Things we remember Things we forget

Hi All,

There's been or will be  quite a lot of historical  anniversaries this year which will be remembered  or celebrated depending on what that event was  :

1. 70 years of Israel
2. 70 years of the NHS
3. 100 years of women having the vote in the UK
4. 100 years since   the ending of the first world war

One thing that hasn't got anyone remembering - as far as I know- is the anniversary of the Spanish influenza pandemic. Despite its name , it was actually a global pandemic which killed as much as 100 million people or 5% of the global population at the time. This was probably the worse pandemic since the black death killed a quarter of Europe's population in the medieval period and if you look at that period you will see that it caused as much global upheaval as the black death did in Europe. Yet for some reason we've chosen to forget this terrible loss of life , maybe because in many ways so many people still think like pagans, despite monotheism . In other words people often seem to personify 'nature' as if it were a living , personal thing, a Gaia, rather than something that isn't actually anything at all. So we talk about 'forces of nature' , something outside of our control, but something that is controlling. Whereas the world wars are or were something which people think if one decision or another had been taken, then history would have turned out differently.  This from a Jewish perspective is nonsense as we are not pagan nature worshippers and there's no such thing as mother earth or Gaia in a literal sense, but the west seems to like these things anyway.

The other matter to reflect on is that pandemics haven't gone away. In 1918 we were a global world. What has changed is merely the method and  speed, availability of global travel, but above all the fast pace of global communication. We get instant news reports, whereas in 1918 things were much slower paced and incidentally it was far easier for governments to censor information. That's why- censorship -  the 1918 outbreak of flu was called 'Spanish Influenza' . In today's world despite our technology we are far more vulnerable because of it. Although there may be some  long term good  for those who did survive, in so much as it would expose the hollow myths of our age. First the poorer the country the more likely a greater number of  people would be killed. The pharmaceutical industry would also be exposed for what I call 'medical usury ' as a result. Even in richer countries any cure or vaccine would be subject to who could pay, for example in the US where you have to pay for all drugs at the counter. Britain rations pharma by government agency.  It would fundamentally change the relationship between the government- pharma cartels and the citizen , or at least those who survived.  A second consequence would be an end to globalisation as we know it. When something like a pandemic strikes, governments ( with any sense!) will close their borders and shut people out. Never mind windrush, this would be on a completely different scale as people demanded that their governments retreat into the sanctuary of 'fortress Britain' or 'fortress America'.

But I do pray that such events are a long way away...