Good post CU Tiger. A few points that strike me.
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Originally Posted by CU Tiger
s. Ive read that 40,000 people die every year in car crashes. 13 in every 100,000 people die every single year in auto accidents. We all know someone who has died in a car wreck I suspect. And it doesnt lessen the tragedy, but it also doesnt consume our consciousness. In fact we hardly ever stop to think about it beyond a wreath on the side of the road.
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Sure. Over half a million die each from heart disease and cancer. The difference between those and your examples and a pandemic is that they aren't contagious. Normal living doesn't materially affect other people dying from that. It does in a pandemic. That doesn't explain all of the difference, but it's a good part of it.
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Originally Posted by CU Tiger
I just wonder if in a simpler time it would have even registered. In a rural ag community such as mine, its just about planting time. And I can imagine that being all grandpa thought about. With an occasional cursory thought to "those poor folks in Nw York battling that virus"..and maybe I selfishly long for that life.
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I think this is true, but that there's more to it. Globalization has brought with it many benefits, and also challenges. In fact, there are more pandemics now because of the fact that we continue pushing into parts of the world where wildlife was previously left undisturbed … including the viruses they carry. Two generations ago, much less back in 1918, we didn't expect as much from medical science in terms of stopping premature deaths, prolonging life, etc. We also didn't have all the modern benefits we get from global trade. All of that is part and parcel of the increased connectedness - life just used to be harder, and in general shorter. Any random infection could kill you, nevermind malaria, tuberculosis, polio, etc. One of the reasons cancer and heart disease are such a problem
now is that so many more people even live long enough to have such issues.
I have no issues with the nostalgia, I just think we should remember that there was a price paid for that style of life.