Coronavirus: Rejecting the COVID-19 Silver Linings Playbook

Thousands have died of coronavirus in Italy. But the canals of Venice are clear. Picture: Andrea Pattaro/AFP

Always look on the bright side. Even in a pandemic. Give a little whistle if you like.

I was talking to a bookseller friend of mine who told me he’d sold five copies of The Plague by the great French absurdist Albert Camus in the space of the last few days. Perhaps, I said, people think it’s a self-help book.

Camus’ work was an allegory for Nazism rather than a glimpse into the COVID-19 apocalypse. The final paragraph is something of a giveaway.

Indeed, as he listened to the cries of joy that rose above the town, Rieux recalled that this joy was always under threat. He knew that this happy crowd was unaware of something that one can read in books, which is that the plague bacillus never dies or vanishes entirely, that it can remain dormant for dozens of years in furniture or clothing, that it waits patiently in bedrooms, cellars, trunks, handkerchiefs and old papers, and that perhaps the day will come when, for the instruction or misfortune of mankind, the plague will rouse its rats and send them to die in some well-contented city.

Obviously Albert meant Nazism, but it is all a question of context. Plague is front of mind right now while we haven’t heard a peep from the far right since the Red Army stormed the Reichstag in 1945.

That was sarcasm for the literalists out there.

Despite a sudden surge in sales of La Peste, my bookseller mate reported weaker sales from his shop overall.

It might be a nice thing if people spent their increased leisure time reading but it seems we have moved beyond the simple pleasures of literature preferring to metaphorically shout at one another over social media.

At no time in human history have we seen a greater urge from people to tell us what they reckon.

This has meant a sharp increase of horrible opinions, referred to accurately in web speak as ‘feelpinions’ or sardonically as ‘hot takes’.

They come in all shapes, sizes and ideological viewpoints. They share an ahistorical view or at best a knowledge of history that is superficial as if they have purchased a copy of Human History for Dummies, read the introduction, got bored and flipped through the rest of the book before resuming urgent fingering on their smart phones.

For example, one tweet from a woman in the US predicted the aftermath of COVID-19 would, if her understanding of European History was any guide, usher in a new golden age of artistic and cultural endeavour based on the notion that The Black Death was an essential prerequisite for the Renaissance.

“The Bubonic Plague’s impact resulted in wide-ranging social, economic, cultural, and religious changes. These changes, directly and indirectly, led to the emergence of the Renaissance, one of the greatest epochs for art, architecture, and literature in human history.” https://t.co/lL0aq5rATC

— Julia P. McCarthy (@thejumbles) March 17, 2020

Firstly, it wasn’t. The man considered the father of Italian humanism, Francesco Petrarch was already building a steady body of work before the rats arrived by ship (more of that later).

The unfortunate tweet speaks of history like it sticks manfully to the rigours of a calendar like the medieval period ended precisely at close of business on a Wednesday in November 1352. The other presumption is that the medieval period was a time of withdrawal, absent of commerce, science or advances in technology. It wasn’t.

The first visitation of the plague, known as the Black Death, killed somewhere between 75 and 200 million Europeans.

The great dark cloud of the deaths of people in horrible circumstances in the tens of millions was lightened up because then we had some lovely architecture and really nice paintings of Jesus.

These are the sorts of thought processes that people come up with while they are locked away.

On cue, the American evangelist, Perry Stone, offered the view that COVID-19 was sent by God as punishment for same sex marriage.

If that were true why would the virus be spreading into Jamaica, Uganda or Russia where same sex relationships are criminalised in a nod to Old Testament literalism?

Perry Stone’s god is not only a vengeful one, he’s a bit slapdash to boot.

Historical epidemiologists have been able to determine the exact time and place when the Black Death started in Europe. When the Mongols besieged the Genoese trading port of Caffa in the Crimea in 1343, they catapulted plague-riddled bodies over the town walls.

A number of boats fled the town, arriving back in Genoa. Ten years later half of Europe’s population was dead.

If only those boats had been quarantined. In a case of history not repeating but hurling up some eerie similarities, this question is being asked of the NSW Health Department who allowed not one or two but four floating petri dishes of infectious disease to dock at Circular Quay.

I’m not suggesting Jani Beg and the Golden Mongol Horde’s particular take on bio-shock tactics is akin to some carelessness on the part of the department, but you’d have to agree there are some parallels. Definitely the same ballpark.

If it’s a bright side we are looking for, we should find comfort in the fact that infectious disease-ravaged cadavers are not being hurled through our living room windows. We don’t have the Mongols hanging around outside our homes for a couple of years giving us the hee-bee jeebies before rushing the front door en masse.

There’s a silver lining right there.

But it’s the extreme environmental Left that has shown itself to be completely cocoa bananas in finding the bright side of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wow... Earth is recovering

- Air pollution is slowing down
- Water pollution is clearing up
- Natural wildlife returning home

Coronavirus is Earth’s vaccine

We’re the virus

— Tom (@ThomasSchuIz) March 17, 2020

This is best illustrated in a tweet from a man called Thomas Schulz in San Francisco who considered COVID-19 a blessing and the deaths of thousands and potentially millions a small price to pay for a refreshed planet.

“Wow … Earth is recovering — Air pollution is slowing down — Water pollution is clearing up — Natural wildlife returning home. Coronavirus is Earth’s vaccine. We are the virus.”

The scary thing is the tweet fetched almost 300,000 likes and 30,000 retweets. Some people, not like you or me admittedly but some, think COVID-19 is a good thing and that we as humans deserve to put our cues in the rack well before our time.

Others rushed forward to compliment Schulz, declaring that swans and dolphins now frolicked in the clear waters of Venice’s canals. The sun was out. The air was crisp and clear. Baby ducks waddled safely across car free roads.

Genocide never looked so lovely.