Tim and I spent yesterday just chilling between work and the holiday onslaught. We ate microwaved leftovers and binge watched the Netflix movie adaptation of Leave the World Behind. I had listened to the audio book during the Covid lockdown. It’s a fictional “what if” about a family trapped in an Airbnb when the US gets hit by a cyberattack. Tesla cars go nuts and the kids can’t stream Friends reruns while tankers ran aground and airplanes fell out of the sky. It was all very dramatic, yet I was unfazed.
I think I’ve lived through too many disasters to get freaked out anymore. I grew up in the 1980s with Regan, Gorbachev the New World Order. Then it was the Gulf Wars, Y2K panic, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and the Covid-19 Pandemic. Each time, there’s a new crisis, someone pops up selling crappy powdered drinks, bottled water and overpriced bugout bags. Don’t fall for it.
Freaking out is a first world response. After spending time in countries that have rolling blackouts, seasonal flooding, famines, coups—you learn panicking is for losers. Winners adapt and carry on. In 2000, I was at shop looking at DVDs for rent in China when a blackout hit. Instead of closing up shop, the owner brought me a lit candle. Yes, I rented a DVD by firelight. By the time we got back home, the power was back on. I was living in Bangkok during a military coup. Since all the action was on the other side of the city, life carried on for us as normal. Seasonal monsoons often flooded the streets, yet nothing was cancelled, they just changed into dry clothes and kept going. Europe and Asia have hosted dozens of wars in the last century, yet they rebuild every time.
During the Pandemic many businesses ground to a halt, while others quickly adapted with DoorDash and Grubhub. Panda Express was a well-oiled machine with pickup and drive through lanes. The real problem was the people that hoarded toilet paper, took horse medicine and gathered too many canned goods. Did anyone even eat their canned vegetables? I gained my freshman fifteen eating bread while rotting my brain with Tiger King. Then I homeschooled my kid, and taught online. Finally we got shots and re-entered society. Now the world is humming along like nothing happened. So, the next time someone tells you the end is coming, take note, but don’t build a bunker.
