The State of the Union
Given the current state of affairs, I felt it appropriate to search out my raggedy-ear’d paperback copy of that old King classic The Stand. The parallels were just too uncanny to ignore and the similarities to the shit going on around the globe make you wonder about the reality of prescience. I mean, who woulda thought? A pandemic marching across the land, projections of up to a quarter of a million dead in the US alone, people drowning in their own fluids, social distancing, economic chaos and quarantine? It seems as if God has drawn a trick from up his sleeve from the 10 that He laid on those poor unsuspecting Egyptians. Strange times. Even toilet paper may become the new medium of exchange.
But my previously mentioned raggedy-ear’d copy couldn’t be found, so Kobo provided me with a reasonable facsimile. SK’s story starts with an oopsy moment that, in the (very brief) fullness of time, develops into a scenario that could happen here, apocalyptic economy and a decimated society turned upside-down.
Well, it is here and it is now, and it might possibly bring down empires.
Interesting thought. A careless sneeze might bring the mightiest nation the world has seen to its knees leaving a gasping, gaping vacuum to be filled. Told ya so. Thus far the consequences have not been as dire as King’s vision. True. Our neighbours to the south are witnessing fatalities in the tens (now hundreds) of thousands. Certainly bad, but not catastrophic. The social web and the global economy are going to be suffering for a very long time.
The cataclysmic clash of The Stand is not yet at hand unless some nut-cake senses a moment of weakness in the opposition and opts for the nuclear option. Then all bets are off. Just time enough for a good cigar and a bottle of fine single malt – maybe.
Previous excursions through The Stand’s bleak landscape, while for the most part depressing, did not have the immediacy that presents itself today.