Consolation in Covid Times

The pandemic of Covid has brought plenty of woes.

Numbers of people have died, some of them being fairly old and losing winters of their lives, some of them quite young, with productive lives ahead, leaving behind families torn and incomplete. Social activities have been curbed, education and work forcefully transformed, shipping stalled and made more expensive. Frequently, we are informed of new medical or epidemiological discoveries and recommendations, we are surprised with governmental restrictions, with not enough time to have absorbed the previous batch. We observe many conflicting opinions and even facts, some of that obviously an effect of outright disinformation or good old lack of intellect, some a harder nut to crack.

One rightfully asks, how do we stay sane, and maybe even happy, in those times?

I have long thought about writing my thoughts on this topic down, but, unlike many others having done so, I bid my time. Actually, one of my points is not to rush and carry out everything that comes to our heads, to not obey every demand for our action and attention. That said, one and half years in the Covid times, I hope my ideas have matured enough to warrant a wider scrutiny.

I do not claim originality — many of my thoughts have been inspired by writings of Seneca, Aurelius, Nietzsche, Machiavelli, Popper, Kahneman, … Instead of carrying on with this essay, it would be better for you to read their classical works, to not have to endure my misunderstandings thereof.

Or, if you have less than a lifetime for them, read on here.

Evolution

Darwin popularised the survival of the fittest. In the kingdoms of plants and animals, interpretations are easy — those being able to obtain enough food and live long enough to produce offspring prevail in the long run. For humans, things have gotten more complicated, since, at least among the peoples being able to read this article, neither food nor early survival is a competition. Attempts are made to extend the original survival aspect with quality of life, with survival well past reproducible age, with providing better starting conditions for the offspring.

Covid has brought a few new rules to the game. In a cruel twist of fate, we know now that being seemingly physically fit and healthy does not preclude a harsh Covid case or even death. The actual mechanisms are not yet fully understood, along with lack of consensus on what is the correct policy to allow socio-economic activities while limiting the spread.

It is, however, reasonably clear, that there are mechanisms to increase one’s chances for success. Getting a vaccine, even though it still may reveal a hidden devilish after-effect, is to an educated individual, a clear choice. Focus on healthy lifestyle, stress management, particulars such as Vitamin D or zinc, wearing masks and isolating as much as possible — all that raises one’s chance to survive. And survival is not the only question — long term damage of Covid may be quite impairing in quality of life and ability to be productive.

To sum this point up, this is, in our recent times, one of the greatest opportunities for making Darwin proud of some of us. Do I know I have behaved optimally, with respect to survival? No, absolutely — I may be sub-optimal in many areas, and I may be outright wrong in some of them. Still, I believe I have done a good research and thinking, and that I have done enough.

And that consoles me.

Many may die, their deaths being perhaps a consequence of stupidity of their own or of others. And that saddens me. But I’m no Jesus to feel responsibility for not having saved them.

Paradigm Shift

At many points in our lives, circumstances change. As we age, we continuously shift from our parents being full-time responsible for us, through us being fully independent, being responsible for our children, ending being elderly and physically less able again. Each of such steps brings new challenges, new options, new requirements. We can yearn for the past, or we can accept it, or even welcome it as an opportunity.

Similarly, throughout history, there were paradigm shifts — adaptation of computers and the internet come to mind as the most recent one. For some, this brought new careers, new hobbies, essentially new lives. Some perhaps overcommitted, some perhaps refused, stubbornly, to their detriment.

Is Covid a paradigm shift that requires us to adapt? Yes, I believe. It changes what is at our disposal, how we can spend our time. In some ways, it forces us backwards in time, to rely on activities not depending on mankind’s recent advances; in other ways, it exploits means of connecting people not being so readily available only a few years back. Pandemic may be a thing of a few years, but in certain aspects, the world will likely not be the same again.

Is it our right to demand our lives stay the same? To require that opportunities we had yesterday should be ours today as well? No, I believe. Of course, one cannot help feeling anger and sadness, when, due to perhaps refusal of others to get vaccinated, yet another lockdown comes. Of course, changing others is as easy as preventing our own aging, though, and venting our emotions on either is not much useful.

Humans have marvelous ability to live rich lives despite apparently bad odds. No chance this situation compares to the worst times in history — and yet, in those times, people found ways of being happy. What angers us is only the speed and suddenness of the change, given the relative calm of years prior.

