Aymeric Fromentin
“It finally happened.”
It finally happened.
Total lockdown. No one allowed in the streets. No going around for no good reason. No group, no reunion. Only leave your place for vital purposes. No one hanging around. No cars in the streets. Chill at home. Work at home. School at home. Live at home. Die at home. Don’t force it on others by doing any of it outside. It’s about damn time if you ask me. It’s about time we understand people can’t be trusted with freedom. People do wrong when they are let out. There are only so many reasons why people should go out. I’m glad to see animals can finally roam about their territory without being under constant threat of the human predator, I’m glad to see flowers grow through cracks in the concrete. I’m glad the air is pure. The Earth is better with humans confined at home, there’s no denying it. I hear people in three-piece suits on the television say it’s a temporary solution to an emergency, it will not be our new normal forever. I say let it be our new normal forever. Let the windows remain shut forever, the doors locked forever, the people deprived of their ability to mess things up forever. Think about it. The way our society, our social codes, our technology developed, everything converged toward that moment in time when we wouldn’t need to leave home anymore. The entire fabric of the human life experience is on the Internet now. The Internet is our jobs. The Internet is our knowledge. The Internet is our newspapers, our entertainment, our schools, our shopping malls, our places of gathering, our memories, our marketplace, our friendships, our love life, our sex life, our therapists, our fortune tellers, our translators, our fashion designers, our temples, our political leaders, our health specialists, our arenas, our dieticians, our tribe chiefs, our matchmakers, our feel-good coaches, our prayers, our money. The Internet is our gods. Log in to your computer and access your consciousness. Turn on your phone to power your day. The human app. Complete with 360° view, memory cache, and pay-for extra content. Remember the little things of your daily life. A hot cup of tea smoking on the windowsill in the morning light. A pile of books to read, already read, or halfway there, as many escape doors to happier places. A zen fountain dripping with unflappable regularity. All these moments are real and precious. They are your life. They used to be sparkles born and lost in time. Now they are all ripe to be snapped and instagramed to show the world your existence is waiting to receive validation. Human interaction only makes sense if it becomes part of the digital common legacy. What reason do we have to go out when the virtual is more familiar than reality? Look out your window and you will see the world being patrolled by airborne drones straight out of a dystopian Cold War novel. Public places are haunted by faceless creatures, for which surgical masks and frantic glares have replaced human facial features. The outside is a dark and scary place where the very air you breathe is virus laden and where hunks in uniforms are on the constant lookout for any trespasser. Let human proximity become a bitter memory.
You don’t need human warmth anyway. It does not bring comfort, or fulfillment. It’s but a threat, a source of danger and death. If others don’t infect you with a contagious disease, they will use you, lie to you, or plain and simple assault you. Others are evil. Plenty is a source of disorder. Loneliness is safety. Emptiness means order. Something that’s not here can’t hurt you. Just remember, it’s what’s already inside that will kill you. Your beliefs. Your insecurities. Your lifelong ambitions. Your childhood traumatisms. Your addictions. Your existential void. Your ghosts. It’s all already inside. I wonder how long the illusion of safety will last. I hear people say they are afraid death can strike at any time, in a phone call, in an email, in hands that weren’t properly washed or food that wasn’t suitably packed. I say, how’s that different from any other time? People always die and are born. Cancer always kills. Old age always kills. Depression always kills. But these are not the fashionable deaths of the day. I wonder who will go open these doors when lockdown’s over.
Remember it’s the world you built. Welcome to the time after.