Corona Virus Brings New Social Conventions
The world is changing, and fast, thanks to Corona Virus. As a result, we all have new social norms, or conventions, that have crept into our day-to-day lives. For some, adapting has been a big change, huge even. For others the change has been relatively minor. However, I think as time passes, we will see longer term changes, both to our routines, and to how we act/interact.
My goal here is to spark the thought in my readers minds (thank you, by the way!!!), and maybe get a wider range of notable changes from you all.
I see it around me
My day-to-day radius is a little west of where I live, If I travel about 10 miles west of my home that puts me in the middle of the 30 mile radius that I am in Monday through Friday. I rarely travel east of home, so I don’t travel in a 40 mile radius.
I see the behavioral changes where I live, and I see them where I work. And not just behavior has changed, that’s too general. How we perceive things is changing, social pressures have changed. Mores have been altered. Fear has been heightened.
In a previous article on corona virus in May, I expressed some doubt, followed by stats showing the potentially lethality of Covid. This was followed by an opinion that the whole “group think” fear mentality was, perhaps, a bad thing. That it was perhaps unnecessary. Were we giving up our rights without a fight? So easily?
Theories and Conspiracies
I don’t go on Facebook much anymore. I stick to my own creation, Friendslr.com quite a bit. Okay, it was a cheap plug. Still true, however.
Every time I get on Facebook, someone is hollering about some sort of conspiracy or another. I don’t begrudge them that, it is their right. Myself, I don’t get into conspiracies much, because there are so many factors and players that you cannot track. Yet, inter-personally, if someone is downing me or someone else, and I see the clear evidence in person, okay.
However, let me share this:
The United states of America has 4.25% of the world’s population. The US ranks number 3. There are 94 people per square mile. Source: Worldometers.info
The United States has experienced 26.6% of the confirmed worldwide Corona Virus cases. ONE QUARTER! Right now there are 16.2 million confirmed cases of Corona Virus on planet earth. the U.S. has 4.31 million of those! Furthermore. looking at the screenshot below, Brazil, population 212 million, or 2.73% of the planets population, has 2.42 million cases. Brazil makes up 14.9% of the worldwide confirmed cases. Seems sort of odd that just 2 countries, far from where the corona virus started, have 41.5% of all confirmed cases between them?
What about China? Didn’t Corona Virus start there?
China, where the corona virus supposedly started, and India, right next door, account for 18.47% and 17.70% of the world’s population, respectively. So, 36.17% of the world’s people, right there. See the screen shots below.
India, below.
China has 85,921 confirmed cases. So .005969% of China’s population has confirmed cases of Covid.
India, again, so close together with China that they occasionally borrow cups of sugar from one another, has 1.39 million confirmed cases of corona virus, which is .001% of their population.
So either India, and more so, China, have their pants on fire and are trying to extinguish said fire with a huge bowl of malarkey, or their medical field sucks, or, they have too many people to test. So, since both have superb medical fields, that leave only two choices.
Looking At Corona Virus Another Way
Interestingly, China has a goal to be the preeminent world power at some point. That means she has to blow past the western world. China is already flexing her muscles in the financial world, and with the islands she is disputing with Japan, the military world as well.
So, meanwhile, with Coronavirus, and our economy is sputtering, we are attempting to complete with a government run business model, China, where profit is not necessarily the goal. Control is the goal.
You see, China is still very much a communist nation. It would be awfully booshie (common vernacular here folks, a short perversion of the word bourgeois) for China to pull up to the U.N. in a gold plated Rolls Royce, wouldn’t it? Cramped, too.
So, what social conventions have changed?
Well, first of all, masks. Had you said to me a year ago that people would be willing to look completely ridiculous walking around in surgical masks to go to, say, Walmart, I’d have said, well, yeah, Walmartians. But a regular supermarket? Or wearing one to go to work?
It takes as little as 21 straight days to form a new habit. Screw up on day 10, start the 21 again. By now most of us are accustomed to having a mark nearby, and should we walk into, say, Home Depot without one, we feel utterly naked. How long until we don’t have to wear them any more? Further, how long until we feel normal again without them?
More on the changes later.
It’s About Cash flow
People get a lot of their self-worth from working. Most people, anyway. And what I’m seeing in the larger world is a lot of terrible behavior. Maybe it’s because some people are cash strapped. Maybe their self esteem demands dragging others into a hole they are in so as to not be alone is said hole. Misery loves company. Perhaps it’s pure boredom. Whatever it is, it’s not healthy.
