2020 (1) – Prologue: Natural Selection

As it turned out, my next trip to the lakes would be in the midst of a pandemic.

2019 was the year the infamous COVID-19 virus decided that human beings made an excellent growth medium.  By the spring of 2020, it was blossoming forth in the fertile fields of human biology.  The “coronavirus” was insidiously stealthy and contagious, and we were such excellent vectors, that our cells appeared to have evolved for the purpose of its replication.  Our ubiquitous, highly mobile bodies provided a convenient public transportation system for a creature so tiny it couldn’t get around on its own.  But who were we to complain about being exploited by another organism?

Homo sapiens as a species reached its apex a generation ago, as we developed beyond the abilities of our environment to sustain us.  We have invaded and completely taken over a self-contained living system, by repurposing its resources solely for our own benefit.  The attrition of rapid growth and development weighs heavily on our souls.  Now that our host has been ravaged, we look outward to replicate and propagate throughout the Solar System… and beyond.  All at once, our progress has been interrupted by a novel microorganism that appears to have been created in response to our destructive tendencies.  Which is the real virus, and which is the treatment?  Could this be Earth’s immune system in action, fighting to rid herself of the human pathogens that threaten her natural equilibrium?  The pandemic unfolded as if the planet had a built-in, biological circuit breaker that was tripped whenever a species became too dominant and destructive to the ecosystem.  Human beings, by pushing further and further into places where they didn’t belong, and coming into contact with unaccustomed species, had activated an ancient and infallible safety protocol.  The Anthropocene created the “anthro-cleaner.”

Perhaps we’d be given a second chance.  It’s possible that Earth herself is the teacher that appears when the students are ready.  Individually, we are all here on this planet to learn a lifetime of lessons, and perhaps there is also a collective lesson to be learned by our entire species.  Either way, the curriculum appeared to be custom-tailored for the situation we had made for ourselves.  Most of those who died from the coronavirus had preexisting, underlying conditions resulting from an overindulgent lifestyle.  Hypertension, smoking, obesity… these all made a person more susceptible to the fatal effects of the pathogen.  Was this an evolutionary culling in action?  Or was it simply karma on a massive, planetary scale?

The motive of the Teacher was clearly demonstrated by the instant effects of disrupting human society.  Within a very short period of time – a fraction of the planet’s heartbeat – most everyone was compelled to stop what they were doing and shelter in place.  Almost immediately, after the restless hominids ceased their rampant consumerism and industrial pillaging, the environment made a brief, but significant comeback.  Wild animals wandered curiously into the empty streets and parks of the suburbs.  The air cleared up from fewer waste particles being emitted by automobiles, jets, and factories.  Bodies of water were healing, too, in a way that invited dolphins to cruise down the canals of Venice.  A weary Earth subdued her seismic shuddering with the sudden decline in human activity.  She showed us that she could heal very quickly if we let her.  It was clear she was responsive, and very much capable of taking care of her own needs when given the chance.  In the midst of all the tragedy and drama of thousands of people dying each day – most of them alone and suffering without their families or loved ones – all of humanity was being given a gift.  An opportunity to redeem ourselves, and recognize the errors of our ways before it was too late.  Would the next generation take better care of the environment, or resume the path of wanton destruction?

America was headed into one of the most unpredictable periods in its history.  Our country might not survive the tsunami of social unrest that was swelling on the horizon.  My backpacking trip would be a way to escape for a while from the hyperbolic media, and the wary eyes of stressed-out people.  However, I might not return to the same society from which I was seeking refuge.  Certainly, the elections in the fall would seal our fate – for good or evil.  Either way, the nation known as the United States of America might not survive its own entropy.  If the government fell apart, the laws and agencies protecting the wilderness would dissolve, as well.  With all the guns purchased during the lockdown, parts of the country could eventually be ruled by armed gangs of rugged survivalists.  The wild, undeveloped lands shall require stalwart stewardship to mitigate a sudden influx of people fleeing the dangerous, toxic cities.  I may need to be ready to relocate to the Bear Lakes on a more permanent basis.  It would be prudent to prepare for such an eventuality.  My plan would not be to defend the Trinity Alps from intruders, but to avoid human contact and live off the land like a native; praying for them from a distance as long as I could, until I succumbed to the privations of flesh and returned my atoms to the universe.

The last weeks leading up to my trip were some of the worst this country had ever seen.  Riots in the streets, openly hostile political hypocrisy, and long lines for food banks.  Nearly 2 million people were infected with COVID-19, and over 40 million unemployed.  It was the worst possible time to have the worst possible leader – an idiotic, racist narcissist who tweets hate out of his ass.  As if the social trauma of the worst pandemic in over 100 years weren’t enough, white privilege and police brutality had pushed the majority (people of color) to the limits of their tolerance.  I wondered if there would even be a country when I got back!

The riots came as a visceral reaction to cell phone video of a black man, George Floyd, being murdered in the street by four Minneapolis police officers.  Not suddenly or violently, as with guns or car chases, but slowly, deliberately, emphatically, as one officer knelt on the man’s neck for over 8 minutes, while three other officers held him down.  George, a big strong man, died weeping and calling for his mother, begging repeatedly, “I can’t breathe.”  It was a stunning, unbelievably cruel display of institutionalized evil, played over and over again on millions of screens all across the country.  Understandably, the oppressed African-American communities went ballistic with grief and rage.  Hundreds of thousands took to the streets in protest.  They were joined in their outrage by citizens of all races, classes, and professions – including cops.  Tragically, a dark and sinister underbelly of chaos took advantage of the crowds in the streets, and began looting, burning, and causing mayhem.  News reports cannot be fully trusted, but some said that those who perpetrated crime and violence were not from the local communities.  Could they be mercenary white-supremacist hate groups, seeking to make the peaceful protesters look bad and thwart their noble purpose?  Whatever the motives, it was turmoil on an unprecedented scale.  Part of downtown Seattle was taken over by anarchists who declared their new territory as a “Police Free Zone.”

Four hundred years of black oppression and discrimination in this country reached its boiling point in the summer of 2020, starting on Memorial Day.  African-Americans, Latinos, Caucasians, and passionate humans of all creed and color released their pent-up frustration with the symbolic bondage of quarantines, shutdowns, and stay-at-home orders, and took to the streets by the tens of thousands.  From coast to coast, State and local governments already stretched thin by fighting a pandemic were overwhelmed by a surging tidal wave of social upheaval.  The Federal government was worse than useless, as the President fanned the flames of the conflagration with vitriolic tweets, saber-rattling grandstanding, and bizarre acts of self-aggrandizement.

The coronavirus took to the streets as well, and enjoyed the increased convenience of spreading in an atmosphere of shouting, shoving, and close contact.  Even more, it took advantage of the idiots who still got together and partied like it was the end of the world, and then brought it home and shared it with others.  Particularly in the over-privileged Western countries, many people refused to simply wear a mask and practice social distancing, proclaiming loudly that it infringed upon their “rights.”  Most people considered their personal freedoms to be more important than public health.  Everyone has the right to die of natural selection, but not to assault others with an infectious disease.   America was finally paying the price for under-funding its education system for decades.  For in a pandemic, as a society, we are only as healthy as our stupidest people.