Tuesday, October 27, 2009

It's the end of the world and we know it (sorry REM)

H1N1 - will it pass us by, or is it the long awaited super flu that Stephen King called "Captain Trips" in his epic (aka frigging long) novel "The Stand". Its hard to know given the various media reports that on one hand play this up as a real (H1N1 is coming for you!) crisis and the government dispatches that tell us we have nothing to fear as long as we do exactly what they tell us to do (so that's always worked out well before right? whoops tainted blood and the Red Cross - what was I thinking).

In situations like this perhaps the only way to make sense is to measure the levels of paranoia associated with each side of the debate - for example in this case there are those who believe EVERYTHING that the Government tells us to do is wrong - the vaccine will harm you, its unproven etc - just eat gluten free products and do yoga and all will be well. Uh Huh. Then there are those who think that the government is actually holding back how serious it all is and everyone should get every possible shot they can find, we should all practice "social distancing" (as if Ottawa wasn't slow enough already) wear face masks and gloves in public - well you get the picture.

So where is reality in all this? One of my nostrums is that reality is that which doesn't go away when you stop believing in it. So given that what's left over? My reality is that given all the crap already wrong with me I'll stand for a couple of hours to get the shot regardless because I personally think the risk not to get it is greater. For my children I am really torn - they're both healthy now but if you believe what we've heard about so far that doesn't mean anything.

If anybody reads this I would love to hear your take on it, until the next time...

"There is always a well-known solution to every human problem--neat, plausible, and wrong."
H. L. Mencken,