Whack jobs and nutcases were around long before the pandemic. The world is overflowing with nutty fruitcakes, psycho killers, and insane, weird people. How many normal, sane individuals exist in society compared to madmen, the sullen, deranged and demented? The well-heeled and the down-and-out aren’t immune to post-plague mania or daily psychosis. Taking a guess, three out of four people have some psychological neurosis. Maybe nine out of 10 have an undiagnosed mental illness or obsessive-compulsive disorder.
I have neurotic affectations, more than a bundle of strange behaviors. Idiosyncratic habits harbor levels of high anxiety, unwanted tension, stress, and buried traumas. We're quickly driven to madness in a limo of luxurious maniacal platitudes, laughing on the way to the loony bin and wrapped in a fashionable straight jacket. Proceed with caution to the intersection of chaos and hysteria. It's a busy highway of haywire cockeyed kooks where we all dwell alone in our padded cells. To believe everyone is crazy except you is in itself crazy thinking. I'd like to think I'm sane, but that's a fallacy in an insane world. From my viewpoint, everybody's cracked and broken in one or more psychosomatic symptoms. Normal people scare me. Nothing is ever routine in reality.
There are two sides to every story, and I choose neither. Truth shall make you accessible. But the truth is what we seek in a lost and found of lies. The fiction in science and technology will lead one to madness. I no longer believe anything or trust anyone. The plague has exposed our weakness in trusting those godlike medical professionals we believe infallible. I like a doctor's bedside manner. Their sympathy and compassion are a welcome tonic to soothe fevered brows. That is until they transform into Doctor Doom, peddling snake oil and quackery of devices that do more harm than cure what ails you. Take your medicine like a grown-up and choke on a horse pill of bad medical advice. Walk it off, buddy—power through the pain and suffering.
The plague has taught me that invisible viruses can control the masses. It’s easy to manipulate people through fear and hysteria. I'm not a plague denier or anti-vaxxer. Conspiracy theories are as abundant as the plague/vaccine itself. No one knows how practical the lasting effects of the vaccine will be. One thing is sure; this mutating plague is here to stay. I've heard news reports the vaccine can be effective anywhere from three to six months. I've had a lifetime of mysterious skin conditions and various illnesses that linger still.
Every ointment, salve, cream, and liquid applied according to directions on the package and multiple parts of my flesh haven’t helped. I still suffer from these unknown dermatological afflictions. Are toxic environmental causes to blame? Harsh chemicals and hazardous detergents in laundry soap? A recent news article says the average human consumes the equivalent of a credit card's worth of micro-plastics every year. I wonder if it stays inside, clogging arteries and slowly numbing our brains, or do we urinate and defecate these petroleum-based by-products?
I'm not convinced that science and technology have our best interests at heart. As for the medical profession, I'll skate around that subject. We're on our own when it comes to life or death. Wearing masks is always prudent during a plague. Social distancing is impossible in public, so we remain diligent. The naysayers will tell us the vaccine will make you sterile, impotent, or blind. Make your hair and teeth fall out. If they wanted us all dead, we surely would be. There are worse things in life.