Confronting an unseen enemy
Two chapters, abstracted from a short novel about life. In the first section, a young man calls his brother, to point out how curfew was common during wartime. How people got used to it, even if they didn’t understand the utility. What made 8:00 p.m. different from 7:45 p.m in the eyes of the authorities?
In the second section, a woman calls her nephew, after learning that he was living through a curfew which might, soon, be extended to her city. Were the police really driving around, all night long, with dazzle lights and sirens?
Now, both of these sections reflect the real view of people who are faced with an unfamiliar response of civil authorities to a new danger. Both ar e indicators of the lack of information given out. Neither provide a panacea to a new danger. Here’s the thing. People don’t have any real idea about how to reduce danger from an unseen source.
We’re gearing up for phase two, or is it three, of the pandemic. And there’s a feeling, widespread, that the authorities aren’t rich in solutions. Telling people to stay inside after dark comes down to fear of a boogeyman. The danger isn’t any less, at noon, than it would be at midnight. Until we actually develop an answer, call it widespread vaccination, we’re forced to accept whatever idea flashes through the collective intelligence of a room filled with civil servants.
I’m lucky. I live far from the population centers where the infection rate is spiraling out of control. My kids… not so much.
