Day L16: Incoming Information Anxiety
Whenever new information comes in, it triggers a sense of fear and dread in an automatic Pavlovian kind of response. The triggers could be anything from these phrases:
- "I just heard ... "
- "There's some news that ... "
- "This person told me that ... "
It could also be someone banging on the door, voices shouting outside in the compound, or an announcement on the megaphone which is mostly for covid testing.
This is all overlayed with the 24/7 incoming deluge of information on social media. Whatever the news is, it could come at any time and it's never any good. The vast majority of the time it is fake news and there's no evidence to back anything up.
I consider myself fairly calm and rational and not prone to excess worry or panic, even in a ridiculous time like this. Think of it this way, if this was a real emergency we would know it. The lockdown is all 100% political and not avoid covid, yet this manufactured emergency is indeed creating real emergencies such as people starving without food.
Whenever possible I like to evaluate the sources of information carefully. Objective reality exists in other words, it can be measured, we can do surveys, polls, studies and so on to get a grasp on such reality.
Throughout this lockdown I am never sure there is trustworthy information. Any potential news from a source feels like it could be my worst nightmare. Like today for example I'm told there could be positive cases in our corridor but maybe it's 'close contacts' or maybe it's another building. Nobody knows. The compound leadership is sure as hell not being transparent. We have to guess all the time.
They stopped food deliveries and ordered our compound to 'go silent' based on people saying, without any evidence, that covid can spread through the food supply. No doubt the delivery drivers are testing positive but they're not locked down either. So the government cracks down hard on these supply chains. But where is the evidence that the virus spreads this way? Whether it spreads through the food or not, nobody has been able to prove it. Even if we got covid through eating I would rather have than virus than starve to death.
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