Ah, in the grand scheme of things my suffering is absolutely miniscule. I come from a large family (4 brothers, 4 sisters, 4 parents and countless close extended family members) with pretty diverse life experiences, philosophies, priorities and current realities, so it's pretty much impossible to get too down about things from my perspective. It's why I've never been sure what the right approach to deal with this is.
For those of us living alone there was the experience of social isolation that was previously unimaginable, for those of us with young kids there was the experience of an outrageous amount of juggling between work, childcare and selfcare (and in one case, a new and very difficult pregnancy on top!).
For those of us with normal jobs it's been an adjustment to new working conditions, stresses and job security, for those of us in hospitals it's all of that with an outsized responsibility and constant sense of impending doom, for those of us who were struggling to get jobs before the pandemic it's an absolute hammer blow to be competing against far more people for many fewer jobs, for those of us who are just about to leave education there's the prospect of one the worst job markets in a generation.
And while people are particularly quick to ignore or dismiss the lives of retirees on here, most of them haven't had as much to lose, but in many cases they've lost the only thing that really matters to them now: human bonding, particularly with grandkids. My granny's 89 living out in the country in an oversized house her late husband built, physically frail but mentally sharp, and she's essentially dealing with a kind of isolation that no-one in her lifetime had ever experienced before. And naturally changes in policy impact us all very differently too.
There's absolutely no part of society that has avoided suffering, but the reality is my biggest sacrifice has just been my social life. I'd never realised how much I'd taken it for granted that my life relied on me being able to see mates essentially whenever and wherever I wanted. I've all sorts of freedom but I hadn't appreciated the value of that social network. So I'll appreciate that more going forward. But there's too many people in my circle that have sacrificed that and lost much more severe things. So I do take on their struggles to some degree, but it pales in comparison. And it is just the case that millions of people are losing a shitload.
That's what grates me about the extremes on either side. They can see the callousness of one side discounting the value of long, healthy lives in old age, and the other side can see the callousness in discounting the severity of human suffering that comes with not being able to afford to live, but neither side acknowledges those joint-truths. They just point out one aspect of callousness and use it to attack the other. We don't have the right answers, even the experts. Surely it's helpful in maintaining social unity during a crisis to at least accept that one basic truth.
Yeah, it's not so much a conscious thought as a general underlying belief. Not that different to a spiritual belief. Yeah you can point out specific instances where it's not true, but they're just the exceptions that prove the rule, or you're quibbling over details, it's the big picture that matters. It's a difficult one to wrestle with!
