Burnout

I just trashed a 1000 word piece on the status of coronavirus throughout the world. It took me an hour and a half to write, and that’s how I knew I was coming at it from the wrong perspective: it wasn’t merely the facts and figures – those were easy, once you learn where to look and have the links ready – and it wasn’t the words. I rarely struggle with words unless I’m exhausted. It was interest.

I had written a large piece and assembled the figures to demonstrate a single point: that the opening of schools throughout the world has mirrored a significant second wave of coronavirus cases, but that it may not be causal. When you compare dates that in-person schooling restarted in various countries you see the numbers start to rise, but there isn’t a direct rise simply with school starting. Remote learning keeps those numbers down.

That is likely in part due to the obvious reason of children transmitting it to each other… but there are other factors involved. Most notably, in most of the countries where schools had opened, an increase in protests against general precautions or incidents involving lack of precautions had occurred simultaneously. It may not be the kids doing the transfer, it may be people who decided that because schools were opening that life was effectively “normal” again.

Oh, and Sweden is rising again. Most of Europe is. Using that as a comparison to show how poorly the US is doing? Probably not the wisest course of action right now if you want to win an argument.

It’s hard to care too much, though. I’m burnt on the topic… burnt on a lot of topics, actually… because of frustration. This didn’t have to happen, and I’ve been writing about it here and on Facebook for months.

And yet, here I am… with a quick summary of something I’d researched and after tossing more than an hour of my life away. A valuable hour, something I can never replace.

The words are coming far more easily now. Because I’m touching on a topic that I care deeply about, and that’s the fight itself.

I believe Trump is gone soon. Not completely… there will be a potentially devastating lame duck session… but he’ll be voted out and his power will be greatly diminished. He is likely to face charges for some of his crimes, and I hope he and any other prominent felons with whom he’s involved serve hard time.

I look forward to that in large part because I’m burnt out on talking about him. Most of all, I’m burnt out on dealing with people who expect a politician to make their lives better. They won’t. The best of them will manage the restrictions on your life, the bad ones will restrict you unjustly, and the worst of them will sow destruction to further their own ends. I’ve been hearing from people who see a destroyer as a savior for four years now, and I’m very tired of it.

We can’t wait for other people to make our lives better. We have to do it for ourselves. That’s a message I’ve been trying to impress upon people for most of my life. I used to have to make it against Democrats who insisted that one program or another, one top-down reform or another was necessary. In recent years I’ve been making it against Republicans who insist that following someone else’s guidance is far superior to thinking for themselves.

After forty years of effort and apparent success, I was suddenly back behind the starting line, and pushing not to get ahead but simply to not fall further back.

In about three weeks, Americans will head to the polls. I fully expect that Trump will be removed in a wave election. I’m hoping that healing can begin… not with people demanding that others suddenly shift to their way of thinking, but with people who remember that we function as a community and a country, that we have a duty to inform ourselves, and that hate and resentment are destructive influences. I look forward to focusing not on criticizing terrible decisions but arguing for better options.

I suppose we’ll see, a little under a month from now.