I guess that nobody would have expected that rewriting the original Batman stories would become a necessity by 2020. Some god-forsaken soul was roaming through the dark and unholy realms of Wuhan Market for Black Magic (or something along that way), looking for a carnivoruous treat that promised to give him some special powers. Between a wide variety of equally abhorrent delicacies, the person of interest traded the “Winged Bat-soup” for his soul. The unusually sinister-looking seller had explained the volatile nature of the beast at hand and guaranteed that its ability to conquer the air by lifting itself from the ground would be transferred to whomever would consume the beast’s wings. After having the cough of his life, this person must have reconsidered his (or her) life choices. Maybe it would have been better to pick the badger’s spleen with all of its ferocity, or the otter’s noses for perfect respiration (we’re still talking about China), or possibly the lark’s vomit for whatever sick purposes. Anyway, our pitoyable bastard experienced a very unhealthy situation, that, if it hasn’t killed him on the spot, must have at least contributed to the realisation of two things: First, eating the last rubbish in the most hellish part of China right after The Party’s headquarters probably isn’t the best idea; second, it’s rather a good idea to read the fine-print. Even though the “Winged Bat-soup” hadn’t given him wings (at least, there’s no evidence of it), it’s volatility has so far done its best to unbelievably annoy every living soul on this planet.
I should apologise for the harsh language. It could be worse though.
How exactly a probably awful-tasting flying mammal that inspired comic book producers in the USA as well as Bram Stoker’s amazing Dracula (and all of the fanfiction included) could once again impact the culture worldwide could not have been expected.
Except that it could have.
Koyanisqaatsi, the title of a ground-breaking and longbreathed film and also an old-Indian saying meaning as much as “the world out of balance” or “a state of life that calls for another way of living”, feature no actors whatsoever but nothing but long cuts of the terrors of modern society and what it means to the natural balance. Its climax shows the Challenger Rocket during its short aim for the stars that had it exploding and its crew tumbling down in a burning wreck. It’s hardly surprising that a film that was released 40 years ago (!) had already forseen the outcome of humanity’s actions. It had predicted the brutal end of our species and the millions of other species that we took into the abyss with us. We haven’t changed our habits so far. Quite the opposite is the case: We’ve stepped up our pace at destroying the world with a fervour, that has no equal in nature. The one thing that differentiates animals and humans for sure is our insatiable hunger for more and our sociability. Feelings can be spread across continents with great ease and unify all humans, despite our seemingly divergent nature. The surge for more has entered the hearts of the majority, the capitalst ideology has gone beyond what it was actually supposed to be and infested our civilisations like a virus.
In our hunger for excitement we forgot the meaning of humbleness. In a collectivised strive for ever more and more, the boundaries of what can be described as “compatible” for a coexistence with all of nature’s wonders has long ago been disrespected and overshot. An old friend of mine once told me about his outstanding skills at finding cheap flights and how he flew to Denmark to visit Legoland and come back days later: at a price of 2€. At this price, even the poorest among us could witness the world’s marvelous and manifold beauty. While the social movement should be welcomed – the proletariat has broken its chains – , the universal freedom comes at a heavy price. We abandoned our calm nature and reason for a metropolitan dream that devours the world’s beauty and our self-satisfaction. Everyone was under constant pressure to live up to a unfathomable universally-percieved expectation, though its realisation would have gone by completely unnoticed by the individual, as there would have been no more time to bathe in the feeling of gratitude or whatever feeling one so much desired.
During this rush, we forgot or ignored the dangers of our actions. That some sick creep ate an animal clearly not made for consumption – as are all animals – is just the peak of a glacier of unspeakable ignorance towards everything we once held dear. The ignominies of what Chinese traditional medicine is, however, no more repelling than certain sick Western movements, such as the anti-vaccs abnormalities. Instead of accepting the miracle of proven medicine, some maniac mothers found it wisenot to vaccinate their children in fear of possible autism (which, by the way, has no foundings) and therefore opening the medical world to a new dimension of horrific sicknesses that have long been thought dead. All those fanatic small-pox denying fuckers can just as well go jump off a cliff, along with the shameful beings that go shopping in such places.
This all-encompassing practices just perfectly demonstrates the ignorance towards natural boundaries and a complete disrespect for the scientific progress that we achieved in all those thousands of years of research. It is probable that, had some Chinese people not dug too creedily and too deep (you damn know what they awoke there), we would have continued our human strive towards our own complete annihilation… and that of millions – if not billions – of wonderfully innocent lifeforms that populated the world in a more or less peaceful way before humanity started to take roots.
We should thank the calamity that befell our societies. Not for killing our elderly or sick. Not for making medical personnel do an incredible work-load that could have been avoided. Also not for putting hundreds of thousands of smaller businesses and its employees at an existential risk.
Of course not.
We could, however, for once welcome the absence of violence on a global scale (while ignorning some wild fantasies involving conspiracies and racial hate), the sudden and unexpected speed at which politics CAN function, or the international help that’s being offered without any ulterior motive (great respect to the Cuban doctors that were transferred to Italy to fight off the ever-increasing death toll).
The virus and all inconveniences involved (the curfew for example) can signify a global change in directions, a change in our aims and aspirations, a change in our expectations towards ourselves and not some world-wide sense of mindless exuberance. Before the ecosystem fails on a global state, the crisis has pathed the way for a different, more laid-back lifestyle that has been widely discussed, but hasn’t come to play a significant role. The time in curfew can be used to establish a new train of thought on a global level. As you can observe, the Earth keeps on spinning without global military conflicts and an inacceptable exploitation of our common mother’s soils.
One might say that the current situation is not only one that should be handled with care and foresight, but can also introduce us to a brave new world. At the moment we’re holding a shotgun to our heads while taking a selfie with the other hand – and everyone’s dumbly looking at it, deaf to specialist’s advices that this may not be the best of ideas and that someone should stop this madness.
I’m trying to say that sometimes we should be happy with the prospect of climbing a tree instead of traveling all the way to Sumatra for a weekend trip.
Stay safe, keep your distance from other people’s pestillence and make the best of your quarantine days.
Don’t end up like Marlon Brando:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-bvNttwAUc
NoMethDragon 