…….I may be crazy.  But I just may be the lunatic you’re looking for…(Billy Joel)….

For awhile now I have been thinking something is up…..or, better put; ‘about to happen’.  To be fair, I have that inclination all the time and over various things but, for the last few years, it seemed as if something LARGE was imminent.  Any sane person would call that feeling ‘creeping paranoia’ except that it did not feel personal in any way.  I just ‘felt it’.

I am not alone.

I have to also confess that the feeling (other than my usual, normal sense of paranoia) was catalyzed by Trump being elected.   “How in hell could that happen?”

And, as the last three years unfolded, that feeling was exacerbated almost daily by his almost cartoonish insanity.  The guy was like a hand grenade walking.  Something had to blow….

And, now this.  Coronavirus!

“What!?  Are you saying you foresaw Coronavirus?  You saying, you blame Trump for this?”

No.  Of course not.  Puleez.  I am saying something even stupider.  Bear with me……..

There is a ‘school of thought’ that suggests that a whole bunch of negative thinking brings about negative events.  I do not fully subscribe to that kind of pop-kharma kind of thinking but, on the other hand, there is no doubt in my mind that ‘negativity’ is some kind of self-fulfilling force.  If you have any doubt about that, consider economics – basically, the financial manifestation of our collective confidence or fear.  The economy rises and falls on fear and confidence – NOT GDP.

Put another way – the value of a company traded on the stock exchange is simply one ‘perceived’ by a gaggle of investors as seen or ‘analyzed’ in a context of economic growth or shrinkage – positive or negative.  Our collective attitude or mood MEANS something in the marketplace. Our perspective, our mood, shows up in the Consumer Confidence metrics….are people buying TVs and cars or are they NOT buying ‘durable’ items?

Now also factor into this ‘mad’ idea that, for the last while, the media/government have upped the marketing of fear.  They now sell fear.  They dine out on it.  That does not mean that the fears they are selling are not real – to some extent.  It just means that, like a car in a showroom, they are trying to sell MORE than just the vehicle.  They add to the price by selling the sizzle with the steak.  The car became NOT just a vehicle, it was a sex symbol, a lifestyle, a statement of ‘who you were’.  They sold MORE than the item – they sold an idea along with it.  And the price went up.

That cynical marketing grew out of TV and the media but went viral with the digital age and then accelerated on the fear quotient.  “Wow!  If we can scare them all to hell, we can sell the Military Industrial Complex, our political party, drugs, insurance, vacations, even camouflage crap like pants and t-shirts.  Fear is more potent than sex appeal!”

And so we have all lived under a cloud of fear for a long time.  And, like I said, it is hard to debunk REAL nut-bars like Kim Jong-il, ISIS, Fentanyl or (gasp) socialism!  No wonder all the ‘Merican gun-nuts want more guns than they can carry.  They are dumb AND terrified.  

The point: did we somehow collectively ‘manifest’ this disease?  Have we all lived for so long under this not-so-subtle cloud of fear and the marketing of it that we somehow ‘expected something like this to happen?’  Did we bring it on ourselves with HUGE thoughts of negativity born of fear and divisiveness?

“Of course not.  The bug is a bug and a bat conceived it by mating with a pig or something.  C’mon, Dave, don’t get all mystical on us now.”  

Fair enough.  That’s what I think, too.  It’s just a bug that happens now and then.  Fer sure.  Having said that, there are very few health care workers who do not believe that the patient’s attitude plays a huge part in their recovery.  Mood and feelings count HUGELY in the prognosis.   And so, if mood and attitude play a role in recovery, couldn’t mood and attitude have played a role in our recent deterioration?

Jus’ sayin’………