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Even non-interventionists call for intervention; everyone is glued to their phones, waiting to die, even though they really ought not have much to fear unless they’re over the age of 65. This is a kind of fake — media, social media — plague that has the sole benefit of reminding people of a) that they’re going to die inevitably b) a globalized economy is dangerously fragile. It is ignoble to panic — as if we all weren’t going to die one day; we ought worry more that life has become dirty, distracted, fundamentally lifeless and anti-life than we ought worry that it ends in general. It is even more ignoble to worry about the global economy. Worry about your garden. Dig up your lawn. Don’t sit in front of your Twitterfeed bemoaning the loss of your worry-free lifestyle. You should have always been worrying, really; we have been living in a darkish age for a longish time — perhaps longer than we really realize. Are you only realizing this now, when The New York Times tells you so? I would hope not. But in a world where journalists are philosophers, and even philosophers pretend to be journalists, I can only assume you are. We’re panicking over the disruption of the dream-life we lead; we want to sleep through real life and are upset when mortality shakes us by the shoulders. Social distancing? Maybe? But we’re already socially distanced. Constant connection has lead to distance; we pump information out about ourselves, even while we lose all sense of who we are. So you get a cold, touch someone who needs to be touched. Are we only noticing the elderly in nursing homes now that they’re dying? Do we only feel guilty for the isolation of the elderly when the media forces us to pay attention?
