Zukunft u. Veränderung – Seite 7

How to accept Covid-19

We are now more than 8 months into the Covid-19 pandemic. And to cope with the negative impacts of the pandemic (besides real health impact by the virus) is not that easy, we got hit pretty hard, especially on all kind of social relationships.

So it is more the behaviours and actions we decided to execute on our society than the virus itself that has right now many negative consequences on our lifes. The whole pandemic thing has a lot of similarities to psychological patterns we see when someone experiences or will experience a huge loss. If we loose a friend or some important part of our life we go through stages of grief (see more about the Kübler-Ross Model of Grief at the bottom of this post). Warning: This model of grief never was scientifically proven to be right, nevertheless it seems to help to orient oneself towards the current situation.

On twitter some people tried to depict these stages as a public transportation map with different stops which simplifies what we are all going through right now (I took the idea a bit further and extended it by a second subway line, see image above). The difference between people right now is where on this subway line you are and how long you stay at each station.

Denial

If you are still in the denial state like those „Covidiots“ you actually did not move ahead, you did not even start. You are still in shock and fear and unable to see the change that happened. It is most likely that you do not even want to know WHAT a pandemic is and do not want anyone to teach you about it.

Anger

But most of us already passed the anger state already and have been frustrated, lost their job, live with anxiety and have no idea how to cope with the fallout of the pandemic. We are angry at the politicians which decided to restrict our freedom in favour for avoiding a health system breakdown.

Hope

Several people, especially the politicians and mass media tried and still try to provide the people with some kind of hope though they mostly had/have no clue and did already know that scientists were already searching for vaccincation methods on the category of corona viruses (there do exist a lot more than just Covid-19) for years. But nevertheless many people drank the koolaid and switched lines, they appreciated to go for state of hope to maybe reach cure and vaccination instead of trying to reach acceptance. Those people are now in deep trouble as the second wave and measures of lockdown hit us again. They now recognize that they took the wrong subway line, one that was still under construction and not yet ready to use.

Bargaining

For you to continue travel on the Covid-19 subway line you should not halt here for too long, rather try to stay aboard the train. Make a short stop then continue to acceptance state. I find the word „orientation“ also valid for this station. Try to exchange your feelings and experiences with others. Try not to cope with this alone and reach out to others. Orient yourself how all the others (friends, businesses, etc.) deal with it. Find out what the pandemic maybe offers as a positive side (for some people more home office, more digital communication, less travel are such things). If you recognize only the loss you have (freedom of movement, freedom of business, ect.) you miss that everyone else is also hit. Instead try to figure out how to minimize loss and carry on.

Depression

If you do not have a stable/resilient social context but are rather trying to cope with this on your own you may have left the train on bargaining station and instead now traveled to the state of depression. You think you cannot change anything, experience helplessness and everything appears to be doomed. You kind of experience a state of resignation. Warning, this is not rational! If you think you cannot do anything you are on a rational level wrong. You may not be able to do as much as you would like, but it is not nothing you can do. This is important. Try to go back to bargaining station as soon as possible. There is nothing in it for you at depression.

Acceptance

It’s actually not worth the effort to expect a quick change of how society will have to deal with this pandemic. So every expectation for a shortcut, e.g. switching lines to Hope and Cure & Vaccination will be a risky strategy, because that line is still under construction. The process of developing a vaccine usually takes a year for the normal flu. But in this case there already was research done on corona-class viruses for YEARS without any reasonable result. So I personally expect this to be an unreasonable hope to think we will soon have a cure & vaccine.

So what I did instead was going into acceptence state for the whole situation. It’s a bit like in these dystopian Hollywood movies where the planetary environment is mostly destroyed, hazardeous and dangerous. You cannot do anything about it or change it so why go into depression if you can have acceptance? It is like entering a life endangering part of the universe, like e.g. stratosphere, space or deep sea oceans, you need protection everytime you go there to stay alive.

So we better get the right protective gear like e.g. an FFP3 mask (see urbandoo.net) and a tiny bottle of desinfectant to carry around at all time and try to continue with life. We will be impacted by all the disadvantages an astronaut, a stratosphere ballooner or deep sea diver experiences, so we now have some clumsy gear if we go outside which hinders us in everyday things. Things which were easy now become a lot more difficult, like e.g. talking with a mask on, finding a non-hazardeous way to exercise doing sports and washing or hands much more often, also disinfecting surfaces and/or our hands often touched by many people etc.

The Model

The so called Kübler-Ross-model of grief comes instantly to my mind and I think that it helps to get oriented in the negative fallout we experience in this pandemic. Warning: This model of grief never was scientifically proven to be right, nevertheless it seems to help to orient oneself towards the current situation.

Anyway this…

Why do I blog this? From observing our media and the development of the number of infected people, I can easily deduct, that we are still in the acceleration phase of the pandemic development. We are kind of stuck in the acceleration phase because the only thing we can do right now is to slow the acceleration phase down in a way we can still deal with all the ill people in hospitals. I am kind a fed up with the Covidiots those people who still live in Denial/Anger and I wish those people would start thinking in a rational way about it. Hell a pandemic hit us! It’s no one’s fault, it just happened and it won’t go away any time soon. So get over it and accept that the world has changed… and damned wear a mask and keep distance.

