, two of which were World Wars. 

Not today: the repetitiveness of negative information has created a stable addiction whereby those who die lie and those who are still alive give themselves peace. 

The same feeling as when we drive over the remains of a cat. 

In the long run, all do-goodism proves to be a daily counterfeiting of feelings. 

Many are only interested in what concerns their exclusive personal bubble. 

The pain of others is written, learned ruminations are made, images of dying patients and relatives excluded from hospitals are shown. 

But it is hot air because what matters is that we and our closest family members feel good. 

He says: but how do you put it with volunteers who work hours unloading crates and feeding people who no longer have to eat? 

He says: but how do you put it with the paramedics, the doctors continuously exposed to the infection and many of them lose their lives? (Without taking into account the professional haters who on social media accuse them of being among the few categories that still receive a salary in the face of generalized and growing unemployment).

There are the invocations of scientists, experts, politicians, people of common sense who invite them to use the mask permanently, keep a safe distance, wash their hands frequently, avoid any contact with others. 

But obviously they are of little use because it is enough to consider the images of the gates in the airports in these days before Thanks Giving Day to realize that the appeal not to travel, not to contribute to the spread of the infection for the sake of maintaining a family tradition which often no longer makes sense due to the destruction of families, is falling on deaf ears. 

Of course it is nice to be able to hug parents and grandparents again at least once a year showing their children and grandchildren. 

As for the possibility that precisely those elderly people could be infected by the apparent manifestations of formal affection of the young....... "why does it have to happen to us?"

Moreover, the fact that the virus is skimming most of the world's societies by decimating the elderly triggers the thought (which must not be externalized) of: "Better them than me ... And then they are resources that are left available to other generations ..." 

 Cruel claims? Try asking yourself these questions in the secrecy of your conscience. 

The pandemic, every epidemic, not only trigger feelings of love but also bring out the narrow-mindedness of the survival instinct, what is generally defined as the "Spirit of the Medusa Raft" (remember that story of cannibalism among the survivors of a shipwreck?). 

Very crude statements tells us an Italian friend during a Whatsapp conversation. 

We realize that it is unbearable the façade of do-gooding thrown in by the media to make people open their wallets. 

 Oscar