A Condemnation of Stupidity and Selfishness

Large crowds seen at Trinity Bellwoods Park on Saturday May 23, 2020

This is neither a left or right political rant on the political spectrum, it is, however, a condemnation of stupidity & selfishness. If you're offended by it, I don't care. For those at Trinity Bellwood Park and other packed beaches and parks today, I hope the hell you are offended. If you think I'm talking to you personally, individually, there's a song that was written by Carly Simon a few years ago you might want to listen to. You know the one, it's about vanity, arrogance and selfishness.

As I write this I see pictures pouring out onto various social media platforms showing hundreds of people packing together at beaches and resorts, all of them, it seems, have come to the conclusion that COVID-19 is no longer a problem, or they no longer care about themselves or others around them. Which I find odd given the quality of life, with some glaring exceptions, most Canadians have.

The crush to get home

Back in early March when the CD-19 pandemic first became the dominate issue on the planet I had to make a hard choice. I'm in South East Asia right now and had to decide if I'd join the throngs of panic stricken tourists that were flooding airports all over the world to get home to Canada. I got email after email from the Canadian Embassy I'm registered with outlining the risks and offering the tools I'd need to get my butt to a 'safer' place - Canada. I'm in my 70s and decided that getting into a panic driven crush at several of the busiest airports in the world might not be a great choice for me, so I decided to bide my time. I'm here on a long stay visa so no rush there. I live in a monthly rented condo (a studio apartment) so, safe and comfortable. 

That doesn't stop me from keeping a close eye on flights and what I would face on my return to Canada though. I've also thought a lot about the human based cooperative Asian societies and compared that to self-interested individualist societies like Canada. In Asia, when confronted by a common enemy, such as a pandemic or a roving war-lord, the people tend to close ranks (metaphorically in this case) and fight together. Their purpose is to win. The countries here, big and small, have fought off invaders from every part of the world for untold centuries. The invaders were all driven out, their borders were not redrawn by imperial forces (if they were they were put back once the invaders left) and those autonomous nations and cultures are still here and many are thriving. A pandemic is just another invader to defeat.

They're willing to give up some individual rights for a time for the common good. They also support their government's sometimes draconian edicts to force the non-compliant among them to modify their behaviour. EG – the beaches in the area where I live were closed about a month ago. A huge sign went up recently that said use of the beach would be met with arrest, possible jail for 1 year and a $4,500 fine. It's patrolled by police and private security guards. A gathering like we saw in Trinity Bellwood might have seen a military intervention (speculative but it could happen.) The national government set a curfew to stop the partiers, over 3,000 arrests were made in 1 month. The parties stopped.

I've also watched how containment efforts have gone in Canada and I'm not happy, not happy at all. Unbelievably, people were on the streets protesting a disease, barking that doctors, scientists and public health officials were 'infringing on their rights' and that they would never get those rights back if they temporarily gave them up. They actually think that isolation might become the norm, that having a population confined and locked down would somehow be beneficial to....well, I have no freaking idea what most of them are babbling about. The end result is their selfishness is pushing Canada into the top 10 infection hubs in the world.

These self-involved centers of the universe yelp and complain about how government failed them. If only they'd been warned some wail, why didn't the government protect us....arrrrrrrgh! So today I see those same people out packing themselves together in a park like a bunch of suicidal lemmings heading for a cliff. I read Postmedia rabble rousing about rights and how Canada's medical officer should resign. I don't get the connection between selfish individualistic tribalists (ironic huh?) risking other people's lives as a failure of government when said government has been beating the warning drum for months. The failure here are Canadians and their arrogant selfish nonsense. They are, from this vantage point, the weakest people I've seen anywhere in the world. Their friends and family members are dying right in front of them but they need to go out to see and be seen. 

The stunning irresponsibility of John Tory

I took this from a recent conversation from someone who lives in the Trinity - Bellwood area and who is following the rules by acting like a grown up. “It bugs me partly because those people at Trinity - Bellwoods... they’re not the “freedom to work for less than a living wage and get sick and kill grandma” crowd. You wouldn’t find a single Trump loving, Ford voting, conspiracy theorist among them. You might hear some bullshit about GMOs and maybe even the odd “vaccines cause autism” craziness, but for the most part, those were “liberals”. However, they are, in many ways, the worst of the worst. These are the people who create all the talking points for the right wing. They’re the not quite so straw man I have to keep putting out when arguing with conservatives or libertarians. They think they’re the left wing because they don’t hate trans people, and they think racism is bad. They’re the same kind as the reporter who asked AOC “how can you support an old white man like Bernie Sanders?” as if identity is the first and last part of every conversation. They’re among those who get to believe that oppression is mostly an individual act...they talk about privilege, but they don’t act like they get it. Being at that park being one of the biggest “check your privilege” moments I’ve ever witnessed.”

Meanwhile they ignore the loud and clear warnings of a much worse 2nd wave that is imminent. The right wing conspiracy laden media continues to blame government institutions, Trudeau, doctors and medical professionals for not warning people enough. What irks me the most is that they're doing that accusational blaming right in the middle of being warned that a much worse 2nd wave is imminent! I want to scream at the stupidity but that would only make my throat raspy.

The fault in the continued spread of CD-19 is the inability of Canadians to join together and a media more interested in clicks & disruption than saving lives. I'll wait until the 2nd wave has passed before I reconsider getting on a plane and go to a place I spent nearly 70 years of my life helping to build that turned into a selfish weak Idiocracy in a matter of months.

I have to go for a walk to the store now, I'll put on my mask, not complain at the free hand sanitizer and temperature check at the store's front door, it's a safe place to go. BTW –the country I'm in has nearly twice Canada's population but only has a little over 3K infections (Canada has just passed China in total infections) and fewer than 60 deaths. I made the right choice when I decided sitting here and waiting was best. There is little sanity in Canada right now and I am hugely disappointed with some of the people in my homeland. It's a sad day for me.

Addendum: An extra special note to the freedom preachers. You folks complain and whine incessantly about your freedom to go and do whatever you want whenever you want, no mask, no social distancing and on and on and on. It's clear to me giving up your right to life is the ultimate infringement.