Looking into the Future

What Motivates people? In good times their joys motivate them. But, in bad times like this their fears motivate them. This is a time in it's own way like World War II. This is the only way it makes sense to talk about this. People all over the world are dying from the pandemic at at least 2 to 3 times the rate that the U.S. is reporting. The amounts are much worse in many other countries not being reported depending upon how many are being tested in each country. So, realistically millions of unreported people are dying now in China, and Russia and South America and Africa or will soon be.

So, it is about people's fears right now. Without enough fear and precaution and awareness and knowledge worldwide you likely could be one of the deaths that are either reported or not reported because you died on the streets or in your home alone or with family who then also became infected.

So, in some ways now what happens to one of us also happens to all of us worldwide.

So, what is motivating people right now in bad times?

Their fears. So, if you expect people to behave like they did in January 2020 ever again you are just fooling yourselves worldwide.

If the 50,000 to 150,000 people who died in the U.S.  affect the lives of about 100 of their friends and relatives each then you are also going to have 5,000,000 to 15,000,000 people here in the U.S. acting in strange and paranoid ways in order to try to stay alive too.

I remember when my cousin died when I was 8. This was probably the most adult thing that had ever happened to me and I was scared shitless. I sat there on my bed and I felt very alone in my bedroom trying to process that my 16 year old cousin had just driven his Dad's old 1949 Black Dodge I believe in to a house by accident. He had turned his head to ask his friends in the car if they were okay. But, since his neck was broken that's the last thing he ever said.

So, it's as if 5,000,000 to 15,000,000 people just in the U.S. had this same experience that I did at 8.

So, the result isn't going to be a pretty one for them.

Facing one's own mortality is one of the hardest things any of us ever do.

So, to predict the future now you have to see it is not based as much on joy as it is on people's fears.

In January 2020 people's lives in the U.S. and around the world except maybe for Wuhan, China were more based upon what people's joys were.

So, for example I wouldn't expect people to want to go to theaters or restaurants for a few years at least until everyone either has had coronavirus or has had a vaccine for it. It isn't practical to believe people will just start going back to restaurants and theaters unless  they are unrealistic and want to catch coronavirus and die soon.

This isn't going away anytime soon if you listen to the CDC and the scientists.

For example, in the 1918 Flu Pandemic it only killed a few thousand people in the U.S. all over the place this time of year (from January 1918 to April 1918) then it faded out during the late spring and summer.

But, in October 1918 it killed 100,000 people in the month of October alone and then killed a total of 675,000 people by April of the next year and 50 million people around the world.

This also with the changed ratio of how many people are in the U.S. now compared to around 100 million or more then makes a ratio of 3 to 1 because we are well over 300 million now.

So, if we use this logic next October to April we might lose three times 675,000 people.

Because we are better scientifically educated now than then, we might only lose about 1 million or less people from October to next April if we are really educated and disciplined and lucky.

For example, I'm not running back to restaurants or theaters or traveling to other countries anytime soon (because you can't travel to other countries right now unless you are a government diplomat anyway).

But, you might if you were able to to drive long distances, take your own food with you so you feel safe and visit new areas if you were camping and had enough water to wash your hands with this summer.

I think psychologically people are going to, at the very least, need to leave their homes and visit the wilderness to renew their spirits after all this just to remain feeling sane out the other side in the next  few years.

Even then people are going to be scarred by what has happened worldwide for several years into the future and some people will have temporary or permanent psychological problems that will have to be addressed in their lives from all of this.

Predicting the future is relatively easy if you realize that it is people's fears that motivate them right now. They might prefer to be motivated by joy, but if you are ONLY motivated by joy you might be at high risk of sudden death due to Coronavirus during the few years we are living right now.

So, this is why I compare these time to World War II because death is all around us worldwide.

However, if we can  just be logical and rational and methodical about everything we do to stay alive each of us very likely will be okay. However, now is not the time to be taking risks that might jeapordize our potentially very long lives.

By God's Grace