Screaming Memes: Summary

The true pandemic crisis is in our heads

The present social crisis is so much more than a health emergency.

Seeing it as an economic, political, and civic phenomenon helps us come to grips with its true reality.

Above all, we need to confront the ideas in our heads, in order to create social change that enhances our prosperity and peace of mind.

There are so many ways to look at this time of pandemic, and memes, a form of idea contagion, are one way to bring order to perceptual chaos.

The most commonplace meme is pandemic as a health emergency, where an invisible enemy invades our very physical being and causes escalating suffering and death beyond recent compare.

The health sector does not sit in splendid isolation on this planet, however, and so we have quickly discovered to our horror that hiding from each other comes at a great social and economic cost: the money meme.

This profound shift brings up the next perspective on this odd time: the political meme and the way in which politics and policy have bolstered and shaped health and economic threats alike.

Where there are politicians, there are voters and votes to be had, and the civic meme is another way to look at this time of social crisis. This is how we interact with each other on a daily basis.

Finally, the deepest perspective on this time of crisis is the most nuanced. It basically urges us to look within ourselves to understand why things are so bad. This is the mental meme.

Ultimately, the pandemic is in our heads and that is the only place where we will find a viable solution.

Thankfully, we do not have to wait until the next mutation to fix these problems.

The time to think clearly and act is now.

We need to put in place societal changes that are preventive in nature, flexible, and effective, and that add, rather than subtract, from our prosperity and peace of mind.

End the lockdown, stop the isolation, return to work and play, let people self-select their levels of risk, allow public spaces to reflect community standards, let the mass market have its say, expose policy decisions to open criticism, and stop coercing people and collaborate instead.

Ask, don’t yell.

There is frankly a lot of work to be done, as the present track we are following is anything but these approaches. Let’s call that the meme to end all of these terrible memes.

The full article can be found here.