Coronavirus is a lot stronger than you think. What did he just say? Yes, I said it: Coronavirus is a lot stronger than you think. You can show me all me the data you want, all the articles declaring it is no stronger than the flu, that wearing a mask is a lot more of a threat, that Sweden’s model is better, but look at what it has achieved. Just look at how easily divided we are. Look at the fissures in our societies. Look at the fear. Look at the ill education across the social media landscapes. Look at the incompetence of the government. Look at the huge spending on a ‘Track and Trace’ app that barely works. Look at the rise of completely illogical conspiracy theories. And look at the mistrust. All that from one virus. One virus. Now that’s an achievement!
Mistrust is at an all time high. And why not, we have no credible reasons to believe in our leaders, the elite, businesses, the media and those in positions of power, because we’ve been manipulated, conned, spun and stolen from so many times that most of us are sick of it. Rightfully.
But must the situation be so binary, be so black and white? Can there only be 2 sides to this story?
On one side we have a government, who, as anyone who studies politics, economics and sociology knows is strongly controlled by business. Their duty is not to the people of the country, but to those who are truly in power and to themselves. This is incredibly clear if you do 5 minutes of research and investigation with logic and reasoning. Just look at the privatisation of the railways in the UK to understand the true price of travelling on a train. It costs us a lot more than simply buying the ticket.
On the other side there is dangerously growing, with momentum, a world of conspiracy theories as people try to make some sense of the world, but without any logic or reasoning while attacking anyone that doesn’t believe what they think, calling them sheeple, basking under the illusion they are privy to information we all need to hear, because it comes from their lips or fingertips, giving them the false idea of power, which is beautifully ironic, considering it is the lack of power or control in their lives that makes them behave in this manner. It seems people will believe anything, and post anything on social networks to prove their point, even if it contradicts what they posted three posts earlier. Such beautiful glowing examples of confirmation bias.
The above is evidently more about the individual, than the virus.
We are all clearly becoming victims of an age of individualism, or probably, a better, more fitting term would be, the age of solipsism.
Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I Me Me I I I Me Me I Me I Me Me Me I I I
My interpretation of a social media timeline. “Me first, you second.” Or actually, “Me first, you don’t even exist.” That is our society. Our culture. That is the true narrative of the way in which we live. And it is why we are so divided and lost collectively. We have lost the power of community. We don’t trust anyone else as they maybe a threat to our ‘brand’, how we are perceived on the timeline as we encapsulate ourselves within a digital bubble staring in our little screens, which has become our worlds, our lives. I dare you to deny it. But you are meant to act like this, for this is how our society has been engineered. It all relates back to Neoliberalism. You are not as free as you believe yourself to be. You are as free as you are told you are allowed to be. And keep consuming.
If I look across my Facebook timeline, and of course mine is a filter bubble created by Facebook algorithms, as all of ours are, and to this I have to be alert, at times it can look as if it is truly the end of the world as conspiracy theorists post about the country being run by Hitler, that all our freedoms have been eroded (no irony that they are freely posting on Facebook), that we are in an age where ‘posts’ are being deleted and this is a reminiscent of the burning of books, that the army is going to be roaming the streets, that we are controlled by shape shifting lizards and that the NHS is tantamount to a Nazi concentration camp and if you don’t believe this you are a sheep (Not that buying into all of this without any questioning, logic or reasoning isn’t being a sheep too!) Then you turn off Facebook, walk down the street and the biggest infringement on your life is that you have put on a mask to go into a shop or public transport, otherwise, let’s be honest, life isn’t really too different.
Coronavirus shows us that we are a race that is still very much at odds with itself, unable to work together and full of mistrust. A race still fighting amongst itself to be ‘individually’ heard across our cultural landscapes.
Solipsism though, is the true virus, not COVID-19, and until we realise this we will forever be stuck in these binary loops.
Kai Motta’s novels Celebrity Rape and VIR(US) are available from Amazon.