Contagion: Conspiracy Theories

www.skeptic.com

      Whenever there are events, like this pandemic, that impact, shock, and stun everyone it is inevitable that conspiracy theories will rise and gain traction.  People are searching for rhyme or reason in such times.  We look insights and understanding as why things happen so we can find some kind of assurance, stability, and even closure in the knowing.  This applies even if the reasons and explanations are nefarious.   In my lifetime, I have seen such theories about the Kennedy assassination, the moon landing, and 9-11 to name just a few. 

Now, we have them about this pandemic. 

What makes for a good conspiracy theory?  I am no expert but, as you all have suspected, I have no problem playing one in my own blog. 

First off there has to be an event or happening for which people are stunned and bewildered.  This virus has caused a pandemic and we don’t know why.  We don’t do well when there are no clear and simple explanations and even more so where there no easy solutions.  We are used to serious issues and problems being solved completely and permanently in the time span of a feature film.  We want and long for easy answers and quick solutions. 

This virus has disrupted our lives and our economy for two months.  No one can tell us with much reliability how much longer it will last.  We find ourselves asking and being asked a lot of questions for which there are no good answers.  Is it nature? An inevitability of overpopulation?  Was it perpetrated by a known group or an unknown sinister cabal wanting to create chaos to gain power, control, or money? 

We ae confused and worried about the future.  We are worried about our health and the health and well-being of our loved ones.  We are worried about our livelihoods. 

Second, the conspiracy story has to plausible.  It should be founded on some truths and able to pivot at key points of the narrative in the direction the authors want it to go.  Not only does it have to be plausible, but it needs that pivotal catalyst or accelerant.

Accelerant?  Catalyst?

A good theory needs a revelation of a secret that like a missing piece of the puzzle, brings the whole thing into focus.  The secret has to introduce a bad guy or a bad organization, that cabal I spoke of, that masterminded and perpetrated the crime.  Yes, the secret must make the event at hand a crime and reveal who was behind it and why.  It must make it all make some semblance of sense.

Speaking of films and novels, we love a good conspiracy.  Good conspiracies and heroes bustitng them up and delivering justice make for gripping action narratives.  I love them myself.  Have all these films and novels sensitized us to yearn for conspiracy theories at times like this?  Or, are films and novels are simply a response to some collective deep seeded belief and dread that we are but mere pawns of the groups that actually control things. 

The whole thing must be revealed into the mainstream but not from the mainstream media as, naturally, they cannot be trusted.  The revelation must come from an anonymous, overlooked, or discredited source.  This adds to the drama and creates the aura of a deep dark secret being revealed just to you… and millions upon millions of others at the same time.

With regard to this pandemic, are we just sheep as many suggest?  We were told to stay home and for the most part we did.  I kind of thought when I ventured out all the bridges and roads would be fixed.  Cleary, it is not that kind of conspiracy.  Are there any conspiracies that want to make things better?

It has been two months in this pandemic new normal.  We are all worried, frustrated, and not sure what the future holds.  We want a return to life as we knew it.  We want to be out and with people.  We want to watch sports, go shopping, and to socialize.  As there is no clear path out of this because of all the unknowns, we are ripe for the kinds of conspiracies clogging up social media lately.

Oh and one last thing, did I mention it is an election year?

Contagion: Random Thoughts

  

   Opening Up the Economy:  We are trying to open, to come out of the lockdown, to get the economy moving, and return to normal.  Different states and municipalities are taking different approaches and moving at different rates to open based on how much the pandemic impacted them.

There is no clear-cut path on how to do this.  The news media is not much help.  As our President is pushing this, MSNBC believes it is the most irresponsible policy ever implemented in the history of mankind.  Fox News takes a completely opposite stance in their support of his efforts.  The truth is somewhere in the murky middle.

We have to do something.  We have to begin to see how to bring the economy to life again at some point.  Otherwise, we risk jeopardizing the food supply chains.  That would be a game changer for sure. To what degree might this happen?  In what time frame?  No one can predict.

On the other hand, if people are out and about patronizing stores, restaurants, and other businesses, there is some real risk that the incidence of Covid-19 cases may spike up again.  No one can state to what degree this will or will not happen.  We are simply going to slowly and cautiously emerge and see what happens.  The precautions vary across the country but are mostly in line with The White House and CDC Guidelines for Opening Up America Again.

We are moving forward and shall see how this turns out.

People are getting Cabin Fever:  People are tired of the isolation.  They are tired of the lockdown.  They are tired of being cooped up at home.  If they are not working from home, they are bored out of their minds while being scared of their finances.  People working from home and managing their children’s remote schooling are run ragged. 

 People want to get back to what is or was normal.  Most of us are behaving ourselves and generally following the protocols.  In several states, there have been protests against the lockdowns.  They are claiming that their freedoms have been curtailed and enough is enough.  In a recent Michigan demonstration, the protesters were armed and entered the state capital building.  Also in Michigan security guard was murdered for having turned away people from a Flint Family Dollar Store for not having a mask as required by state law.  What is going on in my home state?

