What all does shutdown portend for us?

One small consolation this morning: there is no fierce wind blowing. Perhaps the conditions will lend themselves to a short pleasant walk. The temperature ought to be higher than it is. We need to break the shackles of our confined living spaces.
We learn that the shutdown could continue to a certain extent into 2022. And there appears little certainty about the future, really. The virus does not accede to our wishes. The Pope thinks it might have something to do with climate change. I have admired Catholicism because it celebrates large families and people on a truly populist level, led by the current Pope. But of course that faith has been shattered in a profound way - you know what this alludes to. So sad.
I have strongly felt that formal education will be judged far less important as time passes. The Internet is a 24/7 resource for kids to learn and for adults to keep from going mad. It's so easy to forget how things used to be. One of my personal traits is to remember and reminisce in a way that gives helpful perspective. People my age seem proud to say "we all got by" in pre-digital times. But we were limited in so many ways that we are now inclined to forget.
I grew up in cynical times. We so often expected the worst outcome with things. We had a president who talked about our "malaise." I graduated from high school right at the time when American society decided it should allow younger people to consume alcohol. Today we'd be aghast at any such suggestions. How could our minds be programmed so different then?
Many of my peers today would say "who cares?" - that was then and we have to live in the present. True. But if we were inclined toward certain undesirable attitudes or habits in times past, we must file that away as a relevant part of our makeup. We make mistakes. We falter. We are vain and short-sighted. My point here is that, despite what I'm sure would be firm denials, our current situation will cause a slide into 1970s-style cynicism again. An anger may begin bubbling up. Imagine our kids being denied school and organized activities of the type we've just assumed. It's wiped out almost overnight? Actually literally overnight.
And the experience is still so new, maybe a part of us wants to adjust and accept. We're talking about months that are going to roll by apparently with little change in our circumstances.
In contrast with the '60s and '70s, my growing-up time, we have gotten conditioned to reflexive optimism in the last 30 or so years. We cannot assume this will continue as the norm. We are flawed human beings as the Christian faith always reminds us. Our kids are at home now and one thing we ought to notice is that the star athletes are no different from the kids who don't get cloaked in that kind of special attention. And you know what? I think the kids might like that aspect of it, though it's only a tiny crumb of consolation.
Kids who are "slow" academically need not worry about being stigmatized now. In the privacy of their homes, they are more in position to advance their learning at their own pace. They can retreat and go through things more than once, before advancing to the next level. A tutor might have helped me with math skills when I was a kid. Or, a fun and user-friendly book for kids about math, such as what actress Danica McKellar ("The Wonder  Years") has written.
My mind is inclined toward such second-guessing thoughts about my life now, as I feel we are all so inclined, as the pandemic slows things to a crawl, keeps us indoors and makes us realize our mortality more, our quite limited time in this life.
We have gone from setting such high expectations for the public school and college experiences for our youth, to living without those institutions almost completely. I will predict that as time goes on and kids deal with online learning more and more, families will want to be left alone by the formal taxpayer-supported education institutions. We may realize sooner than would happen otherwise, that these elaborate, overhead-heavy systems are actually a big and rather regressive vestige of our pre-digital lives.
A portion of our society was so focused on high school sports. People streamed into gymnasiums to watch just a few kids engage in competitions vs. other towns, as if it were gladiatorial sparring in some way. How ridiculous, because these kids from different communities should be encouraged only to feel comity with each other. Sports is now wiped from the brains of this significant faction of school-oriented people. Gone. In a heartbeat. Gone with the wind. The sports "stars" who get glorified constantly in the local media are now putting their pants on one leg at a time, like all the other kids whose talents or inclinations lie elsewhere. It's a nice equalizer but also sad as it reminds of our usual habits.
Speaking of local media, I haven't seen the Morris paper in a month. Usually I'll look at it when at the library, the senior center or church. Amazingly those institutions are wiped out. Like so much else: gone with the wind. You had better get used to this for a long time. I am fortunate to have a laptop at home. Please be sure to support Mobiz. But as the current shutdown continues, I'm wondering if there should be one really reliable and go-to place for local news.
Remember, the media businesses rely on revenue to justify everything they do. The radio station site is by far the best now, but perhaps it could be made better. The incentive for this? That is a good question. Maybe financial incentive is not completely necessary. Just because there is a need doesn't mean someone has to make a profit filling it. Unlike the past, before digital, overhead costs are not essential for reaching the mass public.
Our Chamber of Commerce like all such groups has taken steps toward meeting the need. More could be done. The Chamber of Commerce has financial incentive in the sense it can build up its image or relevance by serving the public.
The shutdown for the pandemic is greatly accelerating the shift to online-base systems, such as for churches reaching their congregations. However, all might not be rosy for our local churches long-term, as surely people can get their spiritual enrichment from unlimited sources far beyond their own local bricks and mortar church. It's ditto with education, 100 percent, as young people do not need to rely on a particular bricks and mortar place with local teachers. Young people can tap into the greatest education possibilities by searching online. People have experienced life-changing learning by just going on YouTube. Really!
And the education establishment will fight back, scoffing at such notions because they see their comfortable little fiefdoms threatened. Such fiefdoms won't have a prayer long-term against the immense inevitable forces coming down on them. Our shutdown will expedite that in ways that will be a boon for most of us, but devastating for the protectors of those fiefdoms.
We are all still so new to our "shutdown" world. Aren't you scared by the effects this will begin having on all of us? I have envisioned crime, gangs, mobs and warlords. Of course we never know what actually lies ahead. It could be the '70s-style cynicism and defeatism? Remember "Studio 54?" As Count Floyd of SCTV would say, "Brrr, scary."

The ideal perspective
Remembering the past is instructive, and putting it side by side with the present. For most of my life, the mayor character in "Jaws" was seen as such a caricature, so implausible to consider, it diminished the movie. He wanted to keep the beaches open for the sake of the local economy. A caricature? I certainly thought so, but today we have a governor of Florida who behaves exactly like this, and it seems only a minor issue, not an outright disgrace.
What has become of all of us? Republican lawmakers seem inclined to think in these terms. Yet they say they're "pro-life." Very, very strange. We worship at the altar of the stock market, the "Dow Jones," virtually daily. Someday we might see history books showing our America of today as the equivalent of Sodom and Gomorrah. I think we need someone like Jimmy Carter.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com