Ailantha
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact

Future Shock

1/19/2022

0 Comments

 

Enjoy The Blog?

Picture

You'll Like The Books

Picture
​"Equal and Opposite Reactions" http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
and the sequel, "Hail Mary" https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
​Available on Amazon.


​FUTURE SHOCK

Picture
     Last Saturday I was in the Columbus airport, which, by the way, seems to have gotten a clue and ditched its old "One of Us" motto,
Picture
​...which - thank goodness - no longer hangs from the rafters eliciting snickers from old movie buffs such as myself who got the reference ​(see post from 4/30/2018 https://www.ailantha.com/blog/one-of-us-one-of-us).
Picture
        I'm not sure if the airport actually has a new motto, but the new banners at least don't make any inadvertent allusions to bizarre old horror flicks.
Picture
      Anyway, last Saturday I was sitting at the gate waiting for a flight to Los Angeles when over the PA system came one of those public service announcements we've all gotten used to hearing since the onset two years ago of the COVID-19 pandemic. The voice on the PA reminded us about the Federal requirement of wearing a protective face mask while in the airport and on board aircraft and exhorted us to practice social distancing in public and to keep our hands clean and sanitized. The announcement ended by enjoinning us to all do our part to fight the virus.
​      After the words rallying us to fight the virus I looked around me,
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
...and was hit with the strange, surreal mental impression that overtakes me every now and then in which I'm in a science fiction movie about a future in which the planet has been hit by a virulent, hyper-contageous virus that has caused a world-wide pandemic.​
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
       The virus is airborne and can attack the lungs with a vengeance. It can rob people of their sense of taste and smell. It can affect brain function.
       Then the discovery is made 
that the virus can also infect without causing any symptoms, which allows it to spread insidiously and exponentially.
    
Hospitals round the world are at their breaking point. There aren't enough beds for sick patients or medical staff to care for them. Intensive care units are crowded with people on ventilators.
Picture
     Exhausted, burned-out doctors and nurses are getting sick and dying from the virus. Many of them are quitting their jobs. People are dying because medical care has to be rationed. 
       
People have gotten into the practice of distancing from each other. Countries beseiged by the virus go in and out of lockdowns in which citizens are permitted to leave their homes only to buy necessities or for emergencies. There are supply shortages and bare shelves in the supermarkets.
Picture
     Human interactions and the conducting of daily business are carried on more frequently on a computer screen. There are virtual corporate meetings, virtual doctor's visits, virtual family  gatherings. 
Picture
​     Children revert back and forth between going to school and learning what they can from home as the virus retreats then surges.
         Masks become the norm and are required in most public places. Life takes on a new, cautious, fearful kind of normal under the pandemic.
          But then one year into the pandemic potent vaccines against the virus become available to the public. It is believed that the world may be seeing the beginning of the end of the pandemic.
        However there arises a movement of people known as  anti-vaxxers who are opposed to the vaccines for political or religious reasons, or who harbor a mistrust of the science.
Picture
​        A subset of the anti-vaxxers are the anti-maskers, who refuse to wear masks in public as they see the mask mandate as an affront to their personal freedom.
Picture
      And so the virus spreads among the unvaccinated and it mutates in their bodies into new, even more powerfully contagious variants.  Eventually new mutations develop the ability to break through  the protection of the vaccines and even the vaccinated must fear becoming infected by the unvaccinated. Society takes sides: vaxxed vs. unvaxxed; masked vs. unmasked.
       The third year into the pandemic some scientists believe that the virus may never be wiped out and that humans must accustom themselves to living – and dying – with it.  Infection and death rates continue to soar.
        But through the darkest days there are other scientists working against the virus’s deadly clock to find a cure.
       Such is the movie in my mind about a future ruled by a terrible, seemingly indomitable virus fortified by human ignorance and folly. Until I snap back moments later and realize that the movie is no movie but actual reality and the future is not the future but the present.
         And as I sat in the airport last week I wondered, what if three years ago I could have looked into a crystal ball and seen into the future what I see around me now?        
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
    How shocked would I have been?
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    "Equal And Opposite Reactions"
     by Patti Liszkay
    Buy it on Amazon:

    http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
    Picture
    ​"Hail Mary"
    by Patti Liszkay
    Buy it on Amazon:

    https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
    Picture
    "Tropical Depression" 
    by Patti Liszkay
    ​Buy it on Amazon:   
    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTPN7NYY

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013

    RSS Feed

    I am a traveler just visiting this planet and reporting various and sundry observations,
    hopefully of interest to my fellow travelers.

    Categories

    All


























































































  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact