The Emergency Disaster Crisis

One reason I don’t pay much attention to the news is that just about everything being reported on is an emergency, a disaster, a crisis! I like to run them all together and say that we’re in the midst of an Emergency Disaster Crisis.

Naturally, what you consider part of the Emergency Disaster Crisis is a matter of personal disposition and ideological affinity: climate, inflation, COVID-19, crime, immigration, censorship, education, populism, elitism, racism, sexism, Big Tech, Big Government, housing, homelessness, poverty, drugs, religion, war, the singularity, and so on ad infinitum. However, it seems that almost everyone agrees on one thing: the sky is falling!

This kind of sensationalism grabs our attention because we humans are hardwired to worry about imminent danger, but it ignores the boring truth that most of human history has been devoted to the fine art of muddling through.

Ayn Rand once said “Don’t bother to examine a folly – ask yourself only what it accomplishes.” As far as I can see, the folly of the Emergency Disaster Crisis accomplishes several things:

• It keeps most people in a state of constant anxiety.
• Those people are more likely to embrace extreme proposals.
• Rampant extremism ensures that people are constantly fighting each other.
• This, in turn, prevents people from looking into true causes and reasonable solutions.

The cynic in me says that this is all very convenient for those in power. The philosopher in me observes that the more I avoid belief in the Emergency Disaster Crisis, the more likely it is that I can achieve intellectual moderation and emotional equilibrium. And, much as I wish I could change the world, at least I can try to change myself.