COVID-19: Re-Prioritizing Our Lives & Our Thinking

I spent some time yesterday overwhelmed with grief when I realized I won’t get to hug my elderly parents for months, at best, writes Caitlin Johnstone. This is happening all around the world right now, with all of us. 

By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com

Imagine if you looked out your window tomorrow morning and saw a mushroom cloud growing on the horizon.

What do you imagine your first thoughts would be?

Do you imagine you’d think to yourself, “Man I wish I’d spent more time arguing with Tulsi Gabbard supporters on the internet”? Or “I wish I’d devoted more of my mental energy to what a jerk Dale from accounting is”? Or “Maybe I can call my sister and get in one last passive-aggressive jab at her for thinking she’s better than me all these years”?

Now, this pandemic is of course not the same as a nuclear holocaust. It will not kill all of us, or even most of us. But it does appear likely that, for better or for worse, it’s going to change the world in some pretty significant ways.

Which means that we are taking a giant leap into the unknown, which can feel like a kind of death. And, since we are all taking that leap together, it can feel like we’re all about to die.

When you’re standing on the brink of a history-shaping global paradigm shift, if you’re really consciously experiencing the reality of your situation instead of dissociating and compartmentalizing away from it, you will necessarily have to re-evaluate your priorities. Your priorities in life. Your priorities in thinking about your world. What really matters when you’re about to take the plunge into the Big Unknown.

If we are bravely confronting the reality that we may emerge on the other side of this thing to a world that is in some ways unrecognizable to us, some things we previously didn’t pay as much attention to will become more important to us, and other things will become less important.

Our personal relationships will become more precious to us. My elderly parents are isolating now so I’m video-chatting with them every day, and I spent some time yesterday overwhelmed with grief when I realized I won’t get to hug them for months, at best. This is happening all around the world right now, with all of us.

For those of us who are political, it will also change our areas of emphasis. As near as I can tell the four most crucial and attention-worthy things in the world right now are (A) the virus itself, (B) the certainty that powerful people will try to use the virus to advance longstanding authoritarian agendas which they have no intention of reversing, (C) the acceleration toward cold war escalations between the U.S. and China, and (D) the possibility of an opportunity to create something good for all of us coming out of the increasing amount of shifts and changes we are experiencing. And not necessarily in that order.

It will also de-emphasise a lot of things we’d previously been placing immense importance on. The U.S. presidential race is the first thing that comes to mind. It consumed so much of our attention over the past year, but now it’s a fairly safe bet that this virus and its consequences are going to affect our lives and the world far, far more than they would be affected if the White House changed hands or stayed under the current administration. Doesn’t mean this doesn’t matter at all, just that it’s less significant now.

There are many other areas where people have been placing emphasis that they will necessarily de-emphasize when they get real with themselves about what’s going on which will vary from person to person. Maybe you see the things we should prioritize differently from how I see them. Maybe you see the things we should de-emphasize differently as well. It doesn’t really matter; all that matters is that we be very courageously honest with ourselves and the reality of our situation, and that we rearrange our priorities in a way that we feel best reflects this.

That’s all I’ve got to say about this for now. Let’s keep watching the shifting tides together.

Caitlin Johnstone is a rogue journalist, poet, and utopia prepper who publishes regularly at Medium. Follow her work on FacebookTwitter, or her website. She has a podcast and a book, Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers.” 

This article was re-published with permission.

 The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.

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12 comments for “COVID-19: Re-Prioritizing Our Lives & Our Thinking

  1. March 27, 2020 at 00:46

    Caitlin this is one of your best. It needs to go up also on your website, I could not find it there yet. . Here is the key policy content that leaps out at me :

    “For those of us who are political, it will also change our areas of emphasis. As near as I can tell the four most crucial and attention-worthy things in the world right now are (A) the virus itself, (B) the certainty that powerful people will try to use the virus to advance longstanding authoritarian agendas which they have no intention of reversing, (C) the acceleration toward cold war escalations between the U.S. and China, and (D) the possibility of an opportunity to create something good for all of us coming out of the increasing amount of shifts and changes we are experiencing. And not necessarily in that order.”

    What an exciting challenge . Thank you.

  2. rosemerry
    March 24, 2020 at 15:58

    To me, the whole process makes the buildup and “improvement” of nukes and making them small and usable, by Obama and Trump, and the present “exercises” with thousands of troops and excessive weapons as NATO confronts the danger of the evil Russkies about to attack our elections seem like a completely crazy way for humans to behave, and it is. We spend so much effort in confrontation, making and threatening enemies when what is needed is cooperation to work on ways to benefit humanity. China happens to be the leader in this aim, but is seen not as a rival or possible partner, as most nations, including Italy in the Belt and Road project see it, but as an enemy to be destroyed.

    • robert scheetz
      March 25, 2020 at 10:15

      “Crazy”, maybe; but, emphatically and colossally criminal. The misery they’ve inflicted on the Mid-East and North Africa is mind-numbing, …close to matching IndoChina; …and, now CoVid-19 and the responsible nations closing their borders to the desperate refugees, … and their thoughts only for themselves.

  3. Hide Behind
    March 24, 2020 at 15:24

    In US we have the least competent government that money has purchased.
    It is not just they who have been purchased, as all the staff’s of Judicial, Houses of Congress and Executive Branch being filled by our best educated.
    For the citizens to look at those who have worked and been paid as civil service positions whose conduct has not been for the mass of population but primarily their leaderships finacial and political elites needs, to suddenly find cures for nations ills is risable.
    Those who are so embedded in the system will find cures but those cures will not threaten they or their positions in the system or those of financial political, military and those in the educational scientific. realms.
    There will. be changes coming and populace will meld into it, as to personal liberties and opportunities for financial advancement of all, it is the dollar that is symbol of freedom, liberty andnjustice, so be it.

