Do you still remember how difficult buying toilet paper in the first months of the pandemic was? How small businesses were fighting to survive the years of regular lockdowns? Suddenly flour became rare, because Russia invaded Ukraine, and all over the world the prices for bread and pasta went through the roof. As well as the children dying in famines in all the war zones exploding around the world. These war zones probably caused for many orders to get stuck in a blocked seaway, and what again will happen to our civilization without Taiwan’s semiconductors once China invaded them?
We live in times of crisis. The pandemic might be over, but the political and social aftermath are far from it. And with the wars closing down on us from so many different directions, we don’t get a second to take a breath. I see headlines about people needing a break from crisis mood everyday. People are scared of watching the news, tired of politics. We need a break from crisis! As if that were so easy.
Times of Crisis
In this post, however, I want to write about a specific turn this crisis recently took, and it’s one that leaves me sleepless at night. So, I’m writing a post that I am probably going to share every other until … Well. I don’t know. I want to say, until it’s solved. But I am not sure that’s a realistic expectation.
So, I am just gonna share this to cope whenever I need to:
Every crisis seems to need a person to carry all the guilt!
We survived the plague … Didn’t we?
When the pandemic hit, there was this understanding that we all had to stick together. It was tough to not see family and friends while having financial worries, but hey! We’re all together in this, so let’s be responsible. Soon, skepticists began dancing against the virus, and conspiracies about the new vaccines were a concern in crisis management, but I think the results were good. Lockdowns saved millions of people here in Europe, and a big part of the population got vaccinated …
And recently I read that the media companies in Germany now officially apologized for the way they reported about the pandemic to keep up the “crisis the mood”.
At first I thought I had read a joke. Keeping up the crisis mood? Does it need to be kept up when the crisis is real?
In addition to this, a court in Saxony decided that part of pandemic measures were illegal since the risk was well calculated.
So, science just got it all wrong, and somewhere up there a Senator Paplatine is drafting his crisis to stay in office and start a war?
I wonder why it is so tough to recognize a crisis when it is, or was, real, and I think I have an idea of why this is the case: It’s always easier to look for a guilty one. A guilty person, just deceiving you! The scientists are lying to you, because someone just wants power!
So, who is stealing all our grain?
Ukraine was one of the world’s biggest grain producers, and the war has made this increasingly difficult. Keeping up agriculture during war time is one thing, but exporting the results through their black sea ports has become risky and unstable. In addition, Germany (where I live), had trouble sustaining gas and energy prices after cutting ties with Russia’s terrorist state (how did we become this dependent on them??), but also in other regions of the world the restricted availability of these resources show. While we complained about prices for bread and pasta that tripled over night and feared the one or the other energy bill, people in other regions were starving and freezing to death.
We live in a globalized world, and destabilizing a certain number of nations has an impact on all of us.
Or …
… I mean…
… Hear me out.
What about lazy people? What about university students? About high school students without a 5-year-plan? Or, the chronically ill. They are expansive and don’t even breathe on their own, you know. Single mothers with a part time job. They are killing the economy!
I did not just find my sense for inappropriate humor. This is an argumentation rather dominant in the political landscape in Germany at the moment. We are having an economic crisis. I am not denying that. But how are we supposed to not have one? With resources being scarce and insecure, global networks falling apart and rebuilding itself – how the hell are we supposed to not feel it?
I mean, yes. I was scared of my electricity bill. So scared, I tried to sell signed CDs from my teenage years online, and of course the economy is feeling it. Higher costs mean higher prices, and people buy less. I totally get it! Rent goes up, because landlords also need to settle their higher costs, and it’s really tough!
We live in tough times. There is no need to find a guilty one. There is no need to lash out against university students, single mothers, and chronically ill people, and still that is the one thing our government currently does. It’s fishing for far-right voters to come back to their parties for a bit of eugenic fantasies, while risking social peace.
It makes me sick.
“We need to work harder!” “Young people don’t have a concept of work!” “Studying until 30, but having demands!” “Master uneomployed is weakening the economy!” “Doctor’s hand out too many diagnosis because everyone is just lazy.”
It’s not new that society in a constant crisis tends to find a scape goat. I have been researching witch hunts from the 17th century for the past 5 years! Seeing it happening in slow motion all around me is still tough to bear.
To conclude:
Crisis is real, and it fucking sucks! Not buying fresh bread, or leaving the lights out in the bathroom to keep the electricity bill down can really get to you.
And still, there is no need to turn against the people next to you. The young people who are supposed to be our future. The working mothers, the people ill or not really functional: We are humans! We have a responsibility for each other!
As I said, I will share this post a lot from now on, because I need to scream against this inhumane turn until it stops.
Mistress witch writes 