I was asked about holiday plans; it set me off. Personality failure.
We’re likely to soon have President Biden. Unfortunately we’ll still likely have an obstinate Senate. And we’ll need to endure a bitter lame duck that showed destructive intent even before losing. Trump and McConnell’s Senate will aggravate to make government less effective simply to prove government doesn’t work. They’ll also likely sabotage so as to prove Biden ineffective. Anything Biden does will have substantial lag effects. We’re in the thick of pandemic. Support systems and logistics will be tested. Add now disbelieving Trump loyalists.
The American people, though, generally are fatigued of disaster and eager for holiday. The perception of danger is much smaller than the actual risk. We’re near a tipping point. If we avoid it, the people will fault “fear mongers.” Yet small steps have large impact. The disease itself is exponential. So too are all the interconnected systems. Winning the election still leaves us vulnerable through at least March. Longer if resistance to Biden’s efforts materializes. Trips may seem safe with small bubbles mingling as opposed to large bubbles, yet these accumulate. We’ve a duty to take on the small hardships to reduce chances of the large ones.
Books exemplifying systemic crash:
The Expanse series
The End of October
World War Z
How Not To Be Wrong
Somewhat related writings:
Cascade failure back off exponentially
Fire proves analogy
Lag effects get miss-attributed
Whole of government is important
Thursday, Nov 5, 2020 · 10:45:21 PM +00:00
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Fffflats
This piece is primarily venting and may not have the full rigor of some of my other pieces. Tough tutti.
And I need to vent again. In my house, we still wipe down groceries. Yet we’re discussing holiday travel. How does that make sense? Think about it. Just think. Now don’t try to throw back at me “risk is cumulative, we need to pick and choose a best balance.“ It may be so but the risk of transference from groceries is so low that it can be discounted completely. No, this is about psychology. The grocery comes from the public where strangers exist. Strangers “impose risk.” Holiday travel is about family, and family is “clean.”