However, what’s a person or family to do when they can’t pay their rent? Or mortgage? Car payment? To make matters worse, it’s predicted that 40% of the business that have closed due to corona virus are never coming back. As a result, we may well see another Great Depression.
So just like any whodunit, follow the money. Who stands to benefit from this crisis?
The Largest Economy on Earth
We here in the U.S. enjoy a lot of unprecedented things. The worlds largest economy. A military that can kick the crap out of anybody, even when outnumbered. Way too much food in WAY too big of portions. Hollywood. In-N-Out Burgers. What’s not to love?
Well, to a society that has been civilized far longer than any other, one that was inventing stuff while a large portion of the extended human family was eating boogers and sleeping in, well, not caves, but close to it. China, at one point, was unbelievably advanced compared to anyone else. Then she sort of stagnated, then became isolationist. Along come the Japanese in WWII, and yeah, she was never going back to being a backward, isolationist country again. We, in comparison, are newbies, upstarts.
The number 1 economy on earth by, Gross Domestic Product, (GDP) is the U.S., a position she has held since 1871. Number 2? Who cares, right? Wrong. China, and China is gaining.
Is This A Conspiracy Theory?
So, if #1 suffers the pangs of a horrific fate such as, oh, I dunno, an economy crushing pandemic, #2 has the lead, yes? And human rights? What are those? The workers are dying on the manufacturing floor? Ah, that’s sad, but you know, there are 1.4 billion more, ready to step in and fulfill that order of whoopee cushions!
Don’t let anyone tell you China is not a player. Or a problem. They are both.
The Death Toll
In my article on Covid-19 back in May, the worldwide death tally, expressed as a percentage, was 5.2%. Today it stands at 4%, a good improvement. Still horrendous, but we’re making progress.
How Else Has Corona Virus Changed Us – The New Normal – Predictions:
We have never in history been better prepared for a worldwide pandemic, be it The Black Death, or corona virus.
The 20 Worst Pandemics of All Time are listed at the linked site.
We have the internet, and all that goes with it. GoToMeeting, GoToMyPC, Zoom, and myriad of other ways you can go to work without, you know, going to work.
We can shop at Amazon, Wayfair, our grocery stores will not only bring our ordered stuff to the car, they will even deliver it. Many of us never have to visit a bank. You can do a lot of your doctors visits online. No more cold hand in a sensitive spot telling you to turn your head and cough. Well, that will still have to be done in person, I guess. Either that or the doctor will just have to wait until you call with the news that all your giblets fell out.
Top 10 Predictions if Corona Virus Hangs Out for a Year or Two
- China will take the #1 spot on the international financial stage. They are like Star Trek’s Borg: resistance is futile. <2 years.
We will experience a serious recession, or even a depression. You can only fund so many people with government money (the working people’s money) for so long. <1 year.
Online shopping will completely eclipse all other merchants, forcing even giants to close down or adapt. At the same time, we will see more delivery services beyond UPS, Amazon vans, FedEx, Grub hub, et al come to life. Happening now.
Office space will become yet another quaint anachronism. You go there with your 3 piece wool suit, pocket watch in that tiny vest pocket and on a gold chain, and smoke your pipe at your antique desk. You know how the oldsters used to reminisce about the Charleston (a 1920’s dance) before the Great Depression? Office space will likely be the same in 80 years. Computers allow working from virtually anywhere. <5 years.
- The online schooling that your kids may have done a little of this year? That will become a normal thing. It will be a new social convention. Which means…
- A lot less schools are needed. Yet, caring for these children and young adults will be a boom industry. You have to oversee and socialize the kids. Happening now.
Being an introvert is suddenly a cool, no sweat thing for someone like me.
What’s a concert? Also, we will all have excellent excuses for missing family members birthdays and weddings.
The world we know will be, basically, turned upside down, and not in the cool “Shrimp on the Barbie” way.
Those stupid mask strings will have all of our ears stuck forward, looking forever like Alfred E. Neuman, and we will all have callouses behind our ears.
Bonus thought: Entrepreneurship will not die. As long as there is human intelligence, and a will to make a difference, this is safely immune from whatever this world throws at it. Widgets always need to me invested, made, and marketed. By the way, I’m still waiting on a cool Covid mask with facial hair on it.
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