the following should be read with a grain of salt ;)
So window shopping has become a real thing now
For some entrepreneurs it has become their only lifeline; selling at the door and displaying the goods behind their windows. It's one of those exemptions which the state has allowed. Although I doubt it covers all of their expenses.
Not having been able to shop hasn't hit me particularly hard I have to say. I used to go shopping every couple of months or so. Abstaining from shopping is therefore really quite easy. But for others this probably results in an online shopping frenzy which in turn makes the package delivery people hastily ring on every door bell, filling up hallways and rooms full of cardboard boxes and styrofoam. A whole wave of disposables is hitting the cities. Their contents are sometimes important and needed, but oftentimes their lifetimes are intensely short. A day or two or maybe three.
People have made comforting caves which have become a home for their solitude and isolation. And sometimes even darker things stir in the corners of the occupant's minds. A pandemic of fear has grasped every living soul that is consuming the frivolous news deemed critical, urgent, paramount.
What has become of us?
What will become of us?
A window shopping society. Perhaps that is what will be. It is a world where we are scared of contact and smiles. Because they are only seen in movies and pictures of a life before the pandemic. They will make people uncomfortable because they don't know how to react and respond. It is a world where the eyes will be the main focus of attention; yet without the context of other facial markers they will appear dull and insensible.
The mask will stay.
First seen as a foreign body it has gradually been adopted, then cherished for providing the privacy and social distance grown dear to one's heart. Social gatherings will be avoided as it will by then have become a habit of avoiding anything dirty and lively. After all, it is where the mark resides which constantly mutates and evolves to outwit us.
Fear will be the driver of society.
And with fear comes the need for security and isolation. Fear will eat away at our rights and freedoms which have been given to us by the universe - an unwritten law which imbues all living things which equality and opportunity. And having sworn to ourselves at the end of the great war that we would never again question those rights, I wonder if we have finally found such an elaborate way that disguises taking as giving.
For you are given security in the form of money and social distancing; you are given opportunity to call on others for breaking the law; you are given rewards for behaving in accordance to the always changing more restrictive laws. And you will be given that faint hope of a better future with the smiles and social warmth that you now have learned to utterly renounce and revoke.
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Very true words. We have full weekend-long lockdowns here in Suriname, and have had curfews for a nearly a year. Many shops here have opted to sell items from the door instead of risk customers going in and out. Public transportation is nearly non-existent, so it's been a great hardship on my family and I.
This is a country where a car is nothing short of required to have a decent life. As we have only a bicycle for a family of 4, it has been very difficult for us to do shopping before weekend lockdowns. The families with cars and motorcycles always beat us to the stores and buy nearly everything.
I think all around the world, this pandemic has only served to increase the gap between the rich and the poor.
oh man, sounds really difficult! I wish you the best for you and your family and that the situation improves...