2020: Forget Me Not
By: Vitor Pereira
Tags: Stupidity, Future, Smart Cities, Covid 19, Government

The time has come for the balance sheets and, apart from the normal exceptions to those who gain from the misfortunes of others, almost nobody wants to hear about this year 2020 again.

It was too bad. From the lives that were lost to the global economic crisis.

Regarding the infamous virus, which in the first wave “pretended” to be harmless in some areas of the globe while claiming lives in others, it ended up equalizing everyone more or less by the same severity during the second wave. We’ll see how the third one goes. A virus that killed mainly the elderly and people with health problems and comorbidities, but that went beyond death due to its natural action. He brought fear and uncertainty about what is true or what is false. Which is serious or harmless. What is stupid and what is wise or intelligent.

In an ideal pandemic scenario (if there’s any), the citizens themselves would take the necessary precautions for social distance, avoid contacts (in this case with the older and more vulnerable), avoid leaving the house, hygiene themselves constantly, they would wear masks when it was not possible to keep their distances. Responsible behavior with information and permanent recommendations from health authorities. It may sound like the Swedish “model”, but this has happened over the past years.

A pandemic has consequences for the economy by itself, as fewer people are willing to leave homes and live normally when there are public health risks, especially for older family members.

But 2020 had more than a pandemic. In addition to Covid-19, there was also the pandemic of fear and pandemic of stupidity.

Fear was the initial formula found to alert some citizens to take preventive decisions, especially in reaction to Covid-19, with a high degree of transmissivity. However, quickly and throughout the year, if, on the one hand, the fear lessened about the virus, on the other, it manifested itself in the face of the containment measures idealized and enforced by governments and public authorities around the world.

A pandemic has consequences for the economy by itself, as fewer people are willing to leave homes and live normally when there are public health risks, especially for older family members.

We have seen too much fear, not of contagion, but of fines and tight supervision of small businesspeople, especially restaurants and small businesses.

Repression has become a dominant practice rather than awareness and education. Fear ended up diverging from the virus to the consequences of not following the rules.

Has this fear prevented contagion and death? Maybe yes. But it may also have caused psychological disturbances in adults, children, and youngsters, in addition to trapping them between the rationality and arbitrariness of some measures.

Fear also, of speaking, questioning, and giving opinions.

And even though many citizens do so without hesitation (with all the right) and repeating falsehoods that, from all sides, flood the social networks and the media, there are many others who are afraid to question who appears to have more authority on various matters. Even among peers and even with more knowledge and experience, there was, throughout 2020, a lot of fear of “disagreeing” with the majority and the dominant “narrative”.

This brings us to the third pandemic, that of stupidity.

2020 should have been the ideal year for smart action, but, like two-sided coins, there were also too many cases where stupidity has ruled.

The attempt to ignore the existence of the virus will have been the most evident. But the attempt to control the virus by decree was not far behind.

In summary, during the year 2020, we saw governments deciding on the events, acting without foreseeing the consequences, driven only by the instant popularity and public image management on social networks. Draconian strategies, not to quell the virus, but perpetrated to maintain power.

2020 should have been the ideal year for smart action, but, like two-sided coins, there were also too many cases where stupidity has ruled.

We have seen too many disconnected, incoherent, and ridiculous measures, until they were put into practice, creating imbalances in economies and generating even more victims in addition to the virus. Measures devoid of explanations that transformed the pandemic into a circus with mixed performances from conspiracy theorists, through hygiene radicals and ending with the moralizers and vigilantes of customs and actions, patrolling and denouncing neighbors and promoting social divisions that we may not recover from.

Nobody knows the whole truth yet, nor is it possible to know it. But we know that, for example, in the 2009 (H1N1 or swine flu) pandemic, situations similar to those of 2020 occurred. Later, accusations came directly to the World Health Organization for the exaggeration and panic created. The WHO has been accused of creating a fake pandemic to benefit the pharmaceutical industry.

Back then, emergency vaccines also appeared in an environment of distrust. This time, we applaud science and cheer the “big pharma” industry for the speed with which numerous experimental vaccines have appeared, where the responsibility for the consequences of its use is not clear and whose costs and financing was almost one of the best kept “secrets”.

Mistrust does not arise spontaneously. It stems from political actions without proper explanations and stems from a lack of transparency.

Many governments are acting as if it were possible to eliminate the virus by locking everyone up at home and avoiding human contact. And maybe this would be the best option. Immediately put everyone in quarantine for two months, creating a special delivery service for essential goods such as food, medicine, etc. Travel between countries would be canceled immediately, as would travel between counties and municipalities. All citizens would be entitled, in this period of time, to a guaranteed, fixed, and equal financial compensation for all. Whoever had no home, the governments would guarantee accommodation. All rights to electronic and health privacy would be suspended, forcing everyone to share it in an electronic application that would work.

Many governments are acting as if it were possible to eliminate the virus by locking everyone up at home and avoiding human contact. And maybe this would be the best option.

This “temporary sanitary arrest” would exclude authorities, health, and other professionals considered essential, who would receive risk compensation in addition to the clapping on the balconies. 60-day seclusion to “flatten the curve”, control the pandemic, and return to normal as soon as possible.

At the beginning of 2020, we looked at China with suspicion and arrogance. Many discriminated against Chinese citizens. They even boycotted their products and businesses. We blamed the Chinese for the pandemic, assuming absurd xenophobia without complexes, unacceptable nowadays. Then, it was our government’s turn to take action. The results are visible.

In China, where it all started, where freedom is an allegory, and where democracy is just one party, the “new normal” has returned to normal. Around here, in the west, we cancel parties, we cancel Christmas, family, small businesses, and the future.

We finally canceled freedom indefinitely. And now, we envy the Chinese for theirs.