Planetarer Kobayashi-Maru-Test

Was wenn unsere Zivilisation nur ein ausgefeilter Kobayashi-Maru-Test ist?

Wenn ich mir die tagtäglich dümmlichen Entwicklungen so anschaue, wenn ich mir offen eingestehen muss, dass wir sehenden Auges den Planeten zu Grunde richten wegen Geld, mit wir meine ich z.B. die 8 Personen, denen 50 Prozent des Geldes gehören (oder die top 10% denen 85% des Geldes gehören), wir also eine wunderbar ausweglose Situation geschaffen haben, in der die Menschen mit dem Geld alle Macht haben und die ohne Geld die Macht nicht ohne weiteres auf absehbare Zeit bekommen werden… dann denke ich morgends im Spiegel manchmal nur: „Das ist doch hier alles nur ein Kobayashi-Maru-Test.“

Das Leben im sterbenden Spätkapitalismus der in Superzeitlupe ausgeführten Finanzsystemkatastrophe fühlt sich wie eine permanente No-Win-Situation an. Es ist egal welche Entscheidung man in seinem eigenen eng umgrenzten Entscheidungsbereich trifft, es ändert nichts am Ergebnis. Da kann man GRÜNE, AfD, FDP, SPD, CDU, CSU oder Die PARTEI wählen… es bleibt eine No-Win-Situation, denn es ändert an den wahren Machtverhältnissen (Geld regiert die Welt nicht Politik.) leider nullkommanichts. Erinnert mich iregdwie an den Film „WarGames“, Ein merkwürdiges Spiel, der einzig gewinnbringende Zug ist… nicht zu spielen.

Nun, ich denke ich habe meinen persönlichen Kobayashi-Maru-Test noch nicht bestanden, denn ich weiß zwar dass ich nicht gewinnen kann ich versuche es aber trotzdem. Dabei müsste ich es eigentlich nur anständig hinnehmen, dass der Planet sich zu einer unwirtlichen Wüste entwickeln wird, die Menschheit krass dezimiert werden wird durch Umweltwirkungen die wir selbst ausgelöst haben. Ich müsste lediglich hinnehmen, dass sich das nicht mehr wird ändern lassen. Stattdessen glaube ich noch an einen positiven Ausgang irgendwie… statt das Spiel einfach nicht mitzuspielen, lasse ich mich fahrlässig darauf ein, ein gefährliches Spiel zu spielen, das weltweite Kobayashi-Maru-Szenario.

Nun da ich den Test aktuell nicht zu bestehen scheine (Hacken, „Schummeln“, Out-of-the-Box Denken, vor allem aber Out-of-the-Box handeln, brauchen irgendwie deutlich mehr Zeit als gedacht…)… wie sieht es denn mit dem Rest des Planeten aus? Auf den ersten Blick würde ich sagen haben wir ca. 90 Prozent der Weltbevölkerung die das Szenario noch begeistert spielt und denkt sie könnten durch bekanntes Denken und Handeln oder gar abgucken bei anderen einen Einfluss auf das Ergebnis nehmen. Ha! Das muss man sich echt mal geben… was also braucht es um den Test zu bestehen?

Unrelated

Update 8.12.2024

Siehe auch The thing about the Kobayashi Maru.

“The thing about the Kobayashi Maru is,” says Jim,“you have to remember it’s a simulation.”

“Everybody knows that, Jim”, Bones shoots back.

The medbay is dimly lit, the liquor is out. Typical end of shift.

“Everybody knows that, sure, but nobody really ponders the implications, do they?It’s a scenario. It was designed.”

“Same as any simulation Starfleet will put you through. What’s your point here?”

“My point is, why do officers have to go through the Kobayashi Maru, Bones? Whatdoes Starfleet expect?”

“Starfleet expects future captains to know that no win scenarios exist, that youhave to make sacrifices sometimes, and plan accordingly. They even tell you so.”

“That’s my point. The Kobayashi Maru scenario is a scenario, as the name implies.It’s a series of carefully placed hoops you have to jump through so you get your reward. A series of hoops thattells you sometimes you have to sacrifice people.”

“Or yourself…”

“Does it tell you that, Bones? Really? Here’s a statement from the officialdescription of the Kobayashi Maru scenario, I can quote it by heart : “The approaching cadet crew must decide whether to attempt rescue of the Kobayashi Maru crew — endangering their own ship and lives — or leave the Kobayashi Maru to certain destruction. If the cadet chooses to attempt rescue, the simulation is designed to guarantee that the cadet’s ship enters a situation that they will have absolutely no chance of winning, escaping, negotiating or even surviving.” — The no win scenario really begins once you decideto rescue people, Bones. And sure, the no win scenario is there for you to endure, and you won’t be punished forfailing to rescue the Maru. But there is a painless way to win: leaving the Kobayashi Maruto die, first thing.”

