Is the World Going to Hell in a Handbasket?

DYSTOPIA (n.)  an imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives.

I have read too many dystopian novels, and seen too many dystopian movies.  George Orwell's 1984, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale, The Hunger Games. Brave New World, 12 Monkeys, The Day After, and on and on and on.  Many of these are set in a time following some catastrophic even:  nuclear war, an overwhelming ecological disaster, an economic meltdown or a pandemic.  Usually they feature a small group of folks trying to fight against the odds to carve out a meaningful life despite the problems they face.  Some end well--most do not.

At any rate, I've read, seen, too many of them.  And in these days of "the virus," as folks have started to refer to it (just like in the novels--always some shorthand way of talking about the central problem) I find it very easy to spin off into some imaginary future, where the virus runs rampant and . . . .

And what?  That of course is part of the problem--the uncertainty we face these days.  A somewhat cryptic disease spreading across the globe.  Economic markets taking a real hit.  Normal lifestyles being interrupted.  Left to our own devices, it is quite easy to get caught up in fear, quite easy to imagine the worst possible outcomes.   Indeed, if we focus on the what ifs we are bound to fall into a state of despair.  But we needn't do that.  

This past weekend a friend posted a very helpful summary of the situation written by Abdu Sharkawy, an epidemiologist from Toronto.  He ended it with these words:  Facts, not fear.  Clean hands.  Open hearts. If we are willing to understand and deal with the facts, if we are willing to take whatever actions are necessary, if we approach the situation with genuine love for others, we can and will manage our way through the current situation.  God has, indeed, given us what we need to deal with it, if we are only willing to focus on what is right before us. 

Facts, not fear.  Clean hands.  Open hearts.

That beats out dystopia any day of the week.

(Read the post referenced above at https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-medic-warns-mass-panic-could-prove-worse...)