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Some may think this is excellent, and very timely, advice for our pandemic time from C. S. Lewis ... What are you thoughts?
What might CS Lewis say of our COVID-19 situation? ... Here’s what he said in 1948 about the mental shift required by living with the threat of the atomic bomb:
"In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”
In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.
This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds."
— “On Living in an Atomic Age” (1948)
in Present Concerns: Journalistic Essays
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@dj2becker
We are a species in decline, and have been for decades. Television and Internet and Advertising have plundered and scattered our minds.
The fine cadences of the intellectuals, as ever, are wasted on the numpties who wear their masks on their chins and who let their nose hairs grow wild.
I'm kind of glad that H. G. Wells and Ray Bradbury are not still alive to endure this moment.
@caesar-salad saidAre we really, though?
@dj2becker
We are a species in decline,
Population has increased from 1 billion to 7 billion in a mere 200 years.
Life expectancy went from an average of 31 in 1900 to 72 in 2017.
(Both per Wikipedia)
@bigdoggproblem saidand that is the sign that we are declining!
Are we really, though?
Population has increased from 1 billion to 7 billion in a mere 200 years.
Life expectancy went from an average of 31 in 1900 to 72 in 2017.
(Both per Wikipedia)
the species is approaching peak population, and none of us is willing to slow down
human lemmings (even tho the lemming story is mostly myth, it still sounds good)
- Joined
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@bigdoggproblem saidFair point. And thank goodness for this multiplication of a not entirely rational species.
Are we really, though?
Population has increased from 1 billion to 7 billion in a mere 200 years.
Life expectancy went from an average of 31 in 1900 to 72 in 2017.
(Both per Wikipedia)
@dj2becker saidgood observations by lewis, thank you for bringing this to my attention @dj2becker
Some may think this is excellent, and very timely, advice for our pandemic time from C. S. Lewis ... What are you thoughts?
What might CS Lewis say of our COVID-19 situation? ... Here’s what he said in 1948 about the mental shift required by living with the threat of the atomic bomb:
"In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in a ...[text shortened]... minate our minds."
— “On Living in an Atomic Age” (1948)
in Present Concerns: Journalistic Essays
i am urged to find and read more
- Joined
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@bigdoggproblem saidI was of course considering the intellectual and cultural gamuts rather than the proliferation of hominid vermin.
Are we really, though?
Population has increased from 1 billion to 7 billion in a mere 200 years.
Life expectancy went from an average of 31 in 1900 to 72 in 2017.
(Both per Wikipedia)
@bigdoggproblem saidScience and technology.
Are we really, though?
Population has increased from 1 billion to 7 billion in a mere 200 years.
Life expectancy went from an average of 31 in 1900 to 72 in 2017.
(Both per Wikipedia)
But will it save the human race? I think not, since the human condition relative to behavior is most definitely worsening.
Consider the numbers of people killed in war during the last 200 years. Is population growth a good measure of human development? Or is it that people just keep breeding as life expectancy increases and science and technology keeps making it easier?
The more people there are, the more people there are not practicing the golden rule. Mankind is headed for disaster. Man is not equipped to govern himself in the face of his current predicament, and sooner or later he will realize that and learn he has no other alternative than to trim the population back to sustainable numbers.
Then Jesus will return in just the nick of time.
@dj2becker saidThat is a really thought provoking OP. It got me thinking about what is cowardice and what is bravery and the confusion that has seemed to exist around those themes living through COVID. Early on it seemed as if people wanted to do things that seemed like standing up bravely. Gestures like defiantly not wearing a face mask or shaking everybody's hands despite COVID, but those gestures seemed to backfire by increasing the risk to others around the person making the gesture. It can feel cowardly in lockdown through a sense of hiding away. Is it bravery to break lockdown. If the experts are right it isn't. Was it bravery that made the Chief Medical Officer in the U.K. follow his own ideas about delaying lockdown despite what most other countries were doing and in the face of criticism from senior public health professors in his own country? Raises a lot of difficult questions about what gets called being brave.
Some may think this is excellent, and very timely, advice for our pandemic time from C. S. Lewis ... What are you thoughts?
What might CS Lewis say of our COVID-19 situation? ... Here’s what he said in 1948 about the mental shift required by living with the threat of the atomic bomb:
"In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in a ...[text shortened]... minate our minds."
— “On Living in an Atomic Age” (1948)
in Present Concerns: Journalistic Essays
I do not think that the disease will be defeated through lockdowns and face masks, it will be defeated in the same way the human race has defeated all disease, through natural selection.
Lockdowns, face masks, vaccines etc save lives but our species will rise or fall of the strength of our genes; the macro mutability of our immune system.
@divegeester saidYes, I agree with that. I think it has become a sort of urban myth that we are trying to defeat the disease by the use of lockdown. In reality lockdown was just a device to stop the health service being overwhelmed by everybody arriving all at once and nothing to do with fighting the disease. Perhaps we try and label things as fighting or bravery to make them more palatable?
I do not think that the disease will be defeated through lockdowns and face masks, it will be defeated in the same way the human race has defeated all disease, through natural selection.
Lockdowns, face masks, vaccines etc save lives but our species will rise or fall of the strength of our genes; the macro mutability of our immune system.
@petewxyz saidYes, I agree with that too, but I believe the lockdown is a cleverly devised way to modify human behavior and institute a political agenda. Face masks and social distancing won't stop the spread. People are scared, and the fear being spread is more deadly, especially to liberty.
Yes, I agree with that. I think it has become a sort of urban myth that we are trying to defeat the disease by the use of lockdown. In reality lockdown was just a device to stop the health service being overwhelmed by everybody arriving all at once and nothing to do with fighting the disease. Perhaps we try and label things as fighting or bravery to make them more palatable?
This virus is not the first nor will it be the last in a string of "pestilences" that will come.
@rookie54 saidI agree that overpopulation is a major problem.
and that is the sign that we are declining!
the species is approaching peak population, and none of us is willing to slow down
human lemmings (even tho the lemming story is mostly myth, it still sounds good)
What metric(s) do you think we should use to measure progress of the human race?
@caesar-salad saidWell, no species is ever going to be ENTIRELY rational.
Fair point. And thank goodness for this multiplication of a not entirely rational species.
@caesar-salad saidWe produced the ability to pass information down through generations. We beat many of the major diseases facing us. We produced classical music and philosophy and religion.
I was of course considering the intellectual and cultural gamuts rather than the proliferation of hominid vermin.
What more do you want from us?