A ROWBOAT OF IDIOTS - Brittlestar’s Weekly Newsletter - Issue #5
Just where am I going with this whole thing? Anyone want another coffee?
A ROWBOAT OF IDIOTS
There’s an old term, really old actually… Plato made it up. “Ship of fools”
(Don’t worry, I’m not smart enough to maintain any sort of heady academic discussion here. I’ll spiral back into the tribulations of the everyman any second now.)
It basically refers to how every sailor on the ship thinks the captain is doing a terrible job and they or someone else could do a better job. You can kinda see where I’m going with this, can’t you?
Well, you’re wrong. Kinda. My job, in this little essay, isn’t to support or detract from any current leadership in any country. My focus is more on my other seamen (stop laughing… grow up).
This pandemic has shone a light on a deep chasm of stupid that has been all around us and we didn’t even know it. It’s deep and packed with stupid all the way down. At more times than I care to admit, that stupid, now in full clear view, has made me angry, frustrated and more frequently sad.
It’s also made me laugh sometimes but then I remember it’s a pandemic and I resort to an inner titter (seriously, stop laughing).
To clarify, I’m referring to the anti-maskers, the “plandemic” goons, the virus deniers, and the anti-vaxxers. All (and if you’re one of these people… oh, who am I kidding, you wouldn’t have read this far) are everyday people around us and interwoven into our daily lives.
And get this… they’re not all terrible people. Some of them are lovely.
Stupid, but lovely. Like actually lovely and have value beyond this pandemic.
I’ve often thought I need to try to make the case for logic and painfully evident science to some of these people. eg. It’s a virus. You can’t argue with a virus. Viruses don’t care if you believe in them. Why would a government want to gut the economy of the country they’re in charge of and be left with less money and less fun things to govern?
But then I remember… IT’S BEEN A YEAR.
Most of us no longer have to try that hard to think of someone we know who has had and/or been affected by COVID-19.
Most of us have had to sacrifice family visits, weddings, or funerals.
We should all kinda be on the same page by now. But we’re not. And that’s its own thing that understandably makes us angry, frustrated and weary.
That said, I also understand that people are at the end of their tether.
So, it dawned on me that there is no benefit to getting angry or frustrated with these people. We need to trick them on side.
I’m not sure how we do that. Maybe it means nodding and agreeing with people about how “we have to wear these stupid masks” or “I guess I have to get this vaccine if I want to be able to do anything or go anywhere… stupid overlords”.
I think we need to bite our tongues and just find ways to get us all working together to move forward… back to something close to normalcy.
We’re not on a ship. We’re on a rowboat. A rowboat of idiots.
Let’s do whatever we can to get everyone rowing in the same direction.
###
There are no rowboats in this picture but there are boats. We good?