Let's Try Not to Get on Each Other's Nerves

     As it always happens during times of crisis, we see the best and worst of humanity. For every video we see of women fist-fighting over toilet paper, we see a story about a family somewhere giving away free rolls. For every time we hear some sociopath billionaire or another snarling at us to get back to work, there's another voice of reason telling us to do sensible things like shelter in place and observe these emergency measures for the common good.
     So I don't see humankind descending into the Randian nightmare of Objectivism, where people act purely out of self interest. I've been saying for many years that we're one blackout, one server crash, one pandemic away from resorting to barbarism and immediately sweeping away all the accrued generations of civilization that came before us. But we're not all like that.
     And while it's tempting to take notes while watching the current season of The Walking Dead, we can greatly minimize a slide into barbarity and selfishness into which we are not fated or predestined to slide. We can and should still take care of our own while practicing random acts of kindness or leaving the door open to doing so. Today, I just happened to show up at the local Walgreen's at the perfect time and scored a 24 pack of toilet paper for our house. But if one of my neighbors timidly knocks on my door and asks me if I have a roll or two to spare, especially if they have kids, of course I'll give it to them.
     Little mercies and acts of kindness such as that are exponentially magnified the worse times get.
     The great and the ordinary, the rich and poor and all those in between, have been struck with this damned virus. It is not a bioweapon, it was not created by China to spread to the Western world, our government did not engineer it. It developed on its own and does not give a damn how rich, famous or powerful you are. Prince Charles has it. Rand Paul has it. Playwright Terrence McNally just died of it. Justin Trudeau's wife has it as does Idris Elba, Tom Hanks and his wife and too many other people to mention. We've topped 300,000 cases globally, and are coming up on 1000 deaths just in the United States. And it will get worse before it gets better.
     How much worse it spreads is up to every single one of us. But coronavirus doesn't give a shit how much money you have, how famous and powerful you are, or about your economy, your religion, political stripe or your political ambitions. Maybe someone should tell that to Trump. Maybe, as in the days of ancient Rome, we should appoint someone to stand at his shoulder and whisper into his ear, "All glory is fleeting."
     But, at the risk of sounding like a libertarian, I have to caution each of you to realize that, unless you're a major corporation with your hand out, do not wait for the government to bail you out. Especially this government. The stimulus bill being debated on the Senate will give you, at best, a onetime $1200 check that for all of you won't even come close to supporting you for a month. It'll take care of your most pressing bills... maybe. Your unemployment, if you can get on it, will be extended for just four months, And the Democrats had to fight the Republicans tooth and nail to get just those wishy-washy stopgap measures into the bill.
     The rest is up to us. If you have food and water to spare for those less fortunate, share it. If your Governor tells you to shelter in place, please listen to him or her. If we remain selfish and look out only for ourselves and let this become a dog-eat-dog world, we are simply not going to survive this, Humanity survives, and thrives, only when humankind pulls together for a common goal for the common good.
     And if you think that smacks of Socialism, then you're the problem as much as our dysfunctional government.