Thursday, March 19, 2020

The Social Solidarity Project

Klein hits this nail on the head. He describes the need for social solidarity. I think there are several things this solidarity must be based on:
1) First of all, trust,
2) Strategy, and
3) Building new social networks that replace what we have face to face.

Here are the challenges. 
1) TRUST: this is the big one. Who right now trusts Trump? And, as importantly, Republicans? The majority of us don't, and for demonstrable reasons. 

 a) Either Trump has been lying, or his narcissism prevents him from being honest. The evolution of 'this will drop from 15 to zero' to 'I always thought this was a pandemic' reflects this dystopia.

b) On Tuesday, 3/17/20, DeBlasio said his big fear was how he'd keep 8.5 million people from losing it with no work, no money, hunkering in their homes for months. This spector is inevitable across the country in dense areas and eventually to smaller populations as well. This will manifest very quickly. Trust will die fast.

 c) Can we trust the economy? There is no rational reason to.

2) STRATEGY: Trust in many ways hinges on our ability to see our way through. If the road is tough, but we can see the end, we can bear it.

a) Testing - we've been lied to. Repeatedly. It appears Kushner and his brother have some play with this company Oscar. Last night (3/17/20) on MSNBC Rachel Maddow talked to two experts who said we need two tests – a diagnostic test, and another down-and dirty test to find out who’s probably got the virus. We need this now. What is the strategy? Who is working on this? 

We need a realistic timeline we can trust, a clear path from here to there that we can begin to hone.

This timeline must be honest. Widely disseminated feedback, discussion of successes and roadblocks, reassessments of timing we can trust to tamp down panic. 

b) Vaccines – we’ve been told the vaccine is 12 to 18 months out. That is unnecessarily vague. We should not just put up with this. We need facts, not BS.

What is the timeline?

Why the 50% difference between 12 and 18 months?

Are there ways of attacking the development line in order to get this time down?

Are there aspects of this development that as planned as serial events that can be more parallel?

We need experts to go after this aggressively.

We need reporting that is honest and detailed. Our lives are at stake and there is no reason to blindly accept BS from anyone. ALL the cards need to be laid down. 

If we can get this down to 12 months, can we hone this down further? Can we beat expectations? THAT will build trust in a big way. This is critical.

c) Hospitals – we will run out of space, experts, equipment and organization.

These need to be divided out and attacked individually by groups and subgroups. We need clear reporting up so we can develop an accumulative picture that accurately reflects all the details. We need to figure out quickly how to truncate the long lines which will breed panic and physical spread of the virus further.

Each facet needs to roll up rationally to the overarching status. This needs concentration and hard work and relentless honesty. We need widely disseminated reporting across the country. We need to accept any good ideas from any source. We need to ignore the naysayers and paranoid conspiracy theories and theorists while keeping the doors open so those folks can get the help they will need as well. 

d) Drugs – We need a clear picture of the supply chain.

Right now most of our drugs come from China. We cannot assume this aspect of our supply chain is secure. 

e) Food – We need a clear picture of the supply chain right now.

We see rampant hoarding, irrational panic responses. This is a clear reflection of the level of fear in the population at large. People are reading what’s going on with appropriate fear. 

If the food supply chain isn’t really broken right now, then we need to figure out a better way of distributing and organizing shopping to quell this irrational response to a rational fear. Shopping on a specific day of the week by last name would allow some control, as an example. 

If hoarding does reflect a bigger problem we need to analyze this problem now and work to solve it. 

Three months from now, six months from now, what will the food chain look like then? We need to go after this aggressively. Lack of food will drive us to the edge of chaos.

f) Urban planning

With cities on forced sheltering these things will break down fast: food, shelter, heat, garbage collection, the homeless – all with no work being done. People will resort to whatever means necessary if these fracture. 

The hopelessness that a lack in these areas will provoke will lead to a comparable response elsewhere. If cities appear more stable, that will also translate to more calm elsewhere.

g) Economy/money

If cities in particular cannot work, money will run out very quickly. If the economy internationally collapses, this will exacerbate distrust and hopelessness. These will lead to violence.

We need a big plan to deal with this for the next year. We need clear sense that we will care for each other. Stopgap $1000 or other really myopic responses won’t work. We need a plan now that develops a clear path forward where we can see some path to the end of the virus crisis. Then we can regroup. If we fail there will be no group to rebuild. 

3) BUILDING NEW SOCIAL NETWORKS

 a) Virtually everything outlined above is utterly dependent on developing a new way of communicating now.

b) We cannot do this face to face. We are fortunate we have a digital world that could replace this.

c) Right now many musicians are playing for the public over the internet. This model must be appropriated for all of the hard work outlined above.

d) This work needs to start immediately. My humble efforts here are a shadow of what we need. But if we fail to start, if leaders fail to lead, this will fall apart. We will enter a dark age very soon. That should be obvious. Failure in any area outlined here will lead to vast destabilization.


I refuse to give up. This is my effort to lead. Who is with me? What is next? TODAY?

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