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Dave's avatar

You're illuminating all of this at the proper level of abstraction, and I appreciate it. It is easy to get caught up in the constantly shifting "factual" predicate of what's going on at the ground level, but, aside from being an impossible task in the face of aggressive propaganda campaigns, that misses the point. The real story of the pandemic is a story of mass insanity, the kind we see repeated throughout history and the kind our education system is supposedly designed in part to mitigate (but has failed miserably in that task).

In 2008, hip hop artist Lupe Fiasco wrote a brilliant song using a pandemic as a metaphor for mass insanity. The layers of meaning become particularly interesting in today's context, as we have mass insanity being triggered by a (sort of) pandemic:

"Disease, the virus is spreading in all directions

No safe zone no cure and no protection

No symptoms define the signs of an infection

No vaccines, remedies, and no corrections

Quarantine the dreams and seal off the connections

Don't let them in, not a friend, not a reflection

Everybody's got it and want you to have it next and

Don't accept them if you want to stay as an exception

No pill can heal the ill of this

Sickness, some are still in doubt of its existence

Some call it forgiveness and some call it the vengeance

Some say it's an exit and some say it's an entrance

The poor say the rich have the cure

The rich say the poor are the source

Revolutionaries say it's psychological war

Invented by the press, just to have something to report

Some say the first case came from a maternity ward

Some say a morgue, some say the skies, some say the floors

Whores say the nuns, nuns say the whores

And everybody is sure

The scientist say it only affects the mind

The little boy said it only affects the girls

The preacher man said it's going to kill off the soul

A bum said it's gonna kill the whole wide world"

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stephen marshall's avatar

Charles plays oracle, and sage, citing the first rule of hip hop: don’t slay the player, remake the Game.

blessings brother.

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