I began to film a test video the The Self-Isolation Blues last night, the first time in days I felt somehow normal. The night wa still rather anxious. A strange, pervasive, irrational anxiety. Do we all feel it now?
I managed enough snatches of sleep and deliberately got up late, to rest and dispel these anxiety aches. The day is lovely, the first day of spring, very sunny, though cold.
My first job was to announce the launch of Burn of God. I'll send off some review copies as soon as I can work out the postage, and how. Are Post Offices open? I could print out the postage but it is a little troublesome for tiny envelopes. I wrote another poem, Elvis, and recorded a second Blues' video, still not great, but better than nothing. I can't really spend days or weeks on this little thing. I'm pleased with the music. The piano parts were essentially three live takes: the intro, the verses, and the solo part in the middle.
I'll go to the shops later, and more shopping for the house tomorrow. Mum said to buy less than we need, to counteract the effects of the panic-buyers. A good idea.
I try to resist criticising the government too much, I must trust that everyone is trying their best, and not only that, they're all a bunch of idiots and fools that I can't remotely influence, so getting too involved would lead to unnecessary distress. However, they do seem to be doing the wrong thing, not learning from the Italian experience at all, and trying half-measures. Ireland seemed to do it right from the start; a total lock-down, emulating China (who, at great cost, had already worked out the best strategy), only then can restrictions be very gradually lifted in a very controlled way. Exponents are so difficult to control, and moving slowly, to learn about the virus properties, to build ventilators, develop treatments, build testing equipment, new hospital beds, new trainees; that can only be a good thing. I suspect that these half-measures will cost far more economically. Perhaps it's time to move to Ireland.
The economic impact is unimaginable, but all fiat economies are relative to each other; if the whole world's money fell by 50%, everything would be the same, it would merely feel like a crisis during the steps of fall, so perhaps it won't be as bad as it seems. Unlike a World War the infrastructure remains intact. The political situation now feels like a crazy quiz show, like an It's a Knockout of countries, each desperately racing to 'win'. It would be funny if so many people weren't dying, or facing its prospect.
