Thursday, April 30, 2009

Swine Flu Panic Attack Yet?

I think I've decided that the only thing truly pandemic about swine flu is the media attention given to it to create a panic. If there was money to be made in it I would start a media firestorm over the pandemic nature of the Rhinovirus. It spreads through schools and offices like crazy and disrupts our lives.

Swine Flu is coming for you
Not really knowing why Swine Flu is such a big deal I assumed it contained similar damaging properties of bacterial Meningitis. Turns out that the nature of Swine Flu is that you will have "Flu Symptoms". So 3400 kids in Milwaukee are locked out of 4 schools because of exposure to 2 Milwaukee residents who appear to have Swine Flu. There is a reason I don't watch the local news and if I needed a reminder, the 8 minutes I caught of it last night reassured me that the media is insane. The picture shown here I think illustrates the portrayal of Swine flu entering the Milwaukee Public Schools.

Now I think everyone knows that I have a thing against the suburban mentality of taking children to the doctor for every little thing (Or even adults going for every little thing). Just ask Kt about the times she feels we should have gone to the doctor but didn't. She'll provide you a list of the abuses. Somewhere our society has gotten to the point of worrying if a baby has a cold, a cough, or the flu. Why did we lose the ability to handle the basic things of life. It goes beyond that though. Society in general seems to be misfiring. Thy now have a name as being a part of the "over-protective" generation or "Helicopter Parents".

It proliferates every part of our society. Here at NML they changed around the health plans because under the old cushy plans too many people were using the doctor for every little thing and our cost of healthcare was more expensive than the average because of it. We spend BILLIONS of dollars on safety that often times is the result of some mishap that affected a few kids somewhere. How many millions spent to mitigate airbags that injured or decapitated a hundred kids. How many billions spent to remove lead or asbestos from everything because of a few kids were stupid enough to suck on window sills every day. Then how much of this is spurred by sensationalism in the media. Perhaps in the past the government didn't jump everytime a camera showed poor Johnny having trouble in school because he ate too much lead based tinsel as a kid.

25 Marines died last year because of motorcycle crashes. 20 Marines died in Iraq in the same timeframe. It is clear as to which kind of deaths the media pays attention to. No matter that in The Battle of Gettysburg 6500 died in 3 days and another 3000-4000 from their injuries over the next few weeks after the battle or that in 3 weeks time 6200 Americans died fighting for Iwo Gima. Now, we as Americans get frustrated with war because 4600 died in 6 years of fighting...6 years. Its no wonder America has become so weak. We can't stomach a war against world terrorism where fewer troops have died in WAR than troops who have died because they didn't buckle up, were stupid enough to drink and drive, or think that they can ride their crotch rocket 120 mph and live.

So what is it with risk that Americans have given up on it. We'll spend billions to prevent a few deaths. We can't stomach war. We ask government to solve every problem and provide security against anything that could happen to us. We are rushing away from everything that made America the great nation it was. I have a few theories. I think as the country has become unchristian, that people become more terrified of death. If you do not live in the hope of eternal life they will do whatever it takes to avoid it and spend as much money as is needed to eliminate the risk of death from life. Along the same lines as we become an un-Christian country we try to create this utopian dream world on our own because "tomorrow we die." So yes that means my vote is with ungodliness as to why our society is decaying. A common thread through history. I wonder if the media will cover that someday?

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