As a consumer of dystopian fiction i imagined it would be more apocalyptic than this. Where are the bodies littering the waste land, the domestic pets turned feral feasting on their owners in the night? Why aren't planes spiralling from the skies as pilots succumb to the pathogen mid flight? I thought there would be trucks of armed troops protecting us from the pustullated masses storming the city gates. Motorways would be festooned with crashed and abandoned cars, smoke curling from under the bonnet, their drivers staggering into the overgrown hard shoulder to escape the ravages of the plague.
All the best disaster movies and books show a total breakdown of civilised society with entire cities evacuating on foot to the countryside where only the most venal thrive and the amoral amass what scant resources are still available. The weak are quickly subsumed and devoured by infected zombie hordes. WHERE ARE THE ZOMBIES FOLKS....? you can't have a plague without zombies.
This is a very cultured pandemic with Italian arias serenaded from balconies, church choirs coming together to practice via video conference, descant recorders played in unison from windows and applause for health workers at eight o'clock sharp every Thursday. Rainbows of varying artistic quality brighten windows festooned with teddy bears. Now supermarkets are taking distancing seriously most people queue patiently in taped off six foot human parking bays and resist the urge to hide the last pack of lentils up a surgical glove encased sleeve. The Guardian "blind date" segment has continued by substituting taverna and tactility with takeaway and tech, the potential lovers sweet talking via Skype while munching sushi at home. Very Continental, very enlightened, very disciplined.
Even the stockpiling was spearheaded by the middle classes according to Tesco's data with 10% of customers accounting for a third of bulk buying and "these buyers tended to be the more affluent customers... the biggest uplifts were in the south of England" according to their Chief Exec. Understandable as it's not easy to hoard when living on minimum wage and Universal Credit hardly covers the cost of a week's food let alone a couple of months.
And that's where duplicity comes into all this sentimentality isn't it? The fault lines between the socio economic classes have been screaming out of our televisions and newspapers for a long time and yet we failed to act on an unspoken inequality that has inexorably crept up on us over the past ten years. Our service workers, those vital people who are keeping us afloat at this time, don't need applause they need a decent wage, adequate staffing levels, affordable housing, sustainable working hours, respect and support from employers and appreciation from us, the general public, who rely on their good will.
Before the virus the same people who are now clapping from their front doors were in malcontent mode, grumbling about long waiting times for NHS appointments. Writing letters of complaint if overworked and stressed shop workers were less than angelic in response to their bellyaching. Couriers were on the receiving end of social media vilification from those with no understanding of the conditions they work under. We have become a society that wants immediate delivery of unnecessary goods to fulfill a momentary whim, wanting shops open 24/7 365 days a year no matter the strain it puts on families who are deprived of time together at weekends and holidays. We have devolved to demand servants rather than service.
I wonder how quickly our modern heroes will be abandoned once our invisible enemy is defeated. Will adulation continue or will we revert to type, berating those who serve us without considering the unreasonable workload they have to bear. Will we still be banging pans on Thursdays when the masks are taken off and the gloves discarded? Will we be sending rainbows when the care homes open their doors to families again?
It's my hope that we will have discovered just who the essential workers are in the nation and will have taken on board that they are often the lowest paid and least appreciated who work the longest hours for minimal thanks, sometimes in the most responsible jobs and coming from a multitude of countries. It's time to stand up for our teachers, carers, couriers, shop staff, nurses, cleaners, factory workers, utility workers, police, firefighters, ambulance drivers, bus and train drivers, refuse collectors, delivery drivers........the list could go on so please add the many i will have missed out. We have taken these men and women for granted for too long, treating them like soulless machines, using and abusing them like punching bags when they fail to meet our needs in as timely a fashion as we would like.
The optimist in me hopes that as a nation we will stand up for them and hold our government to account when/if life gets back to normal ....
....the pessimist in me says send in the zombies double quick so they can finish us off before we lose the momentum of appreciation.
All the best disaster movies and books show a total breakdown of civilised society with entire cities evacuating on foot to the countryside where only the most venal thrive and the amoral amass what scant resources are still available. The weak are quickly subsumed and devoured by infected zombie hordes. WHERE ARE THE ZOMBIES FOLKS....? you can't have a plague without zombies.
And that's where duplicity comes into all this sentimentality isn't it? The fault lines between the socio economic classes have been screaming out of our televisions and newspapers for a long time and yet we failed to act on an unspoken inequality that has inexorably crept up on us over the past ten years. Our service workers, those vital people who are keeping us afloat at this time, don't need applause they need a decent wage, adequate staffing levels, affordable housing, sustainable working hours, respect and support from employers and appreciation from us, the general public, who rely on their good will.
I wonder how quickly our modern heroes will be abandoned once our invisible enemy is defeated. Will adulation continue or will we revert to type, berating those who serve us without considering the unreasonable workload they have to bear. Will we still be banging pans on Thursdays when the masks are taken off and the gloves discarded? Will we be sending rainbows when the care homes open their doors to families again?
The optimist in me hopes that as a nation we will stand up for them and hold our government to account when/if life gets back to normal ....
9 comments:
It bugs me when people say, oh this must be like it was during the war. No! It's nothing like it was during the war, this is a minor inconvenience in comparison!
And regarding key workers, the fact that just before all of this happened, a British company devised a forward tilted toilet to reduce the time workers spent on it, doesn't give me much hope for their future treatment.
I've always said there is something very wrong with a world where someone can be paid as more in a month for kicking a ball around, than the person that sells you the food that keeps you alive will see in their lifetime.
¡Viva la revolución!
totally agree simon. Born poor in the early 50's i remember the ongoing impact of wartime poverty and it's privations. i still think the zombies are the way to go.
Nicely written Jeni, although living the reality is far more frightening than reading the books you've passed to me. As for society's treatment of our "heroes" changing for the better when this is over, alas, I fear that after the medals and badges have been handed out, society will revert to type, and we will treat our heroes as we always have. Our mutual friend Ruddy summed up that attitude quite nicely in the poem "Tommy" (worth looking up, the few lines below will give you the gist of it) Written about Victorian society's view of the British soldier.
Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an` Tommy, 'ow's yer soul? "
But it's " Thin red line of 'eroes " when the drums begin to roll
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it's " Thin red line of 'eroes, " when the drums begin to roll.
They are only heroes when society needs them, before and after that they are treated with distain.
Anyway, got that off my chest.
another thought provoking read. I agreed that decent wages, hours, housing etc. is way more appreciated than the clap that's not going to sustain after next 3 weeks if we are out of the lockdown
Thankfully it is not the apocalyptic scene from the movies but perhaps worse. I hope we realise that we cannot go on in the way we have been. Society has to change after this. The world has to change. I do hope more and more people will realise more wealth and exploitation is unsustainable. We cannot let the world be led by nationalists, egotists and billionaire. x
Mm, let's hope and pray for some long lasting good for everybody. A change in society. All pray
Very true! Let's hope some good comes out of this with people valuing others more, being more patient and tolerant... we'll see in time I guess! If not then the zombies seem like a reasonable option. haha x
and I'll instruct them to leave the cats alive!!!
mmm, let's hope and pray for some long lasting good for everybody. A change in society.
Post a Comment