A moment passes as Bones stares at his drink.

“Okay, I get your point. It’s grim. But commanding a starship is hard work, andsometimes you have to face the music, Jim. Sometimes you just can’t save everybody.”

Jim smiles.

“It’s not even that. The No-win scenario kicks in as soon asyou decide to save anybody. It’s not something that could happen, basedon your previous decisions during the simulation. It’s a punishment for even trying to save the ship.”

“So?”

“So they tell you it’s about accepting a no win situation, facing the music andgrace under the ultimate pressure, but people do pass the test by letting the Kobayashi Maru to its fate. It’s alegitimate solution.”

“Sure, but…”

“AND,” Kirk interrupts, “it’s a simulation, remember? They didn’t take a realcivilian ship attack from the archives and put the parameters in. They designed the whole situation from theground up, with the explicit goal to provide future starship captains with the knowledgethat there are situations in which you should let the civilians die, lest your whole ship is lost. It’sconditioning, pure and simple.”

“That kind of situations happen, Jim”

Kirk takes a sip.

“Do they, Bones? We’ve been at this for three years. Tell me bones, how many timeshave we faced a real no-win situation? A certain death in face of helping people? I write the logs, Bones. Theanswer is never. Not once. Sure, we lost feathers, and couldn’t alwayssave everybody. But each time we made it, Bones, and each time, we saved people. The only reason the Maru is a no-win situation is because someone decided it should be. To makea point.”

Bones smiles and takes a sip. “You’ve got me, Jim. I’m all ears, what’s the realpoint of the Kobayashi Maru?”

He expects a triumphant James Tiberius Kirk inflicting his point, courtroom style.Instead, a grim expression falls upon the captain’s face.

“You know about my teenage years, Bones, everybody does. Even if they never raisethe subject around me.”

“The famine of Tarsus IV.”

Jim nods.

“After weeks and weeks of despair, our colony leader, Kodos, decided to kill halfthe colony, allegedly to spare the other half. A few days after the execution, the emergency relief fleetarrived. People still debate to this day whether Kodos did the right thing, you know? Likeit’s some kind of conversation starter. Some say that Kodos couldn’t have known, that he tried everything.”

“In a way, he did.”

“Did he?”

Another pause.

“Really, Bones: did he? I was there, Bones. I lived through the ordeal. I saw hispublic announcement to his own people. I saw the relief on his face once he was done. He didn’t try to find asolution to the famine, Bones. He just found the quickest way through it, consequences be damned.”

“From his point of view, maybe it was a humane thing to do, Jim.”

Kirk shoots back without even looking at his friend.

“How is it humane to murder the people you’ve been mandated to take care of, Bones?What point of view makes it okay?”

Bones stays silent.

“He didn’t make a hard choice, Bones. He didn’t solve any dilemma. He gave up on his people. That’s as simple as that. But there’s enough people out therethinking you don’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs, right? Here’s the thing with people like Kodos:they never break their own eggs. They always break everybody else’s. It’s all just excuses.”

Bones waited a few moments more, then

“So, the Kobayashi Maru?”

“The Kobayashi Maru. Whatever the good people at Starfleet tell you, the Maru isn’tabout accepting fate. It’s about putting starfleet first. Nobody will tell it like it is, but it’s how it works.Try to save civilians, you lose. Sure, those civilians are in a disputed sector, surrounded by several warshipsfrom a major political presence in the quadrant, while your ship is clearly insufficient for this kind ofintervention.”

“I was going to say.”

“But it’s on purpose! It was designed that way! It was designed so that the momentyou give one damn, one single damn about the civilian ship, you lose.Well — you don’t actually lose, but what maxim will you get out of it? “A civilian shipisn’t worth losing a starfleet vessel or messing up a complex spatio political situation.” And you know what? Itmakes it okay to decide not to try it. To forfeit our first responsibility towards civilians. Eventually, thismakes Kodoses out of all of us. I call that bullshit.”

“I can see why you would. Is that why you cheated?”

Kirk smiles a courtroom smile again.

“I cheated so I got caught.”

Bones bursts into laughter. “You never told me that!”

“Never told anyone. But I wanted to present my case in front of the authority.”

“And your case was?”

“The Kobayashi Maru isn’t a simulation. It’s propaganda in video game form, andit’s conveying a way of doing things that shouldn’t be part of Starfleet, whether it was intended to by itsdesigners or not.”

“How did that go?”

Kirk takes a sip.

“All these years and they didn’t change anything to the Maru, did they?”

“Indeed, they didn’t. And you still made it to captain.”

“I sure did. So what does that tell you?”

“They couldn’t prove you wrong, but would never admit it officially.”

“And here I am.”

“Here you are.”

Both finish their drinks.

“This attitude of yours, Jim — it’s going to come back around and bite you in theass, you know that?”

“If there’s any justice in this galaxy? I sure hope so.”