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?