  4. Vera Gottlieb
    March 24, 2020 at 12:38

    I already see one “silver lining” in this devastating cloud: people are finding and supporting each other again. And I think there will be many more “silver linings” to show as time passes.

  5. March 24, 2020 at 09:40

    I think our president got it right when he said have got to return some normalcy to life and we can’t let the economy crash. The cost is simply too great and relying on the worst case scenario to guide policy can be disastrous.

    There is a little bit of bizarre thinking that says anything that will stop Trump is ok as if his failure is divorced from our own if the doomsayers are correct.

    The government is doing our best and the odds are still on arresting the spread of the virus and managing it’s effects.

    Keep the faith. There will be a time in the near future when we can hug each other again.

  6. Eugenie Basile
    March 24, 2020 at 08:47

    Why does nobody understand why Africa seems so much more resilient ?
    They have taken their daily paludism/malaria/ artemisia medicine preemptively for years…..

  7. Sam F
    March 24, 2020 at 08:42

    Caitlin rightly argues that citizens must be “courageously honest with ourselves” in the epidemic.

    In the linked articles she notes that the US acts only to benefit the rich at the expense of everyone else, a global scourge of greed as much as the virus, which has brought that greed home to roost. Those who know the rich, know that they are gangsters whose reward is causing suffering: they have zero concern for others whom they call “losers” and no motive to make treatment affordable: enough servants will survive. They will simply lie to conceal China’s better performance and the US’ inadequate healthcare and economic regulation, and the sheeple in fear of truth will stick to those mass media narratives.

    Caitlin argues that one must study new circumstances so that when a “change agent” arrives one can work to effect progress. The epidemic is a change agent only if we (1) push through national health care without private intermediaries; which will soon be reduced to nothing unless we (2) restore democracy by restricting funding of elections and mass media to limited individual donations, monitor finances of officials and their relatives, purge the judiciary and secret agencies of the gangsters that comprise them, and make checks and balances work within each branch. So a “change agent” must cause a revolution against gangsterism in government to change anything.

    The problem is indeed lack of courage and moral strength: even mass suffering does not pull the sheeple from the mass media scammers. They will accept any fake “national” health care without change. Almost none of them have the courage needed to restore democracy until they cannot survive otherwise: they will happily let their own kind suffer to get rewards from the rich, until it is too late to save themselves.

  8. Deniz
    March 23, 2020 at 22:51

    Another concern is a Hunger Games scenario in which tens of millions of Americans lose their jobs with no social safety net as companies go bankrupt. If the need to survive increases lawlessness, our oligarchs would militarize the country if they felt their wealth was being threatened. Do you think our homeless will receive $30,000 hospital treatments for Covid 19?

  9. Marko
    March 23, 2020 at 20:56

    ” Denmark’s Answer to the Coronavirus Recession ”

    “This Sunday, the Danish government struck a historical deal with trade unions and employers’ associations to stop mass layoffs during the quarantine. During the next three months, the state will cover 75% of the wages of workers threatened by job loss, up to £2,800. Companies will cover the remaining 25%, while workers will give up 5 days of paid holiday time, in other words work five days for free.

    The deal covers companies who would have to lay off at least 30% of staff, or 50 staff or more. In return, companies commit to not lay off any staff for economic reasons while they’re receiving state compensation…..”

    tribunemag.co.uk/2020/03/denmarks-answer-to-the-coronavirus-recession

    This seems like a good way to go , but Denmark will have to be careful , lest they be hit with US sanctions or worse. Pompeo is probably already working on a plan to deploy jihadist proxies to Denmark to effect regime change if that government continues to show excessive concern for workers.

  10. urban hermit
    March 23, 2020 at 19:54

    It just gives me a deeper understanding of how isolated and alone I’ve always been (when I can’t log on to any local online ‘support groups’ and I can’t even get anyone to deliver me a few carrots, because Facebook refuse to recognise my Linux browser, and won’t allow me to register because I don’t use a mobile phone, although everyone else in the world seems to think Facebook is wonderful. It’s OK, if you are one of those people, and don’t use Linux, you’ll be allowed to communicate with others, online, during the epidemic, I suppose).

    Nothing changes, really. We’ve always known Armageddon is around the corner because of the oily-military-industrial economy. I’ve known it since some time, round about 1960, when Bertrand Russell sat down in Whitehall (London) and said to a TV reporter, “we are sitting here in Whitehall today because we believe these new hydrogen bombs could destroy civilization as we know it today….and some of us think that would be rather a pity”.

    I probably won’t be around when the epidemic finishes (if it ever does finish) – especially if I need cancer treatment and can’t get it because all hospital beds are booked for the epidemic (I can’t really know, because I can’t get a biopsy, for the same reason). But the important things for people of the future to find out are:- Who made the virus? who ordered it to be made? and how can you prevent other, perhaps more lethal, ones from being made in the future? – assuming there will be a future.

    • March 25, 2020 at 03:18

      urban hermit,

      Hello. With utmost respect, we would only suggest a minor constructive criticism adjustment to your greatly appreciated, heart-felt and honest comment. People might become more cognizant of the urgency of the March 2020 moment, were “But the important things for people of the future to find out are:” – to – “But the important things for people NOW to find out are:” …

      Best regards. Peace to supporters of Consortium News, and peace to humanity.

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