Tag Archives: COVID-19

By the Banksy of the River COVID

Leave it to Banksy to not only demonstrate that art doesn’t stop just because life does, but to take a skewering jab at our base selves while doing it.

The world’s greatest tagger unveiled his latest work — on Twitter, of all places — earlier this week. Consider it a coronavirus consolation prize; normally his work is painted over by city employees or shredding itself at Sothey’s.Shredded Banksy: was Sotheby's in on the act? | Art and design ...

In the very finite reaches of cyberspace, however, Banksy’s work can be freeze-framed in a fashion that must tickle the artist. His latest, captioned My wife hates it when I work from home, even includes several closeups of the piece, as if he wants you to pay particular attention to some corners of the canvas.

People have certainly paid attention. It became a viral sensation, broke Twitter and even warranted coverage by the venerable institution TMZ. It and other outlets raved that the street-Warhol was telling fans that we are all in this together, that all of us are struggling to cope with the Everyday under the new world order.

I’m not so sure. Banksy has always been subversive in his expressions, and you can make an argument that he’s not casting us as victims of the virus. But that we are virus itself.

Consider: He could have used any animal running rampant through the house. Dogs. Cats. Roaches. Mice. Instead, he chose rats, the symbol of the bacteria bank that financed The Black Plague.In the 3-D work, the rodents have run roughshod over their own habitat.

Hoarded the essentials.

Consumed the vital resources.

Pissed all over the basin.

Sounds like a cautionary environmental message scratching about to me.

It’s hard to imagine Banksy not taking an alternate view of the pandemic. Considering he made his name throwing Molotov Cocktail bouquets into the middle of the modern-art landscape, could he be arguing that COVID-19 is not a virus, but an antibody?Banksy | Art, Biography & Art for Sale | Sotheby's

 

 

 

 

The Upside of Corona

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It’s hard to tell lately whether I’ve got COVID-19, or am just so depressed watching the news I make myself sick. Regardless, it’s hard not to see the latest alert (Breaking News: More Dead!) and just turn off the goddamn TV, play something loud enough to drown a literally virulent world, and settle in with your vice of choice. Or vices.

But a recent discussion with our Liminal Times editor — a bona fide scientist — got the HB thinking there may be an upside to corona. Several, actually:

  • People have started washing their hands. And sneezing into their elbows, and giving people their personal space, and thinking twice about going to work sick. Will we forget most of it? Probably. But we’ve heard plenty of conspiracy theorists griping about the over-inflated threat of coronavirus. That the flu kills 50,000 people a year. Good; those tips work on the flu, too. You know what’s never over-inflated? Becoming informed.Image result for coronavirus handwashing
  • The workforce will adapt to home-work more quickly.  We were already headed toward a work-from-home society, but so grudgingly it put us far behind other nations. Geezers like myself still don’t know how to work the InterTubes, and businesses remain skeptical about letting employees out of the building. Now neither have a choice but to adapt, and quickly if they want to stay afloat.Image result for coronavirus work from home
  • The Earth thanks us. According to the EPA, motor vehicles collectively cause 75 percent of carbon monoxide pollution in the U.S.  Collectively, cars and trucks account for nearly one-fifth of all U.S. emissions, emitting around 24 pounds of carbon dioxide and other global-warming gases for every gallon of gas. Have you been on the highway lately? We didn’t lessen our carbon footprint; we stripped down to bare feet. Image result for traffic jam 405 101

It’s silver-lining hunting, granted. But how about this nerded-out SlapFact: The average number of “good quality air days” in China’s industrial Hubei province increased 21.5% in February, compared to the same period last year, according to China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment. InterTubes!

Like any worldwide existential threat, there’s downside to all of this thinking: We’re instead wiped out as the virus becomes airborne and we become skin-walkers.Image result for walking dead

However, we’ll leave that to the 24/7s. Have you watched lately? They should install an in-studio fainting couch in case Wolf Blitzer gets the vapors.Image result for wolf blitzer breaking news

But if we make it, we can come from this stronger. And don’t worry. You can still settle into your vices.

 

Love in the Time of Corona

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Welcome, ye converts!

We knew we were onto something with Evidentialism. But we never expected such a widespread conversion. No worries; we can accommodate you all, though it’s clearly a limited-time offer.

For here we are, called to collective Mass by Circumstance. Our heads are bowed, our hands are clasped. Of course, we have a lot of time for solemn reflection lately; we can’t go to most public gatherings, schools are closing, sports are canceled. What’s a body to do besides pray for a body?

Yet those heads are bowed not for a higher power to smite an enemy, not a savior to bring forth justice with great vengeance and furious anger.

No, we’re praying to science.

Look at the way we changed our everyday lives when science told us of an imminent, existential threat. We now elbow-bump. We wear medical masks to the grocery stores. We have suspended human interaction until further notice.Image result for elbow bump

The urge here is great to make this column one long endorsement of Evidentialism, the faith that posits that science is a faith. It’s tempting to point out that folks aren’t flocking to their houses of worship (haven’t you heard? Pope’s taking confession on Instagram.). Normally, I’d point out that, suddenly, we’re not hearing from anti-vaxers clamoring to get to the bottom of the list. I might even take a shot at friends much smarter than I who dismiss the science-as-faith concept out of hand; if that praying for a cure you’re doing isn’t an act of faith, I might ask, what is?Image result for pope on video

But I’m not going to do that.

The larger precept here is much simpler; COVID-19 underscores the dangerous habit of acting without evidence. The American political system has made a cottage industry out of turning science into ideology. Corona smashed that to hell in  a week.

Whether it’s politics or religion or the weather, beware those who act without evidence. If anything, resist it. Yeah, it makes you an asshole. But it’s time we pucker up and give resistance to stupidity.

As Evidentialism loves to cite, we do it in our everyday lives anyway. Imagine: You live in a place that gets a real winter. You’re in day 3 of a winter storm that’s dumped 8 inches a day and dropped temperatures to sub-zero.Image result for snowstorm guy in t shirt

Your brother walks into the living room, icicles dangling from his nose and eyebrows, dressed in nothing but a t-shirt, jeans and sandals. “Man!” you’re brother proclaims. “I’m freezing!” After laughing your ass off at the dullard, you’d probably ask why he didn’t bother checking the forecast — or looking outdoors.

Yet on deeper issues — issues that shape the core of what makes you you — it’s impolite to ask whey they hold the opinion they do. It’s rude, we’re told. It’s intrusive. People are free to think what they want.

Exactly. So why not find out where they’re coming from?

It’s time to push back against the hunch. Our president — the one who in 2017 dissolved the National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Bio Defense (the government’s pandemic team) — has a “hunch” COVID-19 will “magically” evaporate with the warming spring air. Get back to staring at the sun, Cadet Bone Spurs. COVID doesn’t give a shit about stock markets, border walls, party affiliations or wealth. This is science, bitch. There are no cuts in line.Image result for trump stares at sun

Assuming this does not wipe out the human race (and we’re making no assumptions), we will likely forget how we once prayed to science. That, as usual, will be due to science saving the day to allow us to worship whatever coconuts we hold sacred. That’s the other wondrous thing about science: It’s a faith that doesn’t seek glory, but equilibrium. Just pray we’re not too late in seeing its beauty.