COVID-19 Lessons from Dystopian Sci-fi

All I want to do is binge. Lay in bed. Binge binge binge and get lost in other people’s stories because right now it feels like I’m trapped in the film version of a young adult dystopian sci-fi novel. I’m currently stuck inside the first twenty minutes of the film: the set up. The part where you see the TV news clips of the masses panic buying, the images of empty shelves in the supermarket, empty landmarks, and of empty roads.

What will come next? In the movies the panic buying usually turns into looting, then you see a hospital in chaos as its overrun with sick people, or zombies. People start to form small gangs to survive and the gangs begin attacking each other for supplies. On film, this leap from initial panic to anarchy takes ten minutes. In real life though, it could be months.

I wonder if we will get to the place where the food supply chain stops and to a real place of scarcity. A place where utilities shut down and we no longer have access to clean water and electricity. I don’t think we will, but neither do the heroes of our dystopian tales. They usually begin with the main characters reflecting upon their naiveté and their lack of appreciation for their previous lives. Why didn’t they see the anarchy up ahead? This I can also relate to. Why did I complain so much? Why didn’t I appreciate more the life I had while I was living it? Why didn’t I socialize more? Yet here we (the ones abiding by science at the moment) are. Staying home, trying not to panic, trying to live in the now, and trying to appreciate everything we currently have before it too, is gone.

Photo by Emil Karlsson on Unsplash