Borrowed and shared in reflection:
I just saw someone having an argument with a normie, and the normie said, “I know masks and social distancing are inconvenient, but so what? If it saves lives, it’s worth it!”
Well, let’s follow that school of thought through to its logical conclusion (indulging the normie for a moment and pretending there is any evidence whatsoever that muzzles and Satanic distancing do save lives).
There is a 100% certainty that banning everyone from driving would save lives.
There is a 100% certainty that banning alcohol consumption would save lives.
There is 100% certainty that banning all contact and extreme sports would save lives.
So where exactly would you like to draw the line? Do you believe that the primary purpose of life is extending it as long as possible, at ALL costs?
It isn’t. One of the secrets to a successful and fulfilled life is mastering the art of CALCULATED RISK. If you always play it safe, if you never take a chance, if you always prioritise security and safety over adventure and gamble, guess where you’re going to get in life?
Exactly nowhere.
Oh, you might remain alive, alright, insofar as your heart beats and your lungs respire (albeit they’re struggling a bit in your muzzle), but what exactly is the point of that? You do realise you’re going to die sometime, right? Is your aim just to keep your animated carcass going in front of Netflix as long as you can, then sliding gratefully into your grave at 98, sighing, “ah well, I might never have enjoyed my life or achieved anything of note… But at least I never got corona virus!!!”
Life is risk. Everything, including the most banal of activities, have an element of risk – do you know how many people die every year slipping in the bath or choking on a sandwich? You can’t mitigate against that; you can’t refuse to live your life because there’s always a theoretical possibility something you do might kill you. If you attempt to, you’re trying to deny the debt of death by avoiding the loan of life, and it’s impossible, and what’s more, immoral. You have been given the miraculous gift of life, and you can’t return it for a credit note to spend in another store.
I mean, let’s say I actually believed there was a Deadly Killer Plague flying around in the air waiting to pounce on me if I walked the wrong way down a supermarket aisle or moved a chair in a pub. Do you think I’d be cowering in my home obsessively sanitising the cat (‘cos the telly said they can give you the ‘rona!), giving up on everything and everyone that gives my life joy and meaning? Of course not! I would go out; I would take my chances, knowing that illness is more to do with the state of your bodily terrain than eeeeeeevil plagues that allegedly float around in the air, and if I get sick, it’s far more likely to be do to with unhealthy choices I’ve made, than the fact some random stranger in the veg aisle isn’t wearing a grubby bandanna around their nose.
You normies might think that’s wild and reckless, but let me ask you – do you drink alcohol? Do you drive? Do you smoke? Do you eat junk food? Are you overweight? T2 diabetic? High blood pressure? All these things – choices you made or that resulted from choices you made – are RISKY, and in reality, far more of a threat to your health than a cold virus which has never actually been isolated or proven to cause the ever-increasing array of symptoms (hiccoughs and hair loss now!) that are accredited to it.
Check out the stats about what’s crippling the NHS – viruses? Or diabetes and other lifestyle-related diseases?
I’m all for education to help people make better choices. But I’m not for forcing anyone to do anything, nor for eliminating risk, because that’s both impossible and undesirable.
Every person has to be free to make a cost-benefit analysis for everything they do, because ultimately, that’s what life is. It’s calculated risk. It is completely impossible to eliminate risk altogether, and why would you want to – frankly, if that’s what you want, you may as well kill yourself now, as that is the only way to ensure there is no longer any risk to your person.
Can I guarantee if you take your muzzle off and give your Aunty Pat a hug you won’t die? No. But I can guarantee that if you don’t start doing these things and all the other things that give your life joy and meaning, you’re as good as dead already.
Risk it – live.
