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Keeping Up With COVID Theatre to Be “Nice People”
I saw a patient today who I like very much – she is a little over 70-years-old but looks much younger. Very pleasant and cheerful. Her husband made a ton of money in petroleum engineering and retired at 52-years-old. She spent her life playing tennis and doing volunteer work, and she is a very happy person. She is also progressive, in a pleasant, non-confrontational way. She’s just a nice person. Impossible to dislike her.
She wore her mask into the exam room, as she’s supposed to (I think). She told me that she really appreciated our efforts at patient safety, with my secretary checking forehead temps on anyone who walked in the door. I thanked her for her kind words but pointed out that I’ve been checking forehead temps at the front desk for over a year now, and haven’t turned anyone away yet. A dentist friend of mine has turned away one patient, out of over 3,000 forehead temps. So I’m not sure how many lives we’ve saved with our heroic efforts. But whatever, we’re all nice people. It’s the thought that counts. Right?
I told her that since we’ve both been vaccinated, we don’t need to wear our masks and she told me that she felt better with a mask on. I pointed out that the whole point of getting a vaccine was to develop immunity to the virus; I haven’t seen COVID in months. And the data on masks is uncertain; they might help… alittle bit… maybe. I’m not sure. But she said that she felt better with a mask on, regardless. Good for her – she was cheerfully secure behind her mask. So I kept mine on, too. Which pleased her. We’re both nice people.
Whatever. We’re all nice people. It’s the thought that counts. Right?
I’m amazed at how comfortable Democrats are with risk. Open borders don’t bother them. Allowing the government to run Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sounds reasonable. We can sign treaties with Russia and China and sleep well at night. Printing trillions of dollars of new money is sound monetary policy. Defunding police will reduce crime. We can shut down the economy with no consequences.
Whatever. We’re all nice people. It’s the thought that counts. Right?
Taking huge risks is ok. Democrats appear to be very comfortable with enormous risks.
I’ve taken risks in my life. But not like this. I need to sleep at night. How do they tolerate such uncertainty?
It’s amazing.
But it also amazes me how Democrats are so easily comforted by imaginary security. Imaginary temperature readings. Ineffective masks. Insane monetary policy. Treaties that aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. Reducing crime by reducing law enforcement in high crime areas.
Things that scare me, comfort Democrats. I don’t understand.
But whatever. We’re all nice people. It’s the thought that counts. Right?
None of this makes any sense. But my Democrat friends feel better. I’m not sure why.
They fear white supremacist nationalist rednecks, without ever having met one. But they are comforted by obviously meaningless gestures, which they see everyday, with no basis in reality.
These are very nice people. Who mean well. And they’re easy to please – just wear your mask and check their temperature. That means you’re nice, too. It’s impossible to dislike these people. They’re nice people. Completely harmless. I want them to be harmless, and they intend to be harmless.
So they’re harmless. Whatever. We’re all nice people. It’s the thought that counts. Right?
But for some reason, I’m not sure that this is harmless. It should be. But maybe it’s not.
I wish it were. It’s impossible to dislike such nice people. Surely I’m being unreasonable. Right?
Whatever. We’re all nice people. It’s the thought that counts. Right?
Unless there’s more to it than that.
Eh, whatever. She’s so nice. And so am I. She’s impossible to dislike.
We had a lovely visit…
Published in General
We have precious few “needs,” really: air, water, heat, nutrients. But most people use the term more generally, to describe things generally required to live a fulfilling life. We need to feel valued, loved, secure, respected, hopeful. Absent those things, most of us fail to thrive.
It’s possible to be too literal about this stuff, and thus miss a bigger but still valid point.
I’ve always wondered about the efficacy of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Where does sex fall on the pyramid? One person may not need it to survive. But corporately many do in order for corporate survival.
I think it’s safe to say that, for the typical human male, sex is the first thing required after the essentials of survival have been met.
For the typical human female, it’s somewhere higher up the hierarchy — between adequate closet space and a half-off sale at Kohl’s.
(I could be wrong about some of that.)
After?
I certainly agree with the closet space issue. And substitute Macy’s for Kohl’s.
But, come to think of it, for most males I don’t know many who would pass up sex to eat dinner.
You misunderstand, Flick. It isn’t missing dinner, it’s missing every dinner. I can survive missing dinner. ;)
They would just combine the two.
Just eat a bigger lunch.
Of all the answers I have to this, not one is publishable.
I don’t want to open up a whole new can of worms on the Good Dr.’s post, but here is an example for you. I saw you mention in another thread that you have a 14 year-old daughter. Do you have any hopes for her? Or do you not care what happens to her in the future? If you have hopes for her, then you will automatically have a purpose, to help her fulfill those hopes (unless you were just a total sociopath). The “goal” would be whatever she or you wanted her to attain, but the “purpose” would be your motivation for helping her achieve that. It is not a vague or fake concept at all.
You will see what you wish to see.
You’re mistaking goals and aspirations for the meaningless concept of there being a “purpose” or “meaning” in life.
I certainly want to give my daughter the tools to be happy in her life; but that is her life in the end.
There is no purpose or meaning to life. That is what makes it so precious.
To whom?
I see clearly. I wish not to see you make references to Christians as a group (or part of a group) being murderers. It’s your words here, not mine.
Most people would say exactly the opposite of your last two sentences. I am going to politely bow out of this topic since I don’t see it as being productive.
This has a ring to it.
A psychological need. Without purpose, lives tend to become directionless and nihilistic, and ultimately destructive and self-destructive. That purpose might be “provide for my wife and children” or “raise my children to be able to support themselves and make their way in the world” or “serve God and teach the Gospel” or “study the mechanisms of disease to save future generations from death and suffering” or just “discover the glorious beauties of physics”. Maybe “hold the Persians at Thermopylae until Athens and Sparta can muster a defense.”
I’ve lost track of the names of all the people who have written about the destructive effects of chronic welfare dependency, although Theodore Dalrymple and Thomas Sowell and Walter E. Williams come to mind. The idle rich tend to exhibit similar problems.
That’s not what we are, or at least I am, talking about. I am referring to the meaning or purpose that listless people are searching for when they wander aimlessly, searching for their meaning in life. There is no such lofty meaning beyond our own lives and the nihilistic rambling of s just an excuse to be nothing, or is an excuse to use religion as a purpose.
Thank goodness.
Your writing reminds me of a classic piece of literature, but I’m not sure which one. Anyway, it’s nice! (See what I did there?)