(July 11, 2020 at 2:55 am)ignoramus Wrote: Rev, tell me what you think of this.
Last night, Victoria had 288 cases of Covid. The highest on record for us. The News went crazy. The Victorian premier read All Victorians the riot act, etc
Police fines are flying out left, right and centre.
All other states have put a ban an any Victorian from entering (without very good reason).
And all this when Australia and NZ are the 2 model countries to follow for Covid response.
Now, The US is breaking all sorts of Covid records (none of them good, as you know). Even Disneyland is partially opening tomorrow. (first time in 16 weeks).
As a side question, why is Disneyland opening now when you have higher cases than which forced them to close in the first place.
My crazy idea is that Americans, as a culture, are almost completely desensitized to "danger". Or rather "potential danger".
America is also a great innovator because of this. With great risk, also comes great reward.
This generational/historical cultural indoctrination seems to explain a lot of things to me, here, from afar.
It explains many people's indifference to seeing guns (Lots of guns!), to ignoring health warnings about Covid, etc
It's like they're immune to "danger". It's like "what can possible go wrong, right? lol". The constitution is set in stone and will come to my rescue like superman, if I need it, right?
It weirdly reminds me of the conundrum of getting fully automated vehicles on our roads. The roads can never be safe even if only one human is left driving a car.
It's like the constitution is only a theoretical guideline and will work if only everyone follows it at all times?
This disconnect (to me) explains many things. Why 25% of the world's prisoners are in US jails, why the US has 46% of all the world's guns, etc...
Everything seems to great in theory, but the opposite in practice.
Don't get me wrong, I quite like some American culture. I grew up on Gilligan's Island and Mickey Mouse like everybody else, but!
Look at our history of science denial. It's Galilean. Smokes don't kill you. DDT is safe. Climate change is a hoax. It's just the flu! People of that ilk, sadly far too many, see guns and Covid through a filter of political ideology. If Al Gore says the planet is warming, they are compelled to take the opposite stand because Al plays for the other team. Follow the money to corporate lobbyists. Tobacco, oil, NRA, and now hospitality. They push the narrative of denial. We value profit over facts and lives.
That tends to fuel artists and innovators.