Arguably, I am the one having it easier. I have never required much social activity, so I welcome the opportunity to spend more time with a book in a chair or going for a run in a forest, with everything else being locked down. Would that work for everyone? No. Would anyone benefit from a little more of that? Yes. It is well known that restrictions and challenges improve creativity. Try to find means of happiness that work for you in these times, whether that means more time alone, more time with those living with you, more time exploring opportunities online. Revisit your todo-lists of old, you may find happiness in pursuing things you at times wanted but never had time for before because more joyous immediate gratifications were at hand.

I am not in control of what opportunities I have, but I am in control of which of them I pursue and how.

And that consoles me.

That, however, does not mean I cease to care whether some of the restrictions we face are unjust, unlawful or downright stupid. It is my emotions and the nature of my spending of free time that I remove from this equation.

Amplification and Recency Bias

Humans are bad at grasping large scale events. Essentially, we are still tribespeople or animals, we understand things that affect us and those close to us, we understand short term effects. Despite our advances in modelling, psychology, statistics, reason and science overall — we still fail spectacularly at times to apply proper thinking.

One of those failures lies in ascribing more importance to events, which, to the fate of the world, don’t mean much. In this regard, this section runs slightly contrary to the previous one. Barring the, in my unqualified opinion unlikely, option that Covid will mutate and wipe mankind soon, it will likely be gone or contained with humans adapted, in a few years time. The society will be changed — but new problems, new events, new troubles will occupy our attention. Ask yourself — were you, at times, angry or sad comparably to your today’s levels, ten years ago? Do the respective causes trouble you today still, as they did then?

At times, the media get blamed for this. And the speed with which we obtain and demand information and reaction, contributed — we started with irregular heralds, we moved to weekly and daily newspapers, with TV we were granted breaking news many times a day, and nowadays networks like Twitter lure everyone to be a journalist and commentator, with what pretends to be a direct access to politicians and officials. There is no easy way to mitigate — media is our product, our reflection.

In a perversely intriguing way, Covid has revealed certain conflicts of opinions, conflicts of cultures, which were previously more dormant and invisible. We see large amounts of attention being granted to more or less obscure individuals or groups, with their motives being sometimes good intended but naive, other times hidden and sinister. Two forces are at play here. Firstly, with ease of making and maintaining connections online, we were lured to think that our tribe consists of minds mostly like ours. Secondly, with the appeal of conflict to both human media creators and automated feed generation algorithms, this is receiving more attention than it perhaps deserves, feeding itself even more.

Also, cruelly, the Covid seems to have accentuated our perception of the ineptness of those in charge, soured by our belief of knowing the right action better. We cry injustice, we require those we have elected to be as clever as we are. There were times, not long ago, when politicians did big talk and made decisions, but the world was going on on its own without regard. Nowadays, the power of lockdown made us again remember what is at hand. At some places, democracy itself is being discussed, failures of the governance model and rises of populism being mentioned.

I, of course, pity and abhor all those conspiracy theorists, who cause harm to themselves and others with their delusions. And I would, of course, be much happier if decisions of policy were made with more thought. But I refuse to have my day ruined because of the space stupidity has in my medial feed. Because it plays a tiny role on the grand scale of things, as does, in the end, Covid itself.

And that consoles me.

Do I advocate for ceasing to consume news and living in a cave? For refusing to participate in politics, to vote, to think how to be an active responsible citizen? Lol no. Manage your budget of attention, and don’t pursue what brings no benefit to you.

Conclusion

What you have read is at best a mediocre introduction to stoicism adapted to recent days, and at worst a literary exercise with a poor style. My trouble with stoicism texts, be they books or quotes, was that they often taste patronising, painting it so easy to simply say “I will keep calm”.

This one is no exception, I’m just flexing here.

But the point is not having your life changed upon reading this, or any other, essay. No, rather, you should, step by step, come to your own account and formulation of inner calmness; perhaps contributed to by this essay, perhaps by some others.

I may be wrong in most things, and maybe it is a better idea to be angry and agitated. Maybe Covid will kill us all, maybe Climate Change will, maybe social unrests and revolutions and wars will — and by many of us becoming stoics now, we will lose the single chance to prevent that. But even knowing of this possibility and acknowledging it, I choose to remain internally calm.