My dog tested positive for heartworms. As a result, she’s been confined to a crate for the past month and a half. Heartworm treatment involves three painful injections of a potent antiparasitic drug, the first two given a month apart, and the third given the day after the second. During the entire time, and for 6-8 weeks afterward, she has to remain under severe exercise restriction—basically no exercise at all beyond a couple brief trips outside each day to relieve herself. As the dead worms start to break apart, the risk of pulmonary embolism is extremely high, so it is important the she remain as still as possible until the worm carcasses have disintegrated to the point where they are no longer a threat.
It occurred to me today that the dog’s situation, confined to her cage, is a microcosm of my own present circumstances: confined to my apartment as a result of the State’s “stay-at-home” mandate. The difference, of course, is that for me, at least for the time being, the parasitic threat remains on the outside.
We can learn from this virus, I think. The coronavirus has highlighted vulnerabilities that are an inherent part of civilized life, vulnerabilities that no amount of hoarding of toilet paper or stockpiling of personal protective equipment can eliminate, vulnerabilities that are built into the very nature of civilization itself. The virus has given us a small taste of the depth and scope of our dependency, and a concrete sense of our powerlessness as individuals. And it has also brought the inside-out priorities of our corporate consumer system into high relief. The truth is being stated publicly and unabashedly at this point: the well-being of the economy is vastly more important that the lives of actual persons.
And about that $2 trillion coronavirus bill? Let’s be clear, the recently passed stimulus bill is not at all about people. It is about keeping the corporate parasites alive—a kind of reverse heartworm treatment approach. Its sole purpose is to keep the economic system from stroking out while the virus forces consumer markets into severe exercise restriction.
