The Great Disruption: The Pandemic

 I'm thinking through a series of posts on the Pandemic, which I'm calling "The Great Disruption." I am finishing a novel about a character in the Spanish Flu Pandemic, so this is on my mind. 

I would appreciate comments about your own experiences. 

Update January 22

I haven't returned to this post: finished the second draft of a novel and have a huge project at work related to accreditation, which you don't mess around with if you lived in the Southeast(!) 

The great disruptions are in economics, education, mental health, medicine, politics, public trust in government,  demographic (age span and population growth), relationships, religion, communication. 

The Spanish flu pandemic was more deadly but it was much shorter, over in about a year. Herd immunity came faster, I supposed (sardonic humor there). And with the lack of some mass media (no radio, TV, Internet) and all social media (except letters and talk), it receded into personal memory more than widely talked about public memory. There were many repercussions, mostly in the number of deaths at a time of war and revolution that was taking an even greater number of lives. But the localism of life made for a different remembered experience. 

I live in higher education world for most of my day and I am daily aware of those effects. The students just aren't ready for college, and their emotional and relational growth (for reasons Jean Twenge writes about in IGen) is stunted. I see great anxiety in terms of mental health. 

How can we trust the public health officials? (and let's not totally blame Trump, although he has plenty to be blamed for. We've gone a year and it hasn't gotten better. My big beef: the vaccine will cure us all. That was what we were led to believe. It has not kept us from getting sick. Well, it has me, I supposed. I am one of the few I know who hasn't gotten COVID.)

My biggest disappointment has been the hypocrisy of Christians who will sing "Where He Leads I Will Follow" and won't a. wear a mask for the good of others or b. get their butts off the couch and back to fellowship with  other believers in a church. I have my choicest words for them. 

Finally, I have noticed that my agnostic or nonreligious colleagues are the most fearful.  The anxiety is perplexing and disturbing. The Christian believers take a balanced approach: do what you can, but don't live in fear.  It's a world view issue, a lens on the world issue.