Around here, in the North Shore suburbs of Chicago.  We are still in lockdown officially, but the lockdown is a bit more relaxed with each passing week.  When I have the occasion to drive around (note that I used a whopping three-eighths of tank of gas in seven weeks), I see more and more people out driving each time I am out.  The parking lots of the grocery stores are almost as full as they would have normally been.  If the weather is good, many people are out walking, running, or biking.  As of this month, we are supposed to all wear masks in public.  This past weekend on a Saturday drive, I saw a policeman, unmasked, talking to a driver he had just pulled over.

Murder Hornets?  Are you kidding me?  On top of all this, a leading news story earlier this year was that Asian Murder Hornets have been spotted in the Pacific Northwest.  Like the Emerald Ash Bore before them, these invaders hitched a ride with some of the millions of containers that make their way from China to us.  They are the size of my thumb, one of these sting multiple times and packs like seven times the venom of our pedestrian American hornets.  The kill fifty people a year in Japan.  Furthermore, the live off of honeybees and could decimate that already fragile and vital part of our agricultural chain.   

On the positive side, per the New York Times, they fry ‘em up either larva or adult and eat them in Japan.  With hot sauce?

Roger Maris: 61 in 61

1961 Topps Baseball card

     When the baseball season started in 1961, I was only seven years old and in the second grade.  I would turn eight in mid-season.  My Dad was a big sports fan of all Detroit and Boston teams.  I was still a few years away from become a serious Detroit Tigers and Red Wings fan.

I do believe I started to collect baseball cards about that year.  Many of my classmates were into it.  As it seemed fun, and all the guys were talking about it, I started doing it as well.   I believe it was a nickel for five cards and a piece of bubble gum.  The popular brand of that era was Topps.  There were also baseball cards on the back of certain Post cereal boxes.  I collected some of them as well.  The cereal box cards were a distant second to the Topps cards in terms of quality including not having that distinctive bubble-gum smell.  I never had a great collection, maybe thirty or so cards a year.   Many friends and classmates had many more.   This was all well before the collecting of baseball cards became an adult the crazy obsession it was in the 1980s and 90s.

It was through the collection of baseball cards that I got to know the names of the various baseball teams and players.  I got to know the big stars like Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, Whitey Ford, and Willie Mays were because the guys were excited when they got one of these cards and they showed them off.   I especially got to know the stars of the hometown Detroit Tigers like Norm Cash, Frank Lary, Rocky Colavito, Jim Bunning, and Al Kaline who just passed away this year.  I was sure even then that Topps limited the number of Al Kaline cards in Michigan to keeps us buying cards in the hope of landing a coveted Kaline card.

Part of the second-grade guy talk about baseball cards was the lore and legend of whose older brother or uncle had a classic old card.  That is when I first learned about the likes of Ty Cobb, Hank Greenburg, Dizzy Dean, Lou Gehrig and, of course, Babe Ruth.  Babe Ruth, the sultan of swing, the man and legend, was the holder of the single season and lifetime home run record.

It was that year, 1961, that I learned who Roger Maris was and of the furious race between himand his Yankee teammate, Mickey Mantle, to break Babe Ruth’s single season home run record.  While Colavito is rarely mentioned in that race, he did slug an impressive 45 home runs that same year.  But, as we all know, it was Maris who broke Ruth’s single season home run record of 60.  Maris hit 61 in ’61. 

I recall we kids were proud of and kind of idolized Maris but that our parents’ generation weren’t impressed because of their reverence for Ruth.  It rubbed off on me to some degree when compounded with the fact that he never hit even half that number of home runs in a season.  Roger Maris fell off my radar as he played for the Yankees through 1966 and then finished-up with the Cardinals for the 1967 and ’68 seasons.

I was motivated to write this because I recently watched the 61* (2001).  It gave me a better perspective on the times, the fans, the New York sportswriters, and, of course, Maris and Mantle.  I learned that it was a myth that his single season home run record has an asterisk because Roger Maris set his record in an era where there were 162 games per season and Babe Ruth set his record in 1927 when there were only 154 games per season.  The notion of an asterisked record was suggested by the commissioner of baseball at the time, Ford Frick, who we later came learn was a ghost writer for Babe Ruth.

Maris and Mantle were friends.  The same cannot be said about Ruth and Gehrig when they battled for the home run title in 1927.  Mantle noted "Roger Maris was the best all-around baseball player I ever saw."  Was he?  His lifetime batting average was 260 which is not too special.  Consider his other achievements (Wikipedia):

• 7 time All-Star (1959 – 1962)
• 3 time World Series champion (1961, 1962, 1967)
• AL pennant champion team (1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964)
• NL pennant champion team (1967, 1968)
• 2 time AL MVP (1960, 1961)
• 2 time  AL RBI leader (1960, 1961)
• AL Gold Glove Award (1960)
• New York Yankees retired his #9
• MLB single season home run champion (1961–1998)
• AL leader in home runs, runs scored, and total bases (1961)
• AL leader in RBIs and extra base hits (1960, 1961)
• AL leader in slugging average (1960)
• AL leader in fielding average as right fielder (1960, 1964)
• NL leader in fielding average as right fielder (1967)
  

Those are some amazing accomplishments.  By all accounts, he was a very good player.  He experienced a lot of stress during 1961 that probably cut his career short and even his life.  Maris died too young, in 1983 at the age of 51, of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. 

