Virus and Wildfire
Every summer, California burns in wildfires. 2020 being 2020, it's worse this year. There is fire all around the Bay Area and many other parts of California. The most interesting thing about this fire is, no one is coming out of their home even if the fire is 20-30 miles away from their place. The roads are empty. These fires and smokes don't even kill a dozen people a year (though there are other damages). But COVID has killed close to a million people and no one knows yet where the exit gate is. And, most of us have it knocking our neighbors' doors already. Even then nobody seems to care about it.
So what is really making the fires and smokes scarier than the virus? Just the visibility factor! Isn’t it? If the virus was as visible as the smoke if not fire would we have ignored it this much! Interestingly, it is the same conundrum that believers and non-believers have been arguing about for ages. The believers go by those they think are the experts in the subject. The non-believers want visible proof to believe it. They don’t go by what anyone says. They don’t believe the statistics being published by the experts. Unfortunately, the virus is not visible.
You might find it funny if I compare the virus with the fire. But if you just do that, you will realize how funny we are as a species. Can you imagine someone asking, “Who gave the right to the Government to control my free movement in the name of fire? This is my life. I know what to do with it!”? Then why do people ask such questions only for the virus?
The only blessing in disguise is, those who stay home in fear of the smoke killing themselves are in fact helping control the spread of the virus. So, 'fire is good!'
As a trade off, we can give ourselves the liberty of spreading the other thing we love spreading... WhatsApp rumors and panic. As usual, let's unleash them to go around tirelessly and scare people as if the fire is knocking 'their' door next minute.
Remember this lesson from the season: "Irresponsibility doesn't die, it kills!"
So what is really making the fires and smokes scarier than the virus? Just the visibility factor! Isn’t it? If the virus was as visible as the smoke if not fire would we have ignored it this much! Interestingly, it is the same conundrum that believers and non-believers have been arguing about for ages. The believers go by those they think are the experts in the subject. The non-believers want visible proof to believe it. They don’t go by what anyone says. They don’t believe the statistics being published by the experts. Unfortunately, the virus is not visible.
You might find it funny if I compare the virus with the fire. But if you just do that, you will realize how funny we are as a species. Can you imagine someone asking, “Who gave the right to the Government to control my free movement in the name of fire? This is my life. I know what to do with it!”? Then why do people ask such questions only for the virus?
The only blessing in disguise is, those who stay home in fear of the smoke killing themselves are in fact helping control the spread of the virus. So, 'fire is good!'
As a trade off, we can give ourselves the liberty of spreading the other thing we love spreading... WhatsApp rumors and panic. As usual, let's unleash them to go around tirelessly and scare people as if the fire is knocking 'their' door next minute.
Remember this lesson from the season: "Irresponsibility doesn't die, it kills!"
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