#228 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Wednesday December 22)
Good morning,
ONCE AGAIN, COMICS PREDICT THE FUTURE
First there was all the fuss with the Simpsons predicting the Trump presidency but now there is Marvel Comics predicting the “Omicron-Level Mutant” back in the 60s… Eerily prescient…
OMICRON THOUGHTS
I piece of me wants to scream out “here we go again!” The exploding numbers of infections in places like London and New York bring back some PTSD about the state of play in much of 2020. That said, there are two causes for hope. First, as highly transmissible as it is, it has the chance of “drowning out” other, far more dangerous variants, like Delta. Second, infection with Omicron does not seem to be severe—certainly not so with those who are vaccinated. As I am reminded, when I was positive back in August, after being vaccinated earlier in the year, I had little to show for the infection other than a sniffle.
Brad Midlin suggests that if we end up back in some form of collective lock-down, I might have to start retitling these missives from “Beyond the Bunker” to “Back in the Bunker.” I certainly hope not; although I don’t believe it’s likely. Vaccinations work, masks reduce transmission and avoiding crowds can prevent outbreaks. If only everyone followed the science and the logic.
WHAT’S WITH THE GREEK LETTERS?
When a variant becomes a “variant of concern,” it is assigned a name. As we all know by now, these are designations by Greek letter. There is an obvious question, namely, “what do we do when we’ve made it through the alphabet?” Do we start a naming protocol like hurricanes (i.e., alternating male and female names)?
But a far more interesting question is “which Greek letters are being skipped?” I don’t have the entire Greek alphabet committed to memory (maybe some of you frat boys were hazed into such memorization…). But I note that the World Health Organization skipped over “Xi” (which precedes Omicron in the alphabet). I had assumed that was because the authoritarian ruler of the Middle Kingdom is named Mr. Xi Jinping. That’s correct.
But inquiring minds need to know if there are others. It turns out the “Nu” also was skipped, simply because it sounded too much like “new.” Apparently, it had nothing to do with the Yiddish word, “Nu?” Nu can mean either, “of course” or “and so what?”
THE USE OF ANGRY WORDS
A number of people responded to my calling out too many adverbs and adjectives in speech. Mark DiMaria says he uses them a lot because they make language more colorful. But more people resonated with my noting that the use of words has gotten ugly. As an example, Mark Farrell offered up “the erosion of tact, dignity, and decency,” in citing the words of Representative Ilhan Omar, in castigating Senator Manchin for not supporting the Build Back Better bill:
“I mean, we all knew that Senator Manchin couldn't be trusted, the excuses that he just made, I think, are complete bullshit” Omar said.
As Mark notes, “the press just offhandedly overlooked it as 'normal', merely reporting the quote as part of the overall story.”
Our discourse continues down the sewer…
ONE FINAL OMICRON PUZZLEMENT
I’ve always felt that, while it is noble to die for a cause, it is stupid to do so unnecessarily. I must say that I am impressed with the vaccination holdouts. These folks, in the face of rising death and disability of those who are unvaccinated, versus the relative calm and minimal effects of Omicron to those who are vaccinated, are are undeterred. This seems to me the ultimate proof that people will cling to their tribal stubbornness, even in the face of data and personal calamity.
This reluctance to join in vaccination is not a new thing, nor is equating vaccination with political position. Our cultural memory suggests that Americans in the 1950s stood in line to receive polio vaccinations, with herd immunity and vaccination rates of over 90%. The facts, however, belie quite a different story. The uptake on the Smallpox vaccination and the Polio vaccine were around 50%. And in the 1950s there were those who made similar arguments to those made today that government was intruding on people’s liberty. It seems evolution doesn’t move that quickly and certainly doesn’t include intelligence.
Have a great day,
Glenn
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