Oddly, some say shockingly, Roger Maris is not in the Baseball Hall of Fame.  It is a shame.  His breaking Babe Ruth’s record and not being the kind of personality that the New York sportswriters wanted him to be, soured him to the sportswriters and hence the public.  Sportswriters vote for the Hall of Fame.  Here is an excerpt from Steve Buttry in his blog, Hated Yankees, posted in 2009:

Roger Maris is not in the Hall of Fame because he didn’t suck up to baseball writers during his chase of Babe Ruth. Period. Commissioner Ford Frick hated him for breaking Ruth’s record and baseball writers hated him for not being their buddy and not being Mickey Mantle or Babe Ruth. Every other excuse anyone gives for him not being in the Hall of Fame is fiction.

In Quora, December 3, 2017, B. R. Beardon wrote:

I think the reason is he didn’t play long enough, not that he wasn’t good enough. Hitting 61 ruined Maris. He was so hated and taunted by the Yankee fans that year and following years that the pressure must have been enormous. The year he hit 61 his hair fell out from stress.

He said, "Every day I went to the ballpark in Yankee Stadium as well as on the road people were on my back. The last six years in the American League were mental hell for me. I was drained of all my desire to play baseball."

Mantle backed that up. In every book I’ve read on Mantle he said Maris was a really good ball player who was pounded unmercifully by the fans. It was Mickey Mantle’s opinion that given a fair shake, Maris would have been a great baseball player.

On NPR, July 17, 2013, Frank Deford said:

In 1961, the American League schedule was lengthened by eight games to 162, and it was on this date that summer that the commissioner, of whom it was once written: An empty cab drove up to the curb and Ford Frick got out - declared that even if some player broke Babe Ruth's record of 60 home runs, it would not count if he needed more games than Ruth had had.

So, when Roger Maris hit his 61st in the last game of the longer season, the distinction did not displace Ruth in the record books, but was merely listed along with The Babe's lesser number. This all became moot in 1998 when Mark McGwire hit his 62nd homer, there to be graciously greeted by Maris' family survivors and, of course, Sammy Sosa then three-times topped Maris and Barry Bonds hit 73 in 2001.

Subsequently, McGwire admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs, and the only people who don't assume the same of Bonds and Sosa also believe that Neil Armstrong's Moon landing was a hoax and that Ford Frick was a wise man.

We may not have any Major League Baseball this year.  Next year, 2021, will mark the 60^th Anniversary of Maris’s 61 home run season.  I hope the baseball world recognizes and celebrates the breaking of that record by an excellent ballplayer by, from all counts, was a good and decent person.

Contagion: Promise of Utopia?

Rainbow seen on April 27, 2020 that may
have inspired this post...

    I am still, to some degree, a product of my teen years in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  It was the time of Woodstock, the Age of Aquarius, the Summer of Peace, antiwar protests, feminism, the ecology movement, the civil rights movement, the gay rights movement, and more.  It was a time of change and hope.  It was a time when many of my generation believed, if only in our youthful optimism, that we could and would create a better world.  We were on the brink of that Age of Aquarius and it was to bring a change in human consciousness that would bring peace, harmony, cooperation, and prosperity for all us.

Fast forward fifty some years  and it hasn’t happened yet.   People and nations continue to act in self-interest.  With all of our technology, knowledge, and speed of communication, there is still a great distance between the rich and poor.  We act in the short term hoping that advances in science and technology will save us from the perils of overpopulation and the depletion of the resources of this planet.

It is not my intention to paint a grim picture in the midst of this pandemic.  It is more so to set the stage for a naïve hope I am about to reveal. 

During this unprecedented time, the entire world is fighting the virus and our lives and economies are on-hold or decline.  We are collectively unsure about our short-term future on a grand scale.  We have yet to find a cure though, slowly, we are learning to manage the contagion via testing, temperature monitoring, and isolation as needed and waiting to get back to some semblance of what we call normal. 

In this we have seen a reduction in air pollution, the planet is actually vibrating less, and people are spending more time with loved ones which is generally positive.  I got to thinking that maybe just maybe we have a unique opportunity to achieve of the emergence of a collective consciousness that takes us to that Aquarian ideal, a perfect world, a utopia.  It makes so much sense.  Something like this pandemic should have us all taking stock of what is important and not only questioning our priorities but realigning them for betterment of all of mankind and world we live in. 

Alas, I see no one really talking about such things; at least, no one I know.  There is not one leader suggesting a new level of global cooperation with a long-term perspective.  What I see is everyone wanting to return to the way things were two months ago.  Certainly, that is the life and lifestyle we are all used to. 

But, come on, I was really hoping this could that event that would move us, en masse, to a better place, to the creation of a utopia

A utopia is an ideal; a dream.  It is a concept.  It cannot be achieved.  It certainly cannot be achieved in a few short months during this pandemic.  I know this but still I had hope.

This is a dream of the 60s, that while diminished, still lives in me.  I am